Page 46 of A Kingdom of Lies

I made it to the door, barrelled through it, then wedged my body against the other side. A few times Briar tried to knock through, but I held firm, legs straining against the force.

“I expected a little fight from you, Robin. But not for you to run away,” Briar sang, her voice slightly muffled by the wood between us.

I scanned what was a closet. There was no other way in or out. Which meant I’d literally run myself into a corner.

All I could think to do was stall, in hopes Duncan did return with Hunters. “Go on, tell me how much I am worth to him.” I shouted as the tell-tale scratch of a blade worked grooves into the door. “I admit I’m flattered to know it is enough for you to give this your best go again. Did you know I am a king myself now? I could rustle up some coin, perhaps even best his price, and turn the hit back on Doran.”

Briar laughed, her cackle raising the hairs on the back of my sweat-damp neck.

“No one in Wychwood doubts your status, but you are a king of barren lands and empty homes. Imeria castle sits vacant even after all this time since your claiming the Icethorn power. You are wealthy in loneliness, that is all. You turned your back on your destiny and wandered into the hands of Hunters. There is nothing you could offer me to stop the inevitable from happening.”

She barged into the door again. I pushed my hands on either side of the wall, trying to add more pressure to stop her.

But guilt tried to rear its ugly head within the storm of emotions riling through me. However, it was the easiest of my feelings to handle. How could I feel guilty for turning my back on a place that I had no personal ties to? No family or connections beside the whisper of my mother and her rule.

“Briar the snake, queen of giving up on all who love her,” I called back. “What is it you rule over beside the hunger for coin?”

I couldn’t see her smile, but heard it in the lightening of her tone. “Pity, you havesucha way with words. Shame you will not be speaking them much longer. In fact, any last words whilst the opportunity presents itself?”

“Fuck you,” I screamed.

A sudden, grounding calm rushed over me, dousing the flames of my anxiety with a blanket of cold ice. If this was the end, I was that much closer to seeing my father again. Would he be waiting for me in the realm of peace I longed for him to be in? Standing beside my mother as though they had never parted sides.

“It is almost a shame that I will not get the credit for killing you. An army races towards this place, and when they come, they will blame the Hunters for your death. But I suppose I can live with that, knowing my pockets are full and you are no longer a thorn in my side. Then they will kill everyone here and return Althea and her guard back to their home. And in time you will be forgotten. Doran may fill my pockets, but I owe him nothing. I’m simply saving him time, and resources.” Her voice dropped to a whisper. Briar’s mouth must’ve been so close to the door as she spoke her next words. “Erix is on his way to see you, I wonder how he’ll react when he finds you dead. Will he be pleased I saved him a job, or angry that he didn’t get the chance to destroy you himself.”

“Erix.” The blood rushed down from my head to my feet, making my body feel like it was sinking into the stone floor. “He is coming here?”

“He is. Followed me from Doran’s door all the way to this one. Clearly, I was not trusted for the task entirely. I even contemplated letting Erix reach you first, letting him finish the deed but still taking the credit for it. Yet I could not give him such pleasure. He has a strong will even against the pressing force of his sire. Even I would not get in the way of a berserker, especially one like him. Sad you are going to miss him?”

I shook my head, fighting the urge to release the tears that clung to my lashes. Erix had been the one to murder my father. I should’ve hated him for it. But he was a puppet at the end of gold strings held by his father, warped and controlled. His will was not his own no matter how I longed for it to be different.

“When he finds your body, drained and empty, he will likely destroy this entire fortress before the Cedarfall soldiers arrive. I may even stay and watch. Nothing like some entertainment after a kill–”

I threw open the door, silencing Briar, whose wide eyes proved she didn’t expect it. I reared my fist back, and sent it careening into her face. Once the crack sang, beautiful between us, knocking her back a step.

“Get on with it,” I screamed, hands flexing at my sides, wondering if Erix was close enough to hear. Close enough to save me when no one else would. I may not have had magic to call upon, but my desperation crackled colder than any storm I could control.

Briar licked at her cracked lips, smearing blood across them.

A shiver raced up my spine and down my arms. I stayed looking at the door, gaze unflinching, ready to do anything to escape. That was when I felt it. The strange heat of the air, as if it had thickened in the time I’d been inside the closet.

It could only mean one thing.

“Briar,” I said, a faint smile creasing my face. “I hope it hurts.”

“Killing you?” she said, preparing her blades, her legs bending at the knees like a cat to pounce.

“No. I hope it hurts when you burn.”

The door exploded inwards in a cloud of splintering wood, stone andfire.

In a single moment the world rocked beneath my feet. I felt the slice of a blade but had no time to worry if it was fatal as I tumbled to the ground, covering my head with my hands. Shards of rubble rained down upon me; it was all I could feel. That and the tongues of vicious flames that lapped at the room, coming from the fey who controlled them.

My ears were ringing, screaming, as I tried to shield my head from the debris of the explosion. I risked a glance upwards. Standing in the torn hole that had once been the door, amongst rubble and stone that burned with red-hot fire, was Althea. Her face was contorted by the shadows cast upon her by the flames, a goddess of destruction and hell, eyes pinned to the cowering body of the girl on the floor between us.

“And burn you shall,” Althea Cedarfall spat, fire dancing around her feet like loyal serpents of ruby and gold. “Bitch.”

CHAPTER 16

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