Page 106 of Vicious Is My Throne

I held in my snort.

So witch magic really did keep Corvus’s magic at bay. And if that was true, then perhaps such magic would work on the Oracle too.

“This is our way out. We follow the stream as far as we can, hopefully all the way to Varitus.”

“And if it ends in a blighted area, then what?” Bran asked caustically. “You’re asking us to follow you to certain death?” He crossed his arms over his wide chest. “No, thank you. I’ll take my chances here.” Several of the others murmured in agreement.

“One thing I know for certain…” I scanned their faces, seeing nothing but distrust.

“Staying here, without food or water, is certain death. Movement means survival, inactivity means you’ll all perish. That’s just the way of things. But when you do decide to leave, that stream is your only way out. If you try to enter the blight, that darkness will kill you within the hour.”

Finnian’s eyes shifted toward the water. “I’m willing to give it a go. Lead the way, stranger, but if I decide we’d be safer here, I’m heading back.”

“Fair enough.” I widened my stance and faced Bran. He stood a full head taller than me, outweighed me by fifty pounds, but I had one good arm, and I could breathe. Best of all, my magic was slowly refilling, enough to give me a boost if I had to fight the bastard.

“Give me back the amulet. You can keep the knives, but I need the pendant.”

He tipped up his chin. “It’s mine, fair and square.”

“For fuck’s sake, Bran, stop being an arse and give the man back his necklace.”

With a curse, Bran slammed the thing down so hard into my cut palm I winced. But I caught him by the wrist before he could pull away, squeezing tight enough his eyes bulged.

“Next time you steal from someone, you little shite, know this. You might be the biggest bully here on this little island, but out in the real world? You’re nothing but a blustering coward.” I twisted his arm hard enough to send him to his knees and looked at the others.

“If you listen to him, you will all die. He’s too arrogant to admit when he’s wrong, and you’re out of food. Out of water.” I peered up at the sky. “You’ll be dead in a matter of days. Come with us and save yourselves.”

I looked into Bran’s hate-filled eyes. “Or stay with him and take your chances.”

44

ANARIA

Except for the busted front doors, we left House Rivière intact, the lord and lady and their archers locked in a vault in the basement, all their wealth distributed between their former slaves with stern instructions to head west as fast as they could.

Ever since my little mouth vomit episode, Raziel hasn’t said a word and Tristan has been carefully quiet, even when Tavion reported finding a mass grave at the back of the property.

The keystone was stowed in a bag slung over Tavion’s shoulder, contained within a box similar to the one Tristan possessed. We hadn’t taken the time to examine it, except this box was in pristine condition, the marking in the top of the box matching the mark on Tavion’s chest, which was why he’d taken immediate possession of the thing.

“Whitehall Castle is less than a mile away.” We walked due west down a narrow cart path, through bucolic glens and fields greening up with the first shoots of spring. “Not one of the powerful houses, but we should check it while we’re in the area.”

“We can search the rest of the estates,” Tavion said quietly, catching my arm, Tristan nodding in agreement as he pulled me to a stop.

“What if you went back to Ravenshade…”

“I’m not hiding. Not from this.” In truth, I wanted nothing more than to hide, to leave this realm behind and let Corvus consume this entire place with his corrosive rot down to the last grain of sand.

I hadn’t been prepared for the memories this place brought to the surface.

Emotions I thought I’d buried too deeply to ever affect me again, but here they were, front and center, eating me alive.

All the anger and hate and pain that I’d let fester had grown into something monstrous. Something too big for me to wrestle into submission. Too big for me to even wrap my head around.

Easier to fight an enemy I could see than this darkness trying to swallow me whole.

Raz kept glancing at me out of the corner of his eye, using every opportunity to touch me, to feed magic into me, to mother hen me half to death.

I didn’t want his pity, I wanted to fix this. I wanted to crush the Descendants and free the slaves and give them a chance to make a better life for themselves, but it was already midafternoon and we were running out of daylight.

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