Page 78 of A Dagger of Ice and Intrigue
So Iwasbeing watched. How? I’d been so careful, always checking behind me, stopping at weird intervals to listen to any sound, and always going down different routes right as I exited the fortress.
But there was a more pressing issue now. “Why?”
She finally looked at me, a warning in her cold eyes. “The Commander wants you.”
Chapter
Fifteen
ALLIE
“How are you following me?” I said instead of a greeting as I strutted through the door the girl had pointed me toward.
I was tired.
I was hungry.
And I’d almost slipped on a sheet of ice in front of the fortress and both the girlandthe warriors saw.
Iwasn’tin any mood to be summoned by the great big Commander.
All of my pointed words died on my lips as the door shut behind me and I realized this was the same room I’d woken up in.
Inside the coffin.
Where I’d found out my life had changed forever.
Where I’d been so close to crumbling.
Where I’d almost lost myself.
The ember smell, the antlers on the walls, the window I’d almost fallen apart in front of.
No coffin, thank the gods, but the memories of my disoriented fear made my heart beat faster than when the wolves were chasing me.
My mouth went dry and my fingers twitched to grab a bow that wasn’t there. That might never be there again until I escaped.
IfI managed to escape.
“The sky sees all,” the Commander’s deep voice tugged me back to reality. “You’re easy to track in my lands.”
He leaned against the wall, arms criss-crossed in front of his chest and gaze on the floor, right next to that blasted window. Like he could smell my grief radiating off the frame and decided to amplify it.
He looked too at ease while I was one breath away from crashing.
I wanted to smash his tranquility.
“Why did you bring me here?” I asked, voice bringing in the frost from the streets inside. “To show me my place?”
His gaze jumped to me, bewildered, assessing my face, from the wild strands of hair that had escaped my braid and tickled my reddening cheeks, to the severe line of my pursed lips.
“You decide your place, Huntress. No one else,” he said slowly, as if sensing danger. “This is the safest room in all of the fortress, except, perhaps, our bedrooms.”
I crossed my arms in front of my chest, mirroring him. “So?”
“So I thought you’d want to make sure nobody outside these walls listens in on the conversation with your Clan and beloved uncle.”
All my anger melted away into shock as I spotted an open leather book on top of the desk I hadn’t noticed before. Carvedout of dark, twisted wood, it dominated the back of the room in its imposing starkness.
