Page 177 of A Dagger of Ice and Intrigue
Then the hum began.
Chapter
Thirty-Seven
ALLIE
The mist of lust vanished instantly.
I hopped off the table and shrugged my coat back on, arms already tensed for battle. Godsdammit, I should have brought my bow.
Ryker blinked and the sparks were back in his eyes with a vengeance. “What do you hear?”
Despite everything in my body screaming to run away from that hum that wanted to tear my muscles from my bones, I took a sharp inhale andlistened.
It was lower, slower than before. It didn’t worm in my ear and scratch at my skull.
It wailed.
Those same thousand voices which had been screaming were now–“Crying? I still can’t hear any words, but it sounds sad. Desperate. What do you hear?”
Ryker clenched his jaw. “A warning.”
His darkening gaze jumped from me to the sculpture of the falling star.
Me.
Star.
Star.
Me.
Finally, he looked up toward the heavens once more. “Solkar is testing me.”
Before I could say anything, he placed a hand on my shoulder, turning me toward him.
“Nobody can know about this,” he said fiercely. “Promise me.”
“Is it something that can harm me, my family or the Protectorate? Or any innocent life?”
“No.”
“Then I promise,” I said, when all I wanted to ask was whatthiswas.
His eyes sparked so much, they almost glowed. “Swear you won’t say anything, Allie.”
“I swear,” I said impatiently. The wail began to thrum louder. It delved inside me and made me want to weep. “Or do you need a blood oath?”
Ryker nodded grimly. The situation must have been dead serious if he hadn’t even cracked the tiniest smirk.
His hand fell from my shoulder and I instantly missed his warmth.
He whirled around the table, fisted his palm, and thundered it against the raised center of the table, flames and all.
Another rumble shook the crypt, this time so powerful, the glass resting on his mother’s coffin tumbled to the ground. Ryker used that unnatural speed of his and caught it right before it shattered into a million pieces. Not a drop of alcohol spilled.
The rumble didn’t stop.
