Page 3 of A Kingdom of Shadows

"It's been a delight seeing you again, Nara." Ivarron turns to me. An unwelcoming grin shapes his thinning lips as Darius unfurls the map in his hand.

"I wish I could say the same."

He laughs, raising the pendant at the slant of light. "How I've missed you, Trapper." He pockets the pendant, and I can't help but watch the movement. "You were my best one yet, although Idris wasn't far off regarding skills. I wonder if he picked that up from your father or—" He pauses "—Illaria."

My eyes flit up at him as he says my mother's name. "Don't ever say her—"

"This isn't the map."

The glare on my face flattens into confusion at Darius's accusatory words, and when I look at him, I can almost taste the anger pulsing off him.

"He gave us a fake." He tosses it onto the desk, much to Ivarron's curious amusement.

No, there must be some mistake— "How do you know?"

Darius's eyes don't leave Ivarron's once. "Well, Goldie, in my many years of thieving, I've come across a few cartographers to know which is real and which is not. If anyone ever asked for it, I assume he drew this map and hid the real one instead."

It had been too easy.

"I underestimated you, Golden Thief." Ivarron angles his head, his lips curling into a menacing smile. "Immortal blood or not, you do prove useful."

Whatever Ivarron's intentions are, neither of us wants to play his game any longer. I'd dealt with it for too long in the past.

"Where is the map?" Darius demands, inching a slow step toward him.

"How about we make a different trade." Ivarron raises his hand, tapping his forefinger against the others. "You for the map."

The tension rolling off Darius's shoulders thickens the air, making it hard to breathe as unknown rage pours through me at Ivarron's request.

"After all." Ivarron's smile only grows. "I've always wanted a pet dragon."

Silence slips into the room, but Darius's face is loud enough to rupture the walls to dust.

"Oh? It seems I've struck a nerve with the—"

Not even half a second goes by before Darius takes a single stride and grabs Ivarron by the throat, slamming him against the shelf. Two jars smash onto the floor as Ivarron wheezes out a sadistic chuckle.

I immediately rush after them, touching Darius's shoulder as I say his name in warning before Ivarron chokes out, "Careful. Even a powerful dragon-like yourself can be tamed with just a single drop of this." He rummages through his pocket and lifts a vial—

"Neoma blood." It slips past my lips in a whisper as the blood shines bright, brimming with something beyond extraordinary.

Darius lets go, and I leap in front of him as Ivarron rubs his neck with the same deranged smile lingering on his lips.

"Word travels fast," he says. "After the news that the Golden Thief had been captured thanks to the glorious Neoma tree, I knew it was because of you, Nara."

My muscles tense at the reminder.

"I'd had many of my men retrieve me vials of that blood for my collection. Labeled them as something entirely different, so I was never caught. And when you'd mistakenly grabbed it, I looked past it." His chin dips. "Until now."

Memories of the night Darius was captured pierce at my skin like shards of glass. His hand clutched an arrow shaft as blood pooled from his chest...

The second those thoughts flash out of my mind, a stampede of horses braying from outside causes me to whirl my head to the window.

Solaris, no.

"You've become quite the wanted person in Emberwell Nara." Ivarron's words drip with mockery as venators swarm the market square. "Venators have been staying around the village for days on the queen's orders."

I bite the inside of my cheek to dial down the fury enveloping me. "You alerted them."

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