Page 44 of Reigning
Killing her in her sleep. What a blissfully unaware way to go.
Seems…terrible and perfect all at the same time.
It’s a little cowardly on our part, but I’m honestly prepared to shove her right off a cliff if that’s the option we have.
“You called us here for a bedtime routine?” Seara’s cutting emerald eyes slice right into me.
Rime’s arms fold, and he turns to the woman fully but never says a word.
“Yeah. Looks like it.” I hold her gaze and wish the people I asked for help were a bit more fucking supportive during this plotted murder.
Is that too much to ask?
Her blonde locks skim along her face as she shakes her head at me. “Fine. Let’s get on with the coward’s mission.”
Ouch. Sounds worse when you say it out loud.
“Okay.” Chaos glances from one person to the next, a small smile pressed to his lips in what seems to be his attempt at easing the atmosphere. “What’s the plan, Sin?”
Sinister straightens, and everyone looks to him at once.
It’s abundantly clear to me that my sweet demon friend has done more research than I even realized.
“Her room’s up the stairs, on the highest level—”
“Of course it is. Tallest tower and all that, right?” Rime arches a pale, unamused brow, but Sin just continues.
“It’s down the hall, the last door on the right, and it’ll be locked. We can—”
The thunder booms again. This time, the warped window rattles. The frost on the glass splinters so delicately but so loudly. The lines slice, dividing up toward the frame at an alarming pace. It splinters. It races so quickly with a cracking sound that goes much deeper than the thin layer of ice.
The glass shatters, spraying into the room and chilling my skin with the cold kiss of the winter winds.
“That’s not a storm.” Kain’s shoulders stiffen, his wide green eyes sweeping across the vacant white skyline.
Chaos’ big palm grips my wrist, and then he’s blocking my body with his own.
My bedroom door swings open. The wood slams into the brick wall, shaking violently. Almost as violent as the woman trembling with rage in the center of the frame.
I gasp with a smile the moment I see her. She’s frail but fierce. Aging but agile. This little old womanisthe fucking storm.
“I brought friends,” Agatha says, a big smile creasing her already lined face.
I rush to her and stop dead in my tracks when I see the men behind her. The leader of the shifter village stands at his second-in-command’s side. Agatha’s strong friend’s graying hair is tied back, and the seriousness of gaze looks ready for anything in this moment. Both of the men fill the doorframe with rigid postures and locked jaws. The dozens of shifters behind them all hold that exact same stature.
“Prince Linden tells me another mage killed my daughter.”
Lord Carlin says something that should bring me relief, but the blatant aggression in his features doesn’t ease my mind. He lost his daughter, thanks to Ellise. It seems him and his army of dragon shifters are ready to right that wrong.
Every second that ticks by is filled with tension as the alpha shifter of Valencia stares down on me.
I’m innocent. He just admitted it long after he imprisoned me in their village. Everything that happened there feels so long ago.
“I’d like to formally apologize and offer to help,” Carlin says sternly.
“You owe her a bit more than that, but we accept.” Sinister pushes dismissively past the dozens of shifters and grips my hand at the last minute, guiding me through the crowd until we’re in the hall.
The empty hall.
