Page 167 of Unrivaled
“Wonderous,” I told them, striding toward the door.“If Lord Luca comes near me—” I bit off the order I wanted to give.
I’d deal with it myself if it came to it.
“Mistress Isolde is resting, I take it?”Kaelson asked, as Thomas closed the tower up behind us.
In my mind she jolted awake.The knife between my ribs twisted.
Luca.
“Did she tell you what the poison was?”Kaelson asked me, his gaze intent.“She said little to me.”
I started.“Poison?”
His expression grew guarded.“Was she well?”
“No.”I led them along the corridors.The watch called the hour again.I lengthened my stride.Damned if I’d make a scene by being late.“This morning was complicated.She didn’t mention the poison.”Shedidmention an old hurt.I knew I was correct in assuming the distress was separate to whatever had happened.“Tell me.”
“She was carried into my office at thirteen cries, my lady,” Kaelson told me crisply.“She reported having been poisoned and presented with significant bleeding.She reported having taken the right antivenom and knowing the source of the poison.I followed her instructions, my lady.”
“Thanking you.”Whomever had poisoned Isolde was not going to see the sun rise tomorrow.I stepped into the bailey and the sun shone cheerfully above.“Did she tell you who was responsible?”
“She did, my lady,” Kaelson said.
Storm nickered as they brought her out.I looked over at Kaelson, feeling those waves of fury crashing against my foundations.
“And will you tell me, Captain?”I asked him, bitingly.
He stared straight ahead.“It might be best coming from Mistress Isolde, my lady.”
I drew in a slow, deep breath.“Kael,” I said, quietly, “I have had a long morning.Who was it?”
He looked down.“The Raa’shi lord, m’lady,” he said softly.
Whatever else he said was lost to the buzzing of a million bees in my head.
I climbed into the saddle with nary a thought, my hand white-knuckled on the pommel.
He’d been fucking me badly and poisoning her effectively, all in one evening.
If he wasn’t dead, he was about to be.
Once that was sorted, I needed to spend some time taking a long, hard look in the looking glass.
CHAPTERSIXTY
CHAY
Power should never feel light.
—Raider’s Ban proverb
24thDay of Autumn’s Son Moon,
Age of the Locways, Year 272
La’Angi Tourney Grounds
The water from the waterboy’s ladle wasn’t enough to wash away the coating of charred flesh that seemed to be stuck in my throat.Or mayhap the stink had climbed up my nose and I was just imagining I could still taste it.
