Page 103 of Voidwalker
“Let them freeze. They’ll turn to Verne’s side easier, begging for the help their last Lord Daeyari couldn’t provide.”
Fi clenched her fists to stop from shaking, stinging fresh energy burns along her knuckles. When Antal had used that magic on her, she wasn’t able to lie. Cardiganwasn’tlying, didn’t give a shit about Thomaskweld or Nyskya or anyone in between.
If Antal didn’t kill this piece of bog moss, Fi would.
The daeyari didn’t sneer as openly as her or Boden, falling back to deathly stillness. “What does Verne plan next?”
“I don’t know.”
“Where is she keeping her Beast?”
“I don’t know. I haven’t spoken to her… not for weeks. We were supposed to be partners. Why won’t she speak to me? Why won’t she…” Cardigan’s words slurred.
Another dead end.
The room fell quiet. Just Cardigan’s labored breaths, the tick of a clock on a bookshelf, and lower, a buzzing in Fi’s ears. As if she could hear the failing energy conduits all the way from Nyskya, the cold seeping through the windows. Nyskya, which was supposed to be safe from all this. Hidden in thewild, distant from daeyari prying. Not distant enough.
Antal tipped a razored glance to his fellow conspirators. “Anything else?”
Boden shook his head. Fi did the same.
When Antal released Cardigan, sense returned slowly to his eyes. Then, fear. Unnecessary perhaps: giving him that moment of clarity.
Antal buried black claws in Cardigan’s throat, a jagged slice through the jugular. Too swift a death.
Fi winced as Cardigan collapsed to the floor, blood gushing onto his rug. Boden watched with a hollower look. Not for Cardigan, she assumed.
“He sold faulty conduits to Nyskya. That’s why we’ve had outages. That’s why…”
Fi heard that shake in Boden’s voice, blame leveled on himself for not recognizing the danger sooner. They’d been snared in this mess even before Fi took that ill-fated smuggling job.
Antal flicked blood from his claws then sniffed the air. Another whiff led him to a drawer in Cardigan’s desk. He pulled out a familiar metal case, flipping it open to reveal a set of daeyari energy chips. One, he pinched between his claws then ran his black tongue along the edge. A grimace.
“At least Verne paid well,” Antal muttered.
Boden paced the room, as if he’d find some answers in the mussed desk or useless bookshelf curios. “We shouldn’t linger. Take your payment, daeyari.” Lower. “Looks like you have your pick.”
“You as well.” Antal slid the energy chips toward Boden. He wrinkled his nose at Cardigan’s corpse, disappearing into the hall instead.
Fi caught herself watching him again. Curious again, in a way every rational survival instinct said she shouldn’t be.
“I’ll search the office,” Boden said dismally, “see if there’s anything we can use.”
“Aren’t you… a little curious?” Fi asked.
He looked at her. The door Antal had disappeared through. Back at her, paler than before. “Notremotely.”
Fi always had the tougher stomach. And her hands were shaking too fiercely to sort through bookshelves.
“Do your snooping. I’ll keep watch.”
She felt Boden’s gawk dig into her back as she left the room.
23
Nothing to waste
The hall was a mess. Fi stepped around blood spatter, around the corpses of two felled guards sprawled across the marble. The Voidwalker assistant was missing. She followed the smear of red dragged across the floor, steeling herself as she approached the courtyard.
