Page 131 of A Dagger of Ice and Intrigue
The Clan Council.
Protectorate members trying to abduct my Huntress.
And that didn’t even include the Northern Clans being a bigger pain in my ribs than usual.
“Say what you want, Viper, our fates are now linked to that family.” I steepled my fingers, still staring at the candlelight dancing on the blades, slashes of light jumping all around us. “If the Veghearas fall, our Clan will be next.”
And I’d meant every word.
I already had my suspicions that the connection between Zandyr and Evie burned deeper than either of them acknowledged. If I was right–and damn it, I was getting sick and tired of always being right when it came to problems–if the Lost Daughter fell, The Dragon would follow.
Losing our heir and leader would plunge the Blood Brotherhood into chaos.
Eldryan and Zavoya might have worn the crowns, but the responsibility of holding the Clan reins would fall onto the Blood Brotherhood Elite.
Onto me.
As the Commander, I would lead the army in Zandyr’s wake.
I didn’t envy his position and did not want it.
I’d joined the Blood Brotherhood to protect my people, not to rule a Clan I had not inherited.
My attention needed to remain on this side of the border. The one the Northern Clans still insisted I’d betrayed when I’d uprooted generations of traditions to align my city to the Blood Brotherhood.
Grim thoughts of war echoed behind me as I raced to the only place where I found peace, as twisted as it was.
Home.
The world came back into focus with a violent tug as I stopped running. My bones rattled as they rearranged themselves, scratching my skin and muscles from the inside.
I allowed myself one single shuddered breath as I stared at the lip of the crater.
The place I’d been born to rule and protect.
Solkar’s Reach.
Where the Sun god had reached his mighty hand and tore the earth when the mortals had displeased him, revealing the blazing veins flowing underneath us. The legends said his palm came down with a fiery vengeance, scorching everything in its wake, as a reminder not to toy with the gods.
I didn’t want to anger any god–especially one who could reach out and yank my people into the sky–but I believed in the lesser known myths. The ones my mother whispered to me before bed, about Solkar sending a great fireball that blazed for a thousand days and a thousand nights, wiping the wretchedness from this place. The crater’s lip was raised outwardly, the shards of earth turned to razor-sharp glass before I was even a glimmer in my ancestors’ minds.
But the blazing veins…those were true.
I stepped in the small space hidden between the shards, one hand latching onto the glassy rock carefully. I’d learned longago the rocks willful and didn’t hesitate to cut those who didn’t respect them.
Before me, the lands of my ancestors spread out, farther than even I could see.
A sunken circle brimming with life, danger, and duty.
A city built on the ruins left behind by the gods.
One that had survived andthrivedunder my rule. But the cost of it still weighed on my chest, with each day that passed, each breath that I still had the good fortune to inhale. Or curse.
I hadn’t quite decided.
Nor had I decided whether the legacy of Solkar’s wrath was a gift or a plague.
The veins the legends warned against were real.
