Page 23 of Dance of Kings and Thieves

“You hope for your folk, but fighting is so foolish if you wish them to live.” His silky voice raised the hair on my arms.

No. No, gods.

Elise lowered her blade, head tilted. “I do hope for many things.”

“Elise, don’t listen!” I screamed.

“I know.” Sabain held out his hand. “Come with me. You can bring peace to your land by aligning with our new king. Be his consort, truly there is nothing more wonderful than a wise lover to a king.”

Gods, if Kase or Valen did not reach this fool first, I would tear him to pieces.

Halvar shouted for his queen, but it looked as if Sabain had his twisted mesmer locking Elise in a trance.

I gritted my teeth and quickened my pace, fumbling with the bone dust vials.

“Consort to a king?” Elise’s voice was so soft, sohopeful.

No. I refused to lose the Northern queen to Niall. If he got his grimy hands on Elise Ferus, he’d lock her in a cage as he’d done to Dagny. He’d guard her against Valen. And her child. Gods, what would he do if he learned the heir of the North was growing in her belly?

“A consort to a king. Just imagine,” Sabain repeated, a dreamy thrill in his tone. Like a sad song.

With my teeth I popped the cork on one of the vials, ready to spread the ashes in his eyes the way I’d done to Klaus Krokig after Kase had murdered Boswell Doft.

Elise took a step closer to Sabain. Halvar was buried in a fight with multiple guards. Tova shrieked for the queen to halt. Valen . . . where was the bleeding king? He’d destroy Sabain.

I was still twenty paces off, terrified of watching her be wrenched from her folk into a life of the hells.

Until her countenance shifted.

Elise smiled with a giddy delight, then all at once, her eyes darkened. “Why be a consort when you are thedamn queen?”

She yanked a small knife from the sheath on the small of her back and jabbed the point at Sabain. The bastard was swift and sidestepped, but the blade dug into his shoulder. It was enough to knock him backward into my path.

I gripped Sabain from behind and yanked his head back. He didn’t have time to get a proper look at me before I dumped the vial of bone dust in his eyes.

The Benevolent screamed. I didn’t understand how, but shadows spilled off my shoulders, my fingertips, the ends of my hair, as my mesmer heated in my blood.

Bone dust absorbed into his eyes and left him writhing in agony. I knew the dust burned those without memory mesmer, but to know Sabain was the one breaking under the pain spread a bit of comforting warmth throughout the center of my chest.

While he struggled, I clamped my hands on the sides of his head and lowered my mouth close to his. His breath was hot and cloying from a hint of blood. Mesmer had grown stronger. I didn’t need breath as much as I required touch, but for the Benevolent, I did not want to take the risk of failing.

The more I drew breath the more misty ribbons of darkness coiled around the Benevolent, sliding into his nose, his ears. I drew in a long breath through my nose. Smoke and abstract shapes filled my mind as his memories started to form.

I’d take them all. He would not even know his true name when I finished with him.

But before I could inhale again, a heavy boot kicked at my ankles. The air knocked from my lungs when I landed onto my backside. Sabain screamed, no doubt the bone dust scorching his eyes.

I didn’t worry over the Benevolent. It was the skydguard with rage in his eyes hovering over me who was the worst threat now.

Valen’s magic had created enough broken stones. I grabbed a handful of sharp pebbles and threw them at the guard. He cursed when the shards struck his face and batted at his eyes long enough for me to reach for my sword.

“Kill her! She is the memory thief!” Sabain bellowed, wiping his own eyes as he backed away.

The guard reoriented himself and raised his sword over my head.

I kicked at his knees, but he countered the move. He readied to swing. I readied to roll. But in the next breath, hot sticky blood splattered across my face. I watched in stunned horror as the skydguard’s chest split in two. His ribcage had cracked down the middle. Each pump of his dying, exposed heart spurted fountains of thick blood onto the ground.

The guard’s mouth opened and closed twice before his legs gave out and his body crumpled.