Page 123 of Thief of Souls
I was supposed to be back—and so he came to find me. All the way out here, as if he somehow knew where I was.
“Are youtrackingme?”
Keir gives me a withering look. “You have a habit of disappearing, my love.”
The breath bursts from me. I have a habit of betraying him too, but he’s kind enough not to say it.
And I don’t have time to argue.
“We have to move,” I warn him.
“I’m not going anywhere.” There’s a rough timbre to his voice as he pushes to his feet. The heat in his amber eyes flickers as the dragon rises. Wind whips through his air. It rips through the trees around us all of a sudden, tearing the leaves from branches and earning a startled cry from a distant figure. Keir turns in that direction as if he’s finally found a target for his fury. “Don’t you know where we are? Can’t you feel it?”
“Feel what?” I yell as my hair whips past my face. What is he doing?
There’s a particular quiver in the air, as if detonations of silent force vibrate out from him.
Keir’s lip curls as he smiles. “This is a dragon’s barrow. They’re in my playground now.”
And then he flings up a hand.
Trees fall violently, as if they were simply clipped at the roots. Branches simply shatter. A scream rings out, and I see a blur of black crushed by one of the toppling trees. Semirhyn.
He just… crushed him.
“Wait!” I scream, grabbing hold of his leather-clad arm. “Soraya’s out there!”
The wind cuts off as if it didn’t exist.
The devastation remains.
We’re surrounded by fallen trees, all of them radiating out from us in a circle. And right in the center lurks a dragon’s bleached skull, its knobby vertebrae covered in moss as they blend into the forest floor.
He simply… cut the trees down as if they weren’t towering giants with roots that wove through the forest floor. The power required to do such a thing…. It’s just… beyond comprehension.
“This way,” I yell, dragging him toward where I left Soraya.
The forest lies silent.
Maybe my brother caught a glimpse of my companion. Or maybe he found Semirhyn. Ruhle’s a coward at heart. He likes odds his enemies can’t match.
“Soraya!” I hiss as I slip down the slope toward where I left her.
She appears out of the hollowed-out center of a tree, her face strained and a knife in her hand. “What are you doing? Did you kill the archer?”
“Not I.” I jerk a thumb over my shoulder toward Keir. “Keir crushed Semirhyn with a tree.”
The two of them stare at each other, and all of a sudden I realize he wasn’t aware she was even here.
Indeed, the last time he saw her, she was trying to kill him.
I spin toward him, stepping between them. “Don’t.”
Keir rips his leather gloves off, one finger at a time. “Don’t what? Don’t ask what’s going on here?” Tension hardens his jaw. “Then I won’t. I have a fairly good idea already, considering you don’t look surprised to see your sister alive.” His gaze cuts over Soraya. “I assume this was planned. I assume you intended to double-cross me.”
I hold my hands in a pleading gesture. “Originally, yes. But…. I heard what you said about Calliope. About the cauldron. I was going to…. I just needed to get my hands on the horn. I was going to give it to you.”
“Was?” There’s acid in his voice.
