Page 85 of Master of Storms
“I won’t.”
Marduk smiled at her. “I love you, you know? And if you need me, then I’m right here. I will always be right here—”
She opened her mouth.
“Even if whatever is going to happen happens. I’m your brother. I will always protect you. I will always love you. And I will always be here for you, no matter what.”
Ishtar considered it. “I just want a couple more days with you.”
His stomach fell. “You’re not going to be in any danger, are you?”
She shook her head. “I need to do this. It’s the only way we win the war.”
He hated these moments. He’d spent most of his life searching for her, but he couldn’t smother her. She’d been locked away for her own “protection” for years, and he wouldn’t do that to her.
A commotion echoed up the stairwell.
Marduk’s head whipped toward that direction, and he slowly pushed himself to his feet. Call him an untrusting bastard, but loud noises in a castle like this made him nervous.
ThreeZilittudrekithundered up the stairs, spears held low. Marduk wished he had more on him than a dagger. “What’s going on?”
“We’ve found them!” one bellowed down the stairs.
Another drew his sword.
Marduk stepped between the guards and Ishtar. “You dare break guest right and draw your sword on your king’s cousins?”
“Don’t you speak to me of guest right.” The soldier in the lead pressed his lips together. “Mykinghas insisted upon your presence. Both of you. There’s been a murder.”
“A murder?” Marduk’s heart dropped. But then he saw thedrekiguard’s face. Not one of theirs. It had to beZilittu. “Who?”
* * *
It had once beena young woman.
Marduk’s steps slowed as he beheld the husk on the floor in front of him. The last time he’d seen a body like this had been in Egypt, when some idiotic British tomb-raiders had broken open a sarcophagus.
Or when Marthe was found.
Andromeda knelt by the husk, her fingers trembling as she reached out and brushed withered blonde hair away from the woman’s face. “Kirstin.”
“What happened to her?” Marduk whispered.
Andromeda’s hands glowing faintly with Chaos magic as she hovered them over the body. She looked up in shock. “Kirstin was one of our most powerful practitioners, but there’s… nothing there anymore. Her body should still resonate with magic, but it’s as if she’s been sucked dry.”
Tension slid through him. There was one reason and one reason only why he and Ishtar had been hauled down here.
He wasn’t a particularly violentdreki.
He’d rarely felt the protective, possessive urges other males felt, nor had he bothered to fight for territory.
But as the king turned to look at him, Marduk stepped between him and Ishtar and looked him in the eye. “Don’t even suggest it.”
A muscle in Draco’s jaw kicked. “The last person who was seen with Kirstin was your sister.”
“She couldn’t have done this.”
“My mate assures me that only a Chaos-wielder of significant strength could have overwhelmed Kirstin.”
