Total pages in book: 222
Estimated words: 210715 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1054(@200wpm)___ 843(@250wpm)___ 702(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 210715 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1054(@200wpm)___ 843(@250wpm)___ 702(@300wpm)
I saw it in Reynald’s eyes. He would let Derog go to keep me alive. He would let him walk out with me.
Once Derog stepped out that door, he would vanish into the shadows and set about tracking us down one by one. We had made a fool out of him, and he couldn’t afford for it to get out. He would find the children and murder them. Killing him was the only way to ensure they survived. It had to end today, right here and now.
I met Reynald’s gaze. “Remember my name. Wait for me.”
I raised my right foot and stomped on Derog’s boot as hard as I could.
Ice sliced across my neck. The world went black.
CHAPTER 9
I woke up to pain and the wailing of children.
The world was soft and fuzzy, out of focus. I blinked a couple of times and saw Reynald’s face. He was sitting by me, dark and scary, lost in thought.
It would be a great time to quip something witty, but everything hurt too much.
“Ow.”
Reynald’s gaze snapped to me. Relief shone in his eyes.
“Well,” he said. “‘Undying’ is a bit of a misnomer, isn’t it?”
“Yes, but ‘dying horribly and then waking up in a lot of pain’ is a bit of a mouthful.”
I raised my hand. He grasped it and pulled me into a sitting position. The little girl I had carried threw herself at me, sobbing. Double ow. I winced, hugged her, and petted her back.
Clover made a strangled noise. Her eyes were red, and tears stained her face. Her voice shook. “I thought you died, my lady.”
Aww.
Behind her, Kaiden stared at me, a desperate, vulnerable look in his eyes. He looked like a little kid who’d been pummeled by life so many times, he didn’t expect anything good to ever happen again, and my heart squeezed itself into a painful little ball.
“Hey,” I told him.
He spun around, hiding his face.
“I’m fine,” I told them. “It’s all good. Everything is good.”
Everything wasn’t good. Everything hurt like hell. The little girl hugging me felt like someone was stabbing needles into my body.
I looked at Reynald. “Is he dead?”
He nodded.
“Good.” The relief that flooded through me was indescribable. I had never been so happy in my entire life. “How long was I out?”
“About half an hour,” Reynald said.
Less than last time. Or at least I was guessing it was less, but then last time I had been stabbed several times, my throat was slit, and I’d drowned. There was a lot more damage to heal.
I suddenly realized that I was still in the hallway. They must’ve been afraid to move me.
“Do we need to go? I can try to get up.”
“Why would we need to go?” Reynald asked.
“To escape.”
“Everyone is dead,” he told me.
“But we need to leave. What if the guards come here and discover all the dead people?”
“Why would they come here? In all these years they’ve never bothered with this house.”
“What if Derog’s clients show up?”
“I hope they do.” Reynald smiled.
I shivered and instantly regretted it. Shivering hurt.
He was on my side. At least for now.
I met Reynald’s gaze. “My brain is a little slow right now.”
He nodded. “I can tell. We have five children in our custody. We must provide them with a safe place to stay until we can return them to their families or determine what to do next. We’re in a fortress of a house. We can hold it against a small army. In a little while, I will get a boat and dispose of the bodies in the bay, as is the time-honored Kair Toren tradition. We will clean the blood. We will sleep safely and eat well, and after you recover, we will go through Derog’s ledgers.”
And there would be a lot of ledgers. Years of them. Lasa kept meticulous records.
Reynald was right. Derog was a slaver. If he had paid off any guardsmen, they wouldn’t stick their necks out to get revenge for him. His only living relative was his sister who lived in another province, and we would be able to handle her if she showed up. The Kair Toren underworld would note that we had killed Derog and his crew and leave us alone because they were creatures who ate their weak and avoided their strong. By their logic, Derog was strong, and because we took the house away from him, we were stronger. Nobody knew anything about us, and nobody would want to test us. Why would we go anywhere when we could just stay here?
“Are things a little clearer?” the blademaster asked.
“Yes.”
“Good. Come on, little one.” He reached for the little girl holding on to me like a baby lemur. “Let Maggie get a breath.”
PLANTER 8
I stretched my legs and leaned back in my new office chair. It used to be Derog’s chair and office, but he didn’t need them anymore. In fact, I now had an entire suite to myself: a luxurious bedroom, a palatial bathroom with running water, and this personal office with a desk and a lovely window.