Page 95 of Shadow Throne King

I let my mind grow closer to Centipede, trying to see it through his eyes, knowing that there was no way for me to approach without King Inor and the animalia inside him seeing me—the door was open, Inor so confident in his own power that he had no need for it. So I would have to be fast, faster than he was. One knife thrown from the doorway, another while I was running, and then my blade across his throat.

I played it and replayed it in my mind, looking for flaws, but Inor wasn’t Tallu. He didn’t have well-trained Dogs at his disposal, ready for any sort of attacker. With the powers of the animalia behind him, Inor was confident that he didn’t need personal guards.

When I was sure I was ready, I checked my throwing knives, testing the draw on my wolf’s claw. Then I slipped out of the room.

I was so silent as I moved down the hallway that I was half sure I was another ghost in Tallu’s memory. Then I saw the black rock surrounding the throne-room doorway. The door, once so heavy, so impossible for us to move, hung off its hinges, the center warped as though something had punched through it, trying to get out.

My gut clenched. That hadn’t been in my vision, but I couldn’t risk losing a chance at cutting the head off the beast through hesitation.

Peeking around the corner, I could see the outline of Inor on his Shadow Throne. He didn’t move, his head bowed as though he had fallen asleep on his throne, and I couldn’t trust the image, but Centipede’s voice whispered and whispered and whispered.

I threw my first blade before entering the room, exactly as I had imagined it, my feet almost as fast as the spinning silver as I darted across the darkened room. The blade hit him in the center of his chest, where his ribs met. I had already thrownanother, the second landing in his throat. In three steps, I was atop the dais. My blade was ready,Iwas ready.

My sword cut Inor’s throat a moment before I realized my error. Inor was already dead.

His head fell to the ground, bouncing from step to step, rolling to a stop at General Maki’s feet. He grinned. “Hello, little assassin.”

Twenty-Two

His voice held the echoing, hissing quality of Centipede. A shiver started in the base of my spine, and I felt too slow as I turned on him, reaching back to free my two throwing blades from Inor’s body. One wouldn’t come loose, the blade embedded in Inor’s spine.

I didn’t take my eyes off Maki as he stalked around the dais.

Slowly, the light in the room began to increase, the black stones brightening from a pale illumination to a glaring orange and yellow. After so long in the dark, punctuated by only the dim blue fluorescence of the tunnel walls, I wanted to flinch back from the light, but I didn’t dare look away from Maki.

He walked with purpose, each step distinct, and he smirked as I had to turn my body to follow him.

“Does Tallu know who he married? He must. How could he not?” Maki asked, sounding so much like himself that for one horrified moment, I wondered if I had been wrong and the voiceswerein my head. If there was no Centipede straight from the stories, just a mad imperial general.

“Youaregood. I didn’t even hear you coming.” He clicked his tongue against his teeth, and I saw the head of a centipede poking out from one of his eye sockets. It moved back and forthbefore climbing back under, leaving Maki’s eye clear of insect. “How did you do that, northern prince? Youarea tricky little thing, aren’t you? I’m going to enjoy watching you squirm and scream.”

I didn’t hesitate, pulling back my arm and throwing my blade in one swift motion. Maki hissed, moving to the side so quickly I might as well have been wading through the water. He grabbed the blade out of the air and threw it back at me, but I was already gone. It clattered to the floor behind the throne.

I was within arm’s reach of him, my wolf’s claw swinging out, when something dropped from the ceiling. It rose up in front of me, and my blade sliced halfway through Krustavian armor before it got stuck on bone.

I yanked hard, but it wouldn’t come free, and I could feel a buzzing vibration building in my blade. I danced backward, realizing what it was a second too late. I just barely had time to raise my arm and guard my face before the body exploded, the electricity Maki used to keep the corpse moving at odds with my blade’s shape. A wolf’s claw was designed to direct electricity, and when it was inside a corpserunningon electricity, it sent it in a spiral, a feedback loop that caused a messy outcome for everyone.

Mostly the corpse, but now, I was also covered in bone shards and blood, the blood unnaturally cool against my skin, the prick of sharp splinters of bone pricking me.

My sword was flung loose by the blast and it slid across the smooth stone ground. I sprinted across the ground, grabbing hold of it and turning to face Maki. Only he wasn’t alone anymore. Ten men surrounded him, all Krustavians wearing the milky blank eyes of death. He cackled, the sound rising up in his throat, until he was coughing, spitting out baby centipedes from split lips.

“House Atobe thinks that killing the One Dragon was power. They think they understand what it is to be stronger than the animalia. They are wrong.Thisis stronger than the animalia. Becoming an animalia is stronger than anyhumanpower.”

“Are you sure about that?” I asked, low and rough, more in my chest than my throat. I lifted my sword into a defensive stance, raising my elbow to nearly eye-level. “I can hear Centipede’s voice, too, and I can tell you that it is not letting you control it. Centipede has hold of you, and it will drive you mad just as it drove King Inor mad. Just as it drove Prince Hallu mad. And all the rest. How many of these corpses were born from Centipede’s lust for chaos?”

The ten men that Maki had called down didn’t move, didn’t breathe. They stayed on their feet, balanced and ready to attack.

I risked a glance upward and found four more dead men suspended from the ceiling. When I refocused on the battlefield, the ten had arrayed themselves to their advantage. Two men on either side of me, two in front, and three prowling around the edges of the field, trying to get behind me.

“Too afraid to fight me on your own?” I demanded of Maki.

Maki smirked, his expression turning sour when I feinted at one of the men, bringing my blade up and swinging it across his neck, decapitating him in one movement.

I heard the crack as my blade severed the man’s spine, felt it vibrate up my arm. When the wolf’s claw had exploded out of the Krustavian earlier, it had done damage to the blade. The bone underneath the plating was fracturing. By my judgment, I had one good hit left.

“We don’t need to fight you.” Maki turned and headed up the dais, grabbing Inor’s body by his tunic and tossing the dead king free of the throne with one hand. “You’ll fight Maki’s little creations, and then, when you’re defeated, little assassin, you’ll become one of mine.”

The words slurred on Maki’s tongue, as though he was fighting to say different ones. He cleared his throat, blinking and glaring, and then he said, “Ours.”