Page 101 of Scorched Earth (Dark Shores #4)

She shuddered and choked, then drew in one last shuddering breath.

And then fell still.

“Mother,” Killian said softly as she closed Ria’s eyelids. “Please back away.”

She didn’t argue as Adra caught hold of her arm and pulled her to the far side of the pavilion. Adra had a long, curved knife in one hand, but her brown skin was slick with tears.

Killian drew his sword.

“Take off her head now,” Hacken ordered. “Don’t let her rise!”

“No.” Killian’s fingers flexed on his sword. “I want to see what he has to say.”

The Corruptor.

“He’ll see us through her eyes!”

Dareena flipped the knife she was holding over and over in her hand, a nervous tic, but the green eyes that met Killian’s were steady as she shook her head. Wait.

Killian stared down at the woman who’d caused him so much trouble in Rotahn. Who cared nothing for life and everything for power. Ria had earned death a hundred times over. Yet he still pitied her.

The black veins in Ria’s skin abruptly faded. Not disappeared, but sank deeper into her flesh. Then her eyes snapped open.

Several women screamed, but Killian ignored them as Ria slowly looked up at him, expression sly. “What do you want?” His tone was flat. “Or did you kill her just to prove that none of us are out of your reach.”

A slow smile worked its way onto Ria’s face, but the voice that poured from her lips was like nails on a chalkboard, clawing at Killian’s ears. “How does it feel to fail yet again, Marked Ones?”

Ria’s eyes skipped around the watching nobles.

“If those in the very presence of two of Tremon’s marked cannot feel safe, then what hope has anyone else?

Your faith in the Six is misplaced. They chose their champions, yet north and south, faithful followers of the Six fall beneath the heels of those who serve at my pleasure.

” Ria’s mouth smiled again, and this time it was all white teeth.

“It is not too late to switch sides. Some among you already have.”

The nobility looked between each other, but then Adra shoved through them. She hurled a lamp at the back of Ria’s head, and the oil instantly ignited. “Be silent!” Adra screamed. “Your words are as much poison as the blight, and we will not hear them.”

Hair and dress aflame, Ria rose and turned to Adra, the stink of burning flesh greasy and choking. “You are weak, daughter of Gamdesh. Feeble in the face of what is to come, and all that you love will turn to rot and ruin. My champions will ensure it.”

Adra stood her ground, expression defiant. “My faith in the Six is strong. As is my faith in the marked.”

The Corrupter laughed, and Killian swung his sword.

Ria’s burning head rolled across the green lawn, but the laugh still seemed to echo in the air as an icy breeze blew down from the north. The stink of rot mixed with the stench of burnt hair, and the pavilion canvas threatened to tear loose.

No one spoke, but the eyes of the nobility went from Ria’s burning head to Hacken.

“Rufina did this!” he snapped. “She poisoned Ria.”

“Why, of all the individuals present, would she kill Ria?” Helene’s voice trembled as she asked the question everyone was thinking. “Everyone knows Ria did as you told her to do, Hacken. If Rufina wanted to kill anyone, why wasn’t it you?”

“Perhaps the poison was meant for me.” He took a step back. “I was with her last night. Perhaps she drank the cup intended for me.”

“Or perhaps you decided she was no longer the asset you needed and you got rid of her!” Helene shouted. “Got her out of the way because you had your eyes set on the queen. Except Kitaryia isn’t even here! She’s chasing legends in Revat when she is needed here!”

“Be very careful, Helene,” Hacken growled. “I do not take kindly to being accused of murder.”

“Everyone is thinking it—though it’s a shame I’m the only one with the balls to say it.” Helene lifted her skirts and strode toward the manor, the rest of the nobility giving Hacken dark looks before following her.

Killian didn’t move from where he stood, his eyes focused on Ria’s burning head. Then he met Hacken’s gaze.

Hacken looked away first. “I’ll make arrangements for the body.”

Killian watched him stride away, only Dareena, his mother, Seldrid, and Adra remaining.

“You also think Hacken killed Ria, don’t you.” His brother removed his coat and put it around Adra’s shoulders. “Dosed her with blight to make it look like Rufina’s doing in order to get her out of the way so that he can marry Lydia.”

At his words, their mother’s face crumpled, and Adra moved to put her arms around her.

“I don’t think Hacken did it.” Wiping Ria’s blood off his sword, Killian sheathed it and turned his face into the icy wind, remembering the shock on his brother’s face when Dareena’s identity was revealed. “For once in his life, I think Hacken is the scapegoat.”

“You believe we have a traitor in our midst?” Seldrid’s brown eyes narrowed. “The Seventh said, It is not too late to switch sides. Some among you already have. ”

“Maybe. Or maybe it’s a blighter. Lydia is the only one who’d be able to see their true nature, and she’s not here.”

“I agree with Killian.” Dareena retrieved a discarded napkin and wiped the paint from her face.

“This scene was meant to undermine the Marked. Every one of those High Lords and Ladies has come away from this moment with their faith in both the Six and the Marked much reduced. Lydia should have been here to save Ria. Killian and I should have averted the threat.”

“If marrying Lydia was Hacken’s goal, it didn’t serve his purpose to make her look bad,” Killian said. “None of this served his purpose. If he wanted to break off his betrothal to Ria, he could have done it with words. All this has achieved is undermining his control.”

“And now Mudamora stands without any form of leadership.” Adra still stood with her arm around Killian’s mother. “Like it or not, everyone followed Hacken, which allowed unity. This leaves us fractured and weaker. The enemy is clever.”

“Rufina has someone inside my house.” His mother spoke for the first time, her voice full of fury. “Blighter or traitor, it matters not. Someone in my house is trying to harm my family.”

“I’ll look into who has been around Ria over the last day,” Seldrid said. “See if I can narrow down a suspect.”

Dareena had moved a few steps away from the group, her eyes fixed north. “Does the blight smell stronger to you?”

No sooner had she spoken did wings flap overhead, a hawk landing and shifting into human form.

“Niotin,” Dareena said. “What news?”

“None good,” the shifter said. “The blight breached our barriers and got into the river Esden. The water downstream has gone foul, perhaps all the way to the sea. The towns and villages along its banks are full of civilians dying by the hundreds. They’re rising as blighters.”

Killian’s hands turned to ice, because the Esden flowed south. Which meant all of this was happening behind the lines of the Mudamorian army holding back Rufina’s masses of blighters.

“Why did you bring this message to us?” Dareena demanded. “Fly! Warn the army of attack from the rear!”

“Because it’s not them the blighters are marching to attack.” Niotin appeared ready to be sick. “They’re coming south. They’re coming here!”

And with nearly every Mudamorian soldier at the front lines of Rufina’s army, there was no way to stop them.