Page 39 of Oracle of Ruin

“You should watch your mouth,” he warns in a low voice I’ve only heard him use once. “Given the circumstances, I’ll spare your life.”

“As if you could take me.” Roiden gestures to the scars tracing his flesh, to his broken nose and sword rusted from blood. His face says it all, pinched with glee. He finds a sick pleasure in the torment of rage. He wants a fight. He wants a mob.

A low rage boils in my core. He is exactly the type of man to lead a mob like this, inciting violence for the joy of it. He’s a tyrant on some perverse power trip.

Blaine glowers down on the man and says in an even tone, “You’ve only faced petty criminals. You step foot into a pond and call it the ocean. You are a child playing with glass castles. If I weren’t here to save a friend and the innocent people of this kingdom, you’d be dead in under a minute, and I am being generous. Sit down, old man, before I make you.”

The older man goes red in the face in an instant, not because the accusations are untrue, but because Blaine has hit the hollow nail on the head. The fool can do nothing but crumble before he embarrasses himself. Or orders the mob to kill the former captain, though that wouldn’t bode well for him. He would lose respectandhis life. With the wicked gleam in his eye, I can only guess that he does not care about either of those things right now.

“You’ve got quite the tongue for someone who needs something from me,” I offer, still masking my rage beneath a cool façade.

Roiden watches curiously before running a hand through his slicked-back hair. He sighs deeply, the motion causing his chest to heave. Before another word can be said, the man bows deeply at the waist, his belly brushing against his knees. “My people,” he bellows, still folded unto himself. “I give to you the Noiteron, Rowan Krycolis. The world’s only hybrid, son of Ophelus, and rightful king of Krycolis.”

Chapter19

Rowan

Mavis. Mavis is the only one who could’ve told Roiden about what I am. My Nightwalkers know, but no one outside the inner circle has the right to that knowledge. Kya and Amír would die before they parted with it, and Derrín is far too loyal. My mother is my best kept secret from this cruel world and the Ialeses see me too much like a son to betray me like this.

And Vera wouldn’t cave, not even under torture.

Mavis is the only one who had access to that information, to me, and would willingly share it. To get what she wants, she would do far worse things, so why should this one surprise me at all?

Perhaps because it was the only card she had yet to use against me. She has done all other evils under the sun, but this one felt holy, even to nonbelievers such as ourselves. To finally play this final card after all these years…

All the air leaves my lungs in one fell swoop. Mavis.

Amír jumps before me, gun drawn, her finger twitching on the trigger. She aims at the crowd. Kya stands at my back, ready to protect me from the manic hands and frenzy of radicals who have gone far too long without a god to believe in.

But no one moves to swarm like a mob should. No, they stand utterly still and silent before falling to their knees and pressing their faces to the floor. They bow with sobbing breaths that pull them closer to the floor.

Roiden raises himself from his bow now, any trace of supplication gone from his rigid form. He raises an eyebrow in challenge. “Well, my liege, tell the people your demands.”

A set up. Gods, he set me up. A traitorous bastard as he is, Roiden is cunning. He’s raised me to a pedestal just a few feet below his own. He holds my head just above the hooves of the riot, letting me know he still is the one to hold the reins.

I drop my hand to my sword. “You will cease your attempts on Princess Verosa’s life. Only then, once her safety is guaranteed, will I assume the throne.”

I can hardly get the last words out before the mob surges, their cries of outrage echoing in the shadowy room. Their capes flutter in a mothy dust ball, swarming around limbs as if they have a mind of their own. Kya is whisked away with a shriek, and before I can reach for her, Blaine has rushed into the crowd after her.

A hand grips my forearm and I bring my sword down to sever it when a familiar voice shouts. The blade stops just a mere millimeter above Torin’s wrist as he attempts to drag me towards an exit somewhere within the riot.

“They’re rabid. You need to follow me.”

“Kya and Blaine are out there.”

“I’m more worried for the mob.” Torin offers a weak laugh as he tugs. “You’re the one they’re after. Let’s go.”

Reluctantly, I toss a glance over my shoulder. The rebels are slowly getting closer, all of them shapeless forms moving in a mob. Some stand up to their brethren, blocking my body with their own, while the rest fight over themselves to get just a breath closer. Zealots, the lot of them.

Torin ushers us into a room and bolts the door, though the rabble stays contained outside. Not a single soul spares us a glance once my hood is up, allowing me to disappear into the shadows as I’ve always done. Amír does as well, her distinguishable features cloaked by darkness. I can see the turmoil in her motions without ever catching a glimpse of her face—her rigid shoulders and swift yet stern motions. My second is pissed.

“Kya will be fine. Blaine will bring her to us,” Torin tries, noticing her distress as well. Poor lad.

“Kya will drag Blaine in here on her own once he fails. She could take that whole room with one hand if she wasn’t holding herself back.”

Amír is right, as always. Kya only holds back on missions because the rest of us are there and she would rather sever her own hands than risk hurting any of us. The first time I met her, Derrín found me and said his sister was trapped in a bar of angry men. They hadn’t known the ways of Krycolis yet, but when we arrived, the floors and walls were painted red with blood. Despite there being many bodies in the room, only one moved—Kya holding a single dagger in the center of the bloodbath. If killing were an art, she is the master.

“Those radicals only want the Noiteron. Until Roiden can get them under control, its best that you all wait in here.”

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