Page 27

Chapter nineteen

ATALIIA

My hand tapped against the tonic tucked away in the breast pocket of my coat as I made my way back up the hill from Nethkar to the castle. A giant shadow rolled over the ground, blocking out the afternoon sun and I looked to the sky to see Nithra flying toward her stables.

They were back.

My stomach filled with lead as I swallowed back the lump forming in my throat. This was not going to be a pleasant conversation and I prayed I could keep my mouth shut long enough to get through it unscathed.

I hadn’t done anything wrong this time.

I sucked in a deep breath, swearing into the frigid air as I tethered to the throne room.

Pri, Asrai, and Dukovich were already waiting.

Asrai stood with her hands clasped tightly at her back as Pri paced back and forth nervously in front of the steps leading to the throne.

Dukovich sat on the second step, casually leaning back onto his elbows as he waited.

Pri’s footsteps echoed into the otherwise silent room as Elric tethered in.

“He is here. Where is Brakan?” Elric clipped, his gaze avoiding mine as he looked to Pri.

She stopped her pacing, pulling her hair nervously to the top of her head. “Wren is retrieving him from the prisons.”

Elric nodded as the sound of tethering echoed through the room again and Landers, Cin, and Andrues appeared.

A growl ripped from Landers’s throat as he took three quick steps toward Pri. “How dare you bring that man into our home. Where is he?”

I took a small step backward and right on cue Wren and Brakan tethered into the room.

There was no time to stop Landers as he rushed toward them, his hand outstretched.

A small whimper left Brakan’s mouth just before Landers’s fingers wrapped around his throat, the sound of snapping bones ringing through the room.

His body thudded to the marble floor.

“This is your source?” Landers snarled, pointing to Nox’s crumpled body as he looked to Pri.

“ Was ,” I interjected, immediately knowing as the word left my mouth that I should have kept it shut.

He was not in the mood for my snarky comments.

I pressed my lips into a hard line, trying to hide the smirk that was desperately trying to form. From the corner of my eye I watched Dukovich drag a hand over the lower half of his face and hold it there.

Apparently, he was also trying to hide the amusement my words had triggered. At least someone understood my humor , I thought to myself and shifted my gaze away before he could notice.

I would prefer it to be anyone else, but I suppose he would do.

Landers’s eyes flickered to me with disdain before they fell back on Pri, and I realized I’d never actually seen him kill anyone. Creatures, yes, but never a person. I knew he had, of course, but this was the first time witnessing it.

There was a lethal side to Landers that we had not truly seen yet—a dark, gritty underbelly that he hid so well behind his calm demeanor. And as I stared down at Nox’s lifeless body, the realization that should have dawned on me the moment I met him, finally sank in.

Landers was dangerous .

He hadn’t given Nox a moment to plead for his life—not that I blamed him. Wren had already interrogated him and I probably would have done the same thing now that I knew who he was, knew the damage he had caused for centuries.

I pulled my eyes away from Nox and glanced at Cin. She said nothing as she watched Landers, her face set in an unreadable expression.

“He was my source for years, Landers. You asked for information and I acquired it. He never failed me, never put us in jeopardy until now,” Pri spat back, steeling her spine against the tremors I could see in her hands.

“That you know of,” Landers hissed, taking a step toward her. “I may have killed the spider, but his web of lies still remains and you have ensnared us in it.”

“I did what I had to do to protect the people—the realm—I love. If you want to be angry at me for how I got the information that has saved us on numerous occasions that is your choice, Landers, but one thing he had never done was lie. He may have sold the knowledge we traded, but every piece of information he ever gave me was true.”

The room fell silent on the tail of Pri’s words and I watched as tension rippled through Landers’s body.

“The knowledge, Prianaan, that you traded for this truth, could have just lost us this war.”

Rage boiled in my veins at the sound of his words and the look of shame that flashed behind Pri’s eyes as he said them.

“Don’t you dare put that weight on her,” I said, pointing to Landers and taking a sharp step forward. “Don’t act like in your centuries of life you have never made a bad decision.” I couldn’t stop the anger that was beginning to spew from me, but it was all coming out.

The resentment I held for him, for all of them.

“Ata,” Pri said softly, pulling on my arm. “It’s okay; he isn’t completely wrong.”

“No, it’s not okay,” I snapped, jerking my arm from her grasp and taking another step toward Landers.

“We are not your minions. We are not your lackeys you can order around. That is what you have Elric for—what you have a whole kingdom for. You want to speak on bad decisions? How about how you left Cin in The Silliands? When you let her give herself to the devil, the man that tortured and abused me—the man you are now putting your entire realm in jeopardy to protect.”

“Choose your next words wisely, Ataliia,” Landers growled, his eyes darkening as his gaze fell on me with unwavering contempt.

“I made the choice to stay in The Silliands, Ata. It was my choice to stay with Dukovich. You can’t blame him for respecting that choice,” Cin said, placing a hand on Landers’s chest and pushing him away from me.

I scoffed at her.

“Running to another man’s aid I see. I thought you would have learned your lesson with Taft—thought you would have grown a spine by now.” The words tasted like bile as they rushed from my mouth.

I shouldn’t have said it, shouldn’t be saying any of this but I couldn’t stop myself. Couldn’t stop the emotion that was beating its fists on the dam I had built to keep it in.

“How dare you,” Cin said, her voice lethally quiet as I watched the pain in her features harden to stone.

She took a harsh step toward me and I willed myself not to cower away from her.

“You want to fight, Ataliia?” she spat and my spine straightened. I had never heard her say my full name, heard such deep anger directed toward me. “It seems like that’s the only thing that helps you these days, that hurting people is the only thing that brings you any joy.”

“You don’t know a thing about what I am going through,” I snarled as we inched closer to each other.

I was losing control.

I could feel it, could feel my magic tingling at my fingertips, begging me to shift as I clenched my fists.

“Of course I don’t! You refuse to let me in, refuse to talk to me unless you are using words to wound me. Ardan would be ashamed of you, ashamed that this is who you have become.” I could see regret flashing in her eyes as the words spilled from her mouth, but she was right.

I couldn’t blame her for saying them.

He would be.

“It doesn’t matter what he would think. He’s dead thanks to—” I slammed my mouth shut before the words could come out, but it was too late. I could see it in the agony that was flooding her face.

“ Say it ,” Cin hissed, slamming both her palms into my shoulders. I stumbled back at the force of it, regaining my footing just as she shoved me again. “Say it,” she snarled a second time. I grabbed her wrists as they slammed into me again and locked my eyes on hers.

“Don’t fucking touch me,” I growled, pushing her away from me.

“Or what, Ata? Are you going to hit me too?” She took another quick step toward me, her curls flying over her shoulder with the movement as her voice cracked with emotion.

Anger pulsated through my veins, my heart racing with adrenaline, and before I could stop myself, my fist was flying through the air. My knuckles connected with her jaw, her head snapping to the side as she staggered back, her hands flying up to clutch her face.

Pain and rage flashed in her grey eyes for only a second before she whirled on me.

Shadows connected with my abdomen and I flew backwards, my knees slamming into the marble floor as the air rushed from my lungs.

I pushed myself up from the ground, ignoring the throbbing pain in my knees and the ache blooming along my ribcage.

“If you need to hit me, Ata, then hit me—take all your pain out on me. But I am not going to fight you,” Cin said, her voice almost a whisper.

I could hear the love and sadness she felt for me seeping through her anger and the sound made every ounce of rage detonate inside my veins.

I did not want her love.

I did not want her fucking pity.

I lunged, tackling her to the ground and pinning her under my knees as my fist slammed into her again and again.

“Fight back!” I screamed as my fist connected with her nose. She did not make a sound, did not try to free herself from my beating.

From the corner of my blurring vision, I saw Landers rush toward me, but Wren stopped him, pulling him back, keeping him away.

“I can take it,” she whispered as I landed another blow to her left cheek.

I didn’t know when I’d started crying, but as I sucked in a sob through clenched teeth I finally let the pain and anger that had been building inside me for months come pouring out as I pushed myself off of her.

“It’s your fault he’s fucking dead!” The words were a wail as I yelled them toward her on the floor.