Page 4 of The Bones of Benevolence

I had to wait until nightfall to light the candle, and by nightfall I’d be wed to Kauvras if he had his way. I’d be hiswife.Nausea pooled in my gut as I gasped for breath. This was too much. This was far, far too much.

Devastation mixed with something sour as I thought of my mother, one of thousands of Vacants in Kauvras’ army of leechthorn-addicted fiends, each one dead to the world and seen only as a disposable weapon. Solise’s face popped into my thoughts next. I knew the healer’s tiny form was huddled somewhere in the dungeons below the Taithan castle.

I tried to keep my mind from wandering further into the darkness, but I couldn’t ignore it. Calomyr. Except Calomyr didn’t even exist. He never had. He was King Belin Cal Myrin, the Invisible King of Widoras. He, too, sat somewhere in the dungeons, his memory in my head muddied by deceit and hurt.

I folded myself in half on the bed, squeezing my eyes shut against the blue flames that still danced in my head, staring at the shadow of boots outside my door.

Chapter 2

The only window in my room was barred, reminding me that while I may be sitting in a castle, it was nothing more than a royal prison. I stared through the beams of metal as the rising sun cast Taitha in shades of gold. Sounds drifted in — the rhythmic whoosh of brooms sweeping over cobblestone, the squeak of creaky windows being thrown open, the townspeople and their greetings ofgood morningandlovely dayandnice to see you. My bottom lip had been chewed raw somewhere between all the worrying and at some point, I’d taken to gnawing on my fingernails. The note that Tomkin had left lay on the bed next to the blood-red candle. I tried to take a deep breath, force the air into my lungs, but my chest felt too tight.

“Petra,” a familiar, raspy voice breathed.

I turned, my eyes finding the metal ram’s head mask that sat on Lieutenant Miles Landgrave’s head as he slipped silently through the door. He’d been the one to drop me at Kauvras’ feet. He’d been the one who’d wanted to trade me to the madman for answers about his past. My feet began moving back, my head shooting side to side, instinctively looking for something to protect myself against the man who’d seen to my downfall.

Miles threw his hands up in supplication. I slowed, unable to guess his intentions without seeing the face behind the mask. Ihatednot being able to read his expression, to look for the tiny cues a face would show. He inhaled sharply. “I’m not here to… Can we talk?”

My brows rose, looking the man up and down as I scoffed. “You want totalk?You deliver me to…this,” I waved my hands at my glorified cell, “and you want totalk?”

He took a cautious step forward. “I didn’t know,” he whispered desperately.

I laughed, the sound harsh and dry. “You knew exactly what would happen when you delivered me to Kauvras. Youtoldme as much, that you were going to trade me to get youranswers.”

His broad shoulders rose and fell. I caught a quick glimpse of the angry, mottled scar under his chin as he tipped his head back in exasperation. “I–”

“Take your mask off,” I demanded, my voice hard but barely above a whisper.

“Why?” he whispered.

“So I know who I’m talking to.”

“I can’t,” he said, the words small.

“Take yourfuckingmask off. I want to see your face. There’s no damned leechthorn around, so there’s no reason to wear it.” The thought of leechthorn turned my stomach, and I could almost taste the acrid smoke that had somehow hooked every other person who’d breathed it in…except for me.

“I can’t.” I swore I heard his jaw clench. Rage bloomed fast and hot in my chest.

I may not have known who I was, but I knew who I wasn’t, and that was a person who was going to take any shit from Miles Landgrave. I stalked toward him, toward his massive frame that loomed over me. I could tell he felt small under my gaze even as I looked up at him, that my stare burned into his skin. “Everything has been taken from me. Do you understand that? Everything I thought I knew… It’s all been a lie.” My teeth were gritted, the words searing my mouth as I spoke them. “I don’t know who I am. I don’t know what’s going on. I don’t know what’s going to happen, and I don’t want any of this. Now take your fucking mask off so I know who the fuck I’m talking to.”

“Ican’t, Petra,” he hissed.

My eyes didn’t leave him as I remembered–

“Give me my dagger back,” I demanded abruptly. He’d taken my dagger on the journey between the Onyx Pass and Taitha, the dagger that someone had left for me in my bathing room back in Eserene before Initiation. The wordsTHE MERCY OF KATIAwere inscribed on one side andTHE FURY OF RHEDROSon the other. I had no idea who’d left it for me, or why they chose to do so. “I want it back. Now.”

He shifted on his feet at the sudden change of subject. “I, uh…” He cleared his throat, but it did nothing to remedy the coarseness that always lined his voice. “I handed it over to Castemont.”

My blood went cold in my veins. “Youwhat?”

“It was before I knew… I’m sorry, Petra.”

My teeth gnashed together as I stared. “You bastard.You absolute fucking bast?”

“Did you get my note?”

The mask of severity I had sculpted to my own face melted into genuine surprise at his words. I felt my nostrils flare as my eyes moved back and forth between the metal eye slits of the ram. “Yousent the note?”

Sudden noise in the hall broke the fragile silence and Miles jumped back, head whirling to the door. One echoey voice rose above all the others. “I’d like to see my bride.”

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