Total pages in book: 197
Estimated words: 186911 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 935(@200wpm)___ 748(@250wpm)___ 623(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 186911 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 935(@200wpm)___ 748(@250wpm)___ 623(@300wpm)
But what about my war? I paused bringing the cup to my lips. Isn’t Treasa the key to everything? She could look in on my family. She could pass them a message. She could help me break this curse.
“Aya Treasa,” I blurted, breaking into the conversation. “Can you check on some people for me? Olene, Meliora, Gisela, Jaclan, and Savia. I—” I tossed my head. “Actually, forget Jaclan. I don’t know why I said that name. I don’t know who that is, but the other four,” I pressed, leaning in. “Can you look in on the other four? Just to—” make sure they’re okay, was stolen off my tongue.
Of course, Emiana wouldn’t care in the slightest about the well-being of a few peasants. “Just to check,” I said instead.
Treasa shook her head. “I’m sorry, Lady Ana.” It stood my hairs on end that she already knew I preferred to be called Ana. “I can’t look in on people I’ve never met, but I can tell you which of your loyal servants would do well inserting themselves into key positions and places around Elva. That I can do easily.”
“One would need to pose as a temple priestess in Rajadom,” Foalan added.
She whistled. “You do bring me the most interesting challenges, Foalan. As you know, priestesses are chosen from birth. One doesn’t simply walk in and request the job.”
“Is my spymaster telling me she means to fail me?” Alisdair’s voice dropped the freezing temperature another twenty degrees.
One of the babies stopped nursing and stared at him, as if sensing danger, and knowing exactly where to look.
Treasa’s smile went nowhere. “I have never failed you, my lord. I have no intention of doing so now. Give me two days. Assignments will be handed out and assets moved into position by then.”
“Very well.” Alisdair stood to leave.
“What about the siren?” I asked. “We have another strategy. A better one. Send her back to her home.”
“She goes nowhere until after we’ve won. A general goes to war with a thousand strategies, not just one. Should our plan fail, we will need her and her power.”
“But, Alisdair—”
“I would worry less about a fish woman, and more about yourself.”
My expression told him I didn’t know what he meant.
He smirked. “You’re about to earn your second name, little bird. They call me Shadowsoul. What will they call you? Kinslayer? Slaughterer? The One Who Ended the War Shadowsoul Began?” Alisdair laughed. “Queen Ana, Destroyer of Elva.”
He backed out of the door, the shadows claiming him and his open delight. “I do so look forward to finding out.”
I sat there for so long—silent and shaking—that Treasa came over, squeezed my shoulder, and handed me a baby. Even as the sweet little furry face nuzzled against me, drifting off to sleep, I couldn’t shake away the vision that my hands were staining her with blood.
EVENTUALLY, I DRANK my cold tea, gave Treasa her sleeping babe, thanked her, and went out to meet the silent party waiting for me. It was just Alisdair, Foalan, Eadaoin, and three guards.
“We sent the litter and the bearers on,” Eadaoin explained. “Hope that was okay.”
“Of course, it’s okay. No reason for them to stand around in the cold.” I pulled my coat tighter, shivering in the strange, silent village. “Can we not do something for the women here?” I asked. “I know they can’t control their instincts, but it’s not right that all of the mothers have been abandoned to raise a litter of children, just because it’s what a skulking rodent would do.”
Alisdair hummed. “It is already law that I’ll rip out the throat of every faeriken that uses instinct as excuse for running out on their responsibilities. Served as a deterrent for a while, but then they learned to run faster and hide better.” He bowed over my hand, dropping a kiss on my frozen knuckles. “But Foalan is ready and willing to organize a squad to hunt them down. Per my queen’s wishes.”
My fist clenched within the folds of my sleeve. I knew Alisdair enjoyed this. Horrifying me with his cruelty, and then delighting when I threw it back. He said on the very day of our true mating that his deepest wish was to corrupt the crown jewel and hope of Lyrica, but—
Is it me he’s corrupting? I thought, gazing into his eyes. Or is he merely drawing out the cold and cruel nature of his true soulmate—Emiana.
The day before, that rant about hating Salman and rising higher than a son of his ever could, was all her. It was my plan to use silent assassins instead of genocide, if it meant innocent people wouldn’t die to give Alisdair an easy victory. But the delight in what that victory would bring... that wasn’t mine.
But Alisdair loved it.
I was trying to make the man fall in love with the true me, and all I was achieving was his infatuation with the bitch who destroyed my life.