Page 52 of The Kingdom's Reckoning
She wondered if it ever would.
"If I hadn’t been born with this ability, none of that would have happened," Kallie said, voice trembling.
"I can’t say whether that is true. However, what I do know is that more people would have died if youhadn’tused your gift. Terin told me what you did when you followed Sebastian to thesafe room. He told me how you were the reason he, your mother, and so many others made it out alive."
Terin was only trying to see the silver lining. It wasn’t that simple. Nothing ever was.
"Sebastian and his men were searching forme," Kallie explained, her throat burning and her vision blurring.
"But when you revealed yourself, they didn’t leave right away. The guards were going to kill them, weren’t they?"
A tear slipped down Kallie’s cheek. She looked up, but the wilting foliage covered the dark sky. Not a single star slipped through the brown, dying leaves and the tenebrous clouds.
A raindrop smacked Kallie on the forehead. The storm had finally arrived.
Rain pelted the leaves above. The foliage was so thick that only a few droplets slipped through and fell to the ground.
Kallie wiped the raindrop away.
A hand gripped her knee. She didn’t know when Ellie had moved, but now Ellie was sitting beside her, and Kallie found herself leaning into the woman’s embrace.
"You manipulated Sebastian that night. Yousavedthem."
"But I couldn’t save Fynn. Not when it mattered."
The patter of the storm was a soothing drum, loud enough to block out the sound of Kallie’s thumping heart. Loud enough to cover her soft cries.
Ellie held her tighter. "You may never forgive yourself for that night and many others, Kallie. You may even think that your gift is a curse. However, remember why we’re here today. You have the chance to stop this war, and that is a gift in itself. But if you don’t?—"
A loud crack ripped through the trees, and Kallie jumped.
"What was that?" She sat up and wiped her cheeks with her palms.
"It was just thunder?—"
Another sound cut Ellie off. The noise was almost feral, human yet not.
"That wasn’t thunder," Kallie mumbled. "Unless thunder now growls."
Ellie was already on her feet, a weapon in each hand. Kallie did the same and unsheathed her dagger. The warrior tilted her head and pointed in one direction, then another.
With a single nod, Kallie crept toward the trees on the right. She sank into the shadows, praying that her fears were for nothing while knowing that was wishful thinking.
Chapter 23
KALLIE
Kallie tightenedher grip on the dagger’s hilt as she snaked her way through the forest. For the first time that night, she was thankful for the rain as it covered the sound of her footsteps. When she came upon a large branch, she stopped in her tracks and took a slow breath to steady her racing heart. Fear pounded against her chest, and sweat pooled at her nape. She scanned the trees, searching.
Then, she heard it—a low growl quickly followed by rattling branches. But this time, it was directly above her.
On trembling legs, she forced herself to look up.
Twisted high in the branches was a large form bathed in shadows, blocking the moon’s light. She squinted at the blob, trying to identify it, but she couldn’t make out a single?—
The wood splintered, a crack ripped through the forest, and a horrendous screech came from the form. Kallie stumbled backward, and her heel caught on a wet log. She hit the ground with a teeth-clattering whack, and the air left her lungs. She choked on a gasp and scrambled back on all fours, her legs refusing to stand as the sky fell. Leaves, branches, twigs, and the shadowed form rained down. A mangled roar filled the forest asKallie’s back hit a tree trunk. A gust of wind smacked into her chest, forcing her eyes shut as the ground shook.
A few seconds passed, and a harrowing whine sounded.
