Page 55 of A Crown of Tears and Treason
The tension in my body slackened, bringing in a fresh wave of pain.
His eyes sprinted over me, thawing with an intensity I hadn’t seen on him before. When he found whatever he was looking for, he blinked his gaze back to me, cold again. “How do you feel?”
“Like someone tried to kill me.” I licked my chapped lips and moved my legs. That small motion burned so hard and fast through me, I almost passed out again. “How am I still alive?”
The snake had bit me, that much I remembered.
“Razorbacks don’t have venom until they’re old enough to mate.” Zandyr’s deep voice enveloped me. His hand found my wrist, thumb resting on my pulse point. I didn’t move. “How did it get close enough to bite you?”
I kept my gaze glued to his. “I couldn’t move.”
I could barely recall exactly what happened. The images flashed in my mind, as if an invisible force was trying to rip them from me.
“Something was holding me. I was levitating,” I said slowly. It sounded crazy.
Zandyr’s eyes narrowed with understanding. Maybe it wasn’t so crazy. “What happened before?”
“Kaya came to visit. She brought me a gift.” Which now lay in tatters.
“That gift saved you. Goose heard the noise and acted fast. You were bleeding on the floor.”
“Then I owe them both my life.” And Allie, for the spell that had protected me. And my own stubbornness. Maybe it wasn’t a weakness, like my parents had wanted me to believe.
“Did anyone else come inside?” he asked. My blood pulsed against his thumb.
“Only a guard, he brought the box.” I took a breath, letting the information steep. “Fray-something, I’d never seen him before, but Kaya knew him.”
Zandyr’s jaw clenched.
“When you found me,” I said. “Were there any windows open in the room?”
“No.”
I frowned. “Impossible. I heard…I heard chanting, coming from outside.”
More ice frosted his eyes. “We will find out how.”
“Good.” I nodded to his thumb; Allie had done the same thing at my wedding. I was inexperienced, but I learned fast. “Ifyou’re done checking if I’m lying through my teeth, tell me what in the underworld happened. Why couldn’t I move?”
A flash of surprise lit up his gaze. A slow smile bloomed as he swiped his thumb against my wrist, sending a calming shiver through the pain. As he let go, coldness seeped into my flesh.
“I am bound to keep the secrets of my Clan’s magic until you become one of us,” he said pointedly.
Bound to keep the secrets, but he could hint at the truth, it seemed.
Magic.
From inside the Blood Brotherhood.
Against me.
Allie had been right. Someone in the Capital was unhappy I was here–to the point of wanting to murder me.
“The Commander did the same thing at my wedding,” I said. One swipe of his hands and the guests had frozen.
“That was different and I trust him with my own life. He has sworn to protect you and your cousins. As have I,” he said, voice turning rougher. “This won’t happen again.”
“It already has.”
