Page 6 of The Eye of the Fifth
Oslan Daeiros. Her older brother who had run away from their ridiculous grand manor home in the Upper States three years before she had.
He’d been plagued by relentless grief after their parents’ murder, driven mad by anguish and never to be seen again. Kyra had tried to look for him, had snuck out of the manor more times than she could count to search the city, but what good was a thirteen year old girl in such a situation?
An even bigger hole had ripped in her heart with his leaving, already vast from the loss of their parents. No last words spoken between them, no tender moments of farewell,nothing.Left behind with one sister too young to understand, and the other too stuck in her own bitterness to offer any sort of consolement for her siblings. Not to mention a grandmother that became more unbearably closed and emotionless than she’d been before.
For all the years that had passed, it was far easier to believe Oslan was dead, than to believe he had completely abandoned his younger sisters.
‘Even if it’s not him Ky-’
‘It won’t be.’
‘Evenso…you’ve never fought another fae before.’ Kyra glimpsed the rest of the sentence on her face. It was true, she had only ever fought humans. But she was a prized champion. Lilion wouldn’t put Kyra in that kind of danger. She wouldn’t risk losing her.
Would she?
‘I can’t lose my streak now. They don’t call me Warrior-Queen of the Arc for nothing,’ Kyra joked in an effort to be nonchalant.
‘I’m not sure I’ve ever heard anyone call you that.’
‘Well they should start. Seven years of staying alive in this cesspit is impressive.’
‘That it is,’ a new voice in the room agreed.
Lady Lilion Perdy stood in the threshold of the door. She wore a sweeping elegant black corset dress and satin gloves. An expression of annoyance plastered her usually unreadable, pointed face.
Swiftly chugging the rest of her wine, Rosary attempted to depart without a fuss, but Lilion blocked her at the doorway. ‘This is my palace, Miss Talbot.Mydomain. If I catch you down here again, you can expect to be escorted out by the Union and tried for trespassing. Understood?’
Cool rage stole over Rosary’s face. Kyra held her breath, half expecting her to bite back. To her relief, she gave a curt nod. Seemingly satisfied, Lilion lifted her arm away.
Rosary peered back at Kyra before leaving and in that look alone Kyra knew she would receive an earful of choice words about Lilion later that night.
‘You should be resting,’ Lilion said scathingly.
Rosary being there had really riled her, it seemed.
‘I am,’ Kyra replied.
Lilion narrowed her eyes at the goblet in her hand. ‘Miss Talbot has quite an influence over you.’
‘Shewas just coming to congratulate me on a fight well won,’ Kyra lied.
‘And show you her spoils of the day, I assume?’ When Kyra didn’t reply, Lilion smiled. ‘As I said, this is my palace. Miss Talbot’s slight hand is not quite as inconspicuous as she believes it is. Out of respect foryou,I have courteously turned a blind eye to it.’
Still, Kyra kept her mouth shut, though her pulse had increased tenfold.
Lilion Perdy was the Lady of Shadows, the unofficial Governor of Avaldale’s underground enterprise. Wealthy beyond comprehension, with a name that everyone knew and even feared, she answered to no one. Even theactualGovernors of the city, a collection of insufferable men with too much power turned a blind eye when it came to the illegal activities happening in the Arc.
Likely because Lilion endorsed them heavily to keep their brown noses out of her business.
Kyra didn’t believe much in fate or destiny. But it was somewhat fateful that Lilion, the only person in Avaldale with the power to protect her, had been the one to find her coiled under the Arc’s entrance in the freezing rain at sixteen. Under Lilion’s protection, she was untouchable. She had gifted Kyra a house in the city, worn down and infested with a mouse family, but it was hers by Lilion’s administration. Even she did not invade Kyra’s privacy there.
Still with all that Lilion had done for her, Kyra did not like the woman. She respected her position, was even impressed by her unfaltering ambition, but never had she called her a friend. And never would she.
With simmering impatience, Lilion said, ‘I told you to make it last.’
Kyra sipped her wine. ‘I was getting bored.’
Lilion’s nostrils flared. ‘I do not care what you feel or think when you are in those pits. When I tell you to make a fight longer, you make it longer. If I tell you to kill within ten seconds, you do so. If I tell you to surrender and die, you do it. Are we clear?’
