Page 64 of Prisoner of Steel and Shadow

“The Forsaken?” she guessed, since he’d mentioned the forest lady being another queen.

“Exactly, but when she and her Circle arrived—”

“Circle?”

“You’re not very familiar with how storytelling works, are you?”

“You’re the one leaving out pertinent details.”

He chuckled. “Fair enough. The Circle is a group of five elite warrior mages sworn into service of the Kiri.” He stared expectantly at her as if waiting for her to ask another question, though instead of relief when she didn’t, he let out a little sigh. “Anyway, when they arrived at the edge of the forest, the Night Stalkers were not very happy to see them.”

“I thought you said they were called the Forsaken.”

“They are both. The Night Stalkers are just one clan that makes up the Forsaken.”

Shadow nodded. “Okay, I’m following. Go on.”

“You don’t make anything easy, do you?”

“Only death.”

“I walked right into that.”

She smirked.

“As I was saying, once the Circle entered the Night Stalker’s territory, they were surrounded without even realizing it. They didn’t know they were in any danger until the famed assassins dropped from the treetops they call home, appearing for all the world to step out of the very darkness itself. And then the air rippled and parted like a curtain to reveal their dark-haired queen, her face and arms decorated with swirls of black paint.”

Shadow was enchanted, completely swept up in Ronan’s story. She knew for a fact it wasn’t one she’d heard before, but there was a quality to it that had her feeling like she had, maybe a long time ago as a child. The images his words invoked weren’t quite déjà vu. They were distant and hazy... not memory exactly, but more like a remembered affection.

“What happened next?” she asked, leaning forward and resting her cheek against her fist.

Ronan matched her position, dropping his voice as he continued with his retelling. “Helena made her plea. She held nothing back, openly admitting that her people were in danger. That she needed help to face off against an enemy of unparalleled strength. The Night Stalkers listened, some more mistrustful than others. But their queen saw an opportunity of her own, for only a few days prior, one of their villages had been attacked. The land was restless and corrupted, the spirits of their clansmen trapped and unable to find peace. And so a bargain was struck. In exchange for help cleansing the land and releasing the souls of the dead, the Forsaken agreed to help the Chosen defeat the impostor queen.”

“Get to the part where this queen held a knife to you.”

“Patience is a virtue, you know.”

“We’re running out of time, Dmitri could get here any second, and I want to know how the story ends.”

His answering smile was smug. “Very well. Fast forward a few months. I saved her life, she saved mine, we butted heads at nearly every corner, and somewhere along the way, the assassin queen fell helplessly in love with me. The end.”

Shadow scoffed. “Now I know you’re full of shit. No assassin worth her blades would fall for your nonsense. I certainly wouldn’t.”

“I did say we butted heads. The woman held me at knifepoint more times than I can count.”

“That sounds more like it.” Shadow laughed, feeling a kinship with this queen. “How’d you talk her out of killing you?”

“I amverypersuasive.”

The way he said it had heat curling low in her belly. “Oh please, more like she didn’t want to deal with the political fallout your death would cause.”

“That’s entirely plausible. But I like to believe her feelings for me wouldn’t have allowed her to go through with it in the end.”

“Because you’re deluded. I still can’t believe such a woman was won over by your subpar attempts at seduction.”

Ronan quirked a brow. “Subpar? Oh kitten...” He inched closer. “You haven’t begun to be introduced to my attempts at seduction.”

Shadow opened and closed her mouth.Fuck. “Nor do I care to.”

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