Page 1 of A Kingdom of Lies

CHAPTER 1

Blood dried between my fingers as I held a hand over the fresh wound. It was a strange feeling, to heal without medicine or prolonged time. The smaller the cut, the quicker the flesh knitted back together. Large wounds took longer to heal, but still faster than it would have beenbefore.

Before I claimed the Icethorn Court and became its king.

“Careful, little bird,” Erix said, bending his knees with his blade raised before him. The dawn light caught its tip with a wink.

There wasn’t a cloud in the clear blue sky, but even with the rising sun, there was still the chill of new winter in the air.

“Are you distracted, or will you blame your clumsiness on your lack of sleep?”

Erix knew exactly what to say to get a reaction out of me. And his words created a burning warmth that flooded my cheeks and made them stand out like twin red cherries.

“If you’re concerned with my missing hours of sleep, then perhapsyoushould find another bed to stay in,” I replied, fighting the sly grin that wanted to spread across my face.

Erix pouted, straightening his posture until every one of his eight mounds of muscle across his abdomen flexed. Yes, eight. I counted a few times to make sure I wasn’t wrong.

To answer his question, it was actually the rolling bead of sweat that ran a course down his chest and across his lower stomach until it was absorbed in the hem of his training trousers that distracted me.

“Nowwhywould I do that?” he said, one dark brow raised above his silver stare which was full to the brim with mischief.And danger. “It is more… exciting sleeping beside you.”

“Except we don’t sleep,” I replied. “That’s the problem.” I shrugged, twisting the golden dagger in my hand without thought. It’d become an extension of my body in the past weeks. Training daily on rotation with Erix, Althea and Gyah meant that the dagger never strayed far from my hand.

Erix’s brow peaked, his lip caught between his teeth.

“Careful,” I repeated his initial warning. “Or you might findyourselfdistracted.”

It was a thrill to see his mind catch up with my own unseen action. I sprang forward, the cut on my upper arm now a faded scratch, and ran towards my guard. Erix shifted his footing, but failed to take a complete step before I was on him.

The grass at his feet mutated to blades of frozen glass. Erix hadn’t spied the creeping ice that I forced across the ground towards him during our conversation. It encased his feet, all the way up to his ankle, preventing him from moving a step.

“You tricky little–”

I was behind him in moments, reaching up on tiptoes until I wrapped my forearm around his neck and squeezed. With my free hand I held the golden dagger, the very one he had given me as a gift, directly before his face.

We waited like that for moments of silence until the low rumble of his laugh interrupted the stillness. “Very good, little bird. I must say I am impressed.”

“Ah, ah, stop right there. Can’t you just leave me with praise and not have to point out a flaw? I mean, come on, Erix, admit that I bested you and be done with it.”

“All I was going to say is you should never stop until your enemy has truly been dealt with. Have I not made that completely clear in all our training?”

There was something about his bossy nature that turned me on. I was sure he knew it too because it seemed to only intensify during our morning training sessions in the private gardens within Farrador Castle’s grounds.

“Do you speak to all your initiates like this?” I squeezed tighter, flirting the edge of the blade across his throat. “Or am I just getting special treatment?”

“You, little bird, are the only one who I would let get close enough.”

I felt the pinch of something sharp at the soft part of my inner thigh, through the form-fitting trousers Eroan had crafted for me. I looked down to see Erix’s own weapon turned on me, all without me realising.

“Fuck’s sake.” My eyes rolled as I released my hold on Erix.

“You were close this time. Closer than you have been before.”

“But…” I added for him.

“But, as I said before, never leave an enemy breathing long enough for them to take the precious moment they require to end you. End them first.”

I sheathed the dagger into the strap at my hip, admiring the calluses across my palm. Proof I’d worked hard to train since the Passing. Not that I knew who I was trying to prove anything to. Was it myself, or those who still refused to acknowledge my status as an Icethorn? Many fey still looked at me as the very reason for failed plans of domination over Durmain, the realm of humans.

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