Page 175 of Fall of Ruin and Wrath

Sitting up, I grasped the front of Grady’s tunic. The air was torn apart by a shrill shout, then another scream . . . and another.

“What’s happening?” Grady gasped, straining against the chains.

“I don’t know.” Heart thumping, I scrambled to my knees and peered out the window, but I saw nothing but darkness. I jerked back from the window at the sound of a skin-chilling wail that ended sharply. That had come from outside, in the distance of whatever village we’d entered.

Twisting, I slipped off the bed and stood, wincing as sore muscles protested. Breathing raggedly, I reached for the dagger—

“Don’t,” Grady warned. “Keep it on you and run, Lis. Please. Fucking make a run for it.”

My fingers curled around empty air as a shriek sent a shudder of dread through me. I backed up, each breath feeling too shallow, too quick. Turning, I crawled back into bed.

“Lis, please,” Grady begged, his voice thickening.

Shaking my head, I stretched out beside him, pressing my face to his chest as I gripped his tunic once more.

Then the screaming began in earnest.

CHAPTER 39

Don’t look.

That’s what I kept telling myself as I was led through the inn, keeping my gaze trained on the backs of the Rae and the Hyhborn knights. My legs and arms were shaking so badly I was surprised I could actually put one foot in front of the other.

Grady had been taken from the chamber a few minutes after those . . . those screams had stopped. I didn’t see Prince Rohan or Lord Samriel as I walked, Lord Arion beside me.

Don’t look.

But the taproom floor was sticky and slick beneath my bare feet and there was a smell here that hadn’t been when we entered earlier that night. A biting, metallic scent mixed with a too-sweet one. Pungent. Overwhelming.

I looked.

My eyes skated to my right, and I stumbled as I saw the owner.Buck.I saw others I didn’t know the names of. Some were half dressed. Others didn’t have a stitch of clothing on them, but all of them were nothing more than bodies now.

Bodies were splayed across tables, missing limbs, and others hung from the second floor, draped over the railing of the staircase. There was so much blood. It looked like a wild animal had gotten ahold of them, clawing open their chests and stomachs, leaving their insides on the outside. Hanging from them. In clumps and pools on the floor behind them. Someone . . . someone was burning in the fireplace. I’d seen so much violence, but this was—

Bile rose so quickly there was no stopping it. I turned, bending as I vomited water and what remained of the stew I’d eaten hours ago. I heaved until my legs gave out and I hit the bloodied floor on my knees, until my stomach cramped and tears streamed down my face.

Lord Arion waited silently through it all, speaking only once I quieted. “Is that all?” he asked as I shook. “Or will there be more yet to come up?”

I shook my head. There was nothing left inside me.

“Then stand. We must be on our way.”

I rocked back. I didn’t know any of these . . . these people, but there was nothing they could’ve done to deserve this.

“Why did this happen?” I rasped, throat sore. I had to know what could drive a living creature to be this cruel to another, because I couldn’t fathom such destructive evil. It didn’t matter what I’d seen in Archwood. This brutality was something else entirely. “Why did you all do this to them?”

There was a heavy sigh, one of boredom or impatience, maybe both. “Why not?”

I stared at him in disbelief.

“I was kidding,” he said as if that somehow was better. “One of our knights got a bit out of hand. The screaming started, and well, Prince Rohan is not a fan of such annoyances. If they had only stayed silent, they might have lived to see the sun rise.”

“They . . . they were slaughtered because someone screamed?” My voice pitched high.

“I can see that answer displeases you,” Lord Arion noted. “Will it help you regain your footing to know that most of the town has been left untouched? Because I do hope so.”

Mostof the town? I thought of the wails Grady and I had heard coming from outside the inn. Were the ones not so lucky left like this? Split open and left to rot when the sun did rise like they had been in Archwood?