Page 112 of Thief of Souls
“What?” Falion sounds just as surprised.
Mistmark slowly pushes to his feet, his gaze sliding over me. The flickering light from the torch gilds his olive skin, but it’s the look in his eyes that incinerates me. “I should have known who you were the second you walked down that aisle. Nobody else has that particular swagger.”
“I’m touched that you would remember it.” Somehow the words sound cockier than I feel. My heart’s still skipping beats, strangely out of rhythm. “Now let’s go back to that interesting little statement. If you die, I die? What in the cauldron’s name do you mean by that?”
And Mistmark smiles at me, holding up his wrist where the bloodred ribbon is still tied in a neat little bow. “It’s a little something I insisted be added to the vows. Let’s just say that I didn’t trust Belladonna.”
“But I’m not your bride,” I blurt.
“You pledged your troth to the goddess, as did I.” There’s a dangerous, predatory look in his eyes. “You bound yourself by the sun and the moon and the stars. It doesn’t matter if you weren’t who you said you were. Your blood still lingered with mine. You gave your word. The goddess heard it all. Did you not think about what would happen if you mixed your blood with mine and gave me your oath?”
Right now, my blood is draining out of all my extremities. No.No. I did not. “That scheming little bitch.” I know exactly who has to pay for this. Who trapped me. She knew. Zemiraknew.
Maybe you’ll thank me some day….
I am going to wring her bloody neck.
“Like it or not, Soraya, you are now my wife. It doesn’t matter what name you used, or what face you wore. Your blood. Your pledge. Your oath. And now you’re mine.” Mistmark’s smile holds a thousand dangerous edges. “But the funniest thing about this entire situation is that youcan’tkill me. You don’t dare let me die. ’Til we meet the endless night, my love… you are bound to me, body and soul.” His gaze lifts to a point over my shoulder. “Now let her go.”
“Fuck,” Falion grates out as he shoves me forward.
I don’t think we’ve ever agreed on anything before. “Fuck.”
But then his face tightens. “Hang on a minute…. If you’re here… then where in the blighted lands is your sister?”
Ooops.
23
Zemira
There’s one thing the best thieves have in common: Patience.
Pulling off a heist like this requires exquisite planning.
You have to get the lay of the land.
And you need to locate the thing you’re trying to steal.
You need information about what you’re going to encounter. Guards. Opposition. Vaults and magical deterrents. The wards you’re likely to breach…. Everything.
Then the magic happens: You create a distraction, something that’s going to pull everyone’s attention like an explosion. Something like… a wedding where the groom seemingly dies. Throw in a fake bride. An assassination of the prince of the court. Mix it with hundreds of wedding guests all trying to play their own power games, and you have one potent moment in time where nobody’s going to be thinking about the horn.
But the secret ingredient that binds everything together?
Timing.
You have to knowwhento make the grab.
I Sift along the hallway, alighting in each shadow only long enough to get my bearings before I vanish again. I can’t afford to have anyone see me, but what I really needed was to take Falion out of the equation.
Good thing I have his secret weakness up my sleeve.
He’s been itching to get the upper hand on my sister ever since the summer she tried to kill Mistmark, Soraya said.
She’s going to kill me when she discovers the truth about those wedding vows. But I’m starting to learn my lessons. I can’t trust anybody. Not truly. She’ll betray me the second she gets a chance, and so this time, I took the leap first.
Now how are you going to work your way around Keir?
