Page 75 of The Kingdom's Reckoning
"What will be your little secret?" Laurince asked, leaning against the bar beside her.
Myra’s heart flew into her lungs, rendering her speechless. She hadn’t even heard him come down the steps. How much of their conversation had he heard?
She looked back-and-forth between Laurince and Rian. "Uhm…uh…"
Laurince raised a brow, waiting for an answer. The captain’s suspicion slithered its way over her limbs. Something bitter twisted with it.
"It wouldn’t be a secret if we told you, now would it?" Rian asked, leaning forward.
A deep wrinkle formed in the middle of Laurince’s forehead as he narrowed his gaze at them.
Myra’s gaze flicked to his chest. The laces near his collar were loose, and his sleeves were rolled up to his elbow.
"I think…I think I need some air." Myra pushed away from the bar and scurried out of the tavern before either gentleman could voice their dissent.
The brisk morning air bit her cheeks as she stepped outside. Hurried footsteps followed her.
Myra sighed. "You didn’t need to follow me?—"
But Myra didn’t get to finish her rebuttal before a gag was lodged into her mouth, silencing her. The person twisted Myra’s arms behind her back. Her shoulder made a sickeningpopas it was forced out of its socket.
Tears sprang to her eyes, and she tried to scream out for Laurince, for anyone. But it was no use. The gag muffled her cries for help. She jerked around, trying to free her hands from her captor’s grip. As she twisted, she spotted a sinister grin and a tattoo of a dragon scaling up the man’s neck. Then, an intense pain spiked the back of her head, and her vision flashed white, the inn disappearing.
Chapter 31
KALLIE
"What if Domitiusdoesn’t show up?" Ellie asked as she sat on a low-hanging branch of a maple tree. With one leg dangling from her perch, she inspected her weapons, turning them this way and that. She had woven her stark white hair into a simple plait, and thin strands framed her face.
Kallie looked toward the forest at the opposite end of the great plain that stretched in front of them. A crisp breeze rolled in, sending the leaves tumbling. There was no other movement between the trees on the other side of the plain, though, and a nauseating knot twisted in Kallie’s stomach. Still, she said, "He’s going to come."
"How do you know?" Ellie asked, doubtful.
"Because I know him." Kallie pressed her palms flat on the ground, and blades of dry grass weaved between her fingers, scratching her skin.
Within the surrounding ten-foot square radius, Graeson’s constant pacing had flattened the meadow, digging a small trench into the ground.
They had arrived at the agreed-upon time: an hour past high noon. But now the sun was setting behind them. Golden huespainted the field resting between them and the opposing forest. Myra would have thought the view was worthy of a painting to be hung in a grand hall. Kallie, however, saw it for what it was: one last moment of peace before she would come face-to-face with the man who had destroyed her life.
She shouldn’t have been surprised Domitius was late. How many times had he made her sit in his office waiting for his verdict? Waiting for her punishment after she failed a mission or failed to increase her power? Kallie had always hated the anticipation that came with sitting in his office alone, never knowing when the door would swing open. The resulting anxiety was a plague, always finding its way to infiltrate her bloodstream and twist her thoughts into a tangled mess. It was a tactic, one Domitius used freely.
And Kallie was falling for it even now, allowing the passing of time, the inevitable doom, to crawl under her skin and set her nerves on fire. It made her question whether she was ready.
Kallie rested the back of her head against the tree trunk. "I should have listened to you sooner."
Above her, Ellie sighed. "Of all times, you admit thatnow? When I don’t even get to enjoy telling you I told you so?"
Chewing the inside of her cheek, Kallie shrugged. She should have listened to Ellie from the beginning. Instead, she had let her pride get in the way.
"Hey," Graeson said, calling her attention to him. "None of that."
"It’s true, though," Kallie mumbled as he crouched in front of her.
With a finger, he tipped her chin up, forcing her gaze to meet his. "No, it’s not. Even without showing his face, Domitius is messing with you, twisting your thoughts. Do not let him win; do not let him have that power over you." His thumb lightly brushed across her jawline. "Got it?"
Kallie gulped but nodded.
He wove his fingers into her hair, cupping the back of her head, his touch soft yet unyielding. Wrong yet impossibly right. "You are not a weapon, Kalisandre. He does not have power over you; only you do." His moon-gray eyes bounced across her face. "Repeat it, Kal."
