Page 10 of War Hour

When I don’t respond, Lord Drytas seems to take my silence as submission.

“Kneel. Kneel before your lord, and I shall be merciful. Should you pass your Trial, you may join the upper city or the Guard if I find you suited.”

I swallow my scoff of disbelief. A lord who leaves some to starve while others get to live in luxury? A lord who amassed his power by condemning innocent people to Trialing. None of these were examples of any lord I owe loyalty to.

“You are no lord of the streets.”

I push the words out between my teeth with little thought, having heard them muttered my whole life.

A wave of darkness crosses Drytas’s face, and I swear if I weren’t already likely to die in my Trial, I would be now.

My feet lift from the ground, my body stiffening as I rise. Drytas’s hand sweeps across the room, and I move with it. Terror floods my body. Trying to shift, I feel as if I am attempting to mold stone. It is just like in the streets, when the guards tossed items and food around but on an infinitely larger scale. Ihover above the ground until I’m mere feet from the foot of the throne.

I didn’t know their powers were strong enough to do this.

Panicked, eyes wide, I look to Ardis, who doesn’t meet my gaze.

“I. Said. Kneel.”

With a force stronger than gravity, I slam into the tile floor, knees making impact. I’m held in place, breath rushing in and out of my body in short gasps. Pressure grips my chin, not unlike a hand, and wrenches my head up. From my kneeling position, I stare at Lord Drytas.

This is the face of my suffering and every other Untrialed in Falland. He is the reason I and so many others have grown up with no family. The reason we all starve. He may not have taken Cenna by the hand and dragged her into the Court of Valor’s Trial, but he was the reason all the same.

Stepping toward me, face inches from mine, Lord Drytas snarls, “They all kneel. Eventually.”

Spitting at the floor near his feet, I grin crookedly as he looks at me in disgust. “Willingly?”

Chapter 5

Amember of the Guard leads me from the grand hall, pulling me along as I limp. I give up on concealing the grimaces permanently etched on my face but lock away each whimper begging to be released.

At first, I try to memorize the halls like I did the streets of Falland. A right turn. A long hall. Another right turn. A left down some stairs. But once we reach the bottom floor, there are too many changes, and I mentally curse when I lose track. It’s unrealistic to think I can remember it all, but my heart still sinks as my method of escape evaporates like the memorized path in my head.

Footsteps sound behind us, and I try to look over my shoulders, but the guard yanks me forward.

“Hold up. Drytas wants me to take her.”

I immediately recognize Ardis’s voice, but the guard doesn’t seem to. Sneering, he pulls me to a stop and turns. “And who do you think you—”

His face pales several shades when he sees the shifter behind him. Swallowing the rest of his sentence, he nods rapidly, holding my arm out to him.

Ardis, having yet to look at me, grips my arm, watching the guard. When he doesn’t leave, Ardis says in a slow drawl, “Dismissed.”

Muttering, the man speed walks away, but it goes unnoticed by Ardis. Once out of sight, the grip on my arm loosens, and we start forward.

Peering at him out of the corner of my eye, I wait for him to say something. A cruel joke at my situation or a snarky comment about what happened in the throne room. But he doesn’t, and I welcome the silence.

Further down the hall, Ardis stops without warning. Opening the door closest to him, he pulls me to stand in the doorway. In front of him, I crane my neck to look him in the eye, refusing to waver my gaze.

“Turn around,” Ardis says expectantly.

I blink slowly, trying to process his words.Why?

“Turn. Around,” he says louder this time, his blue eyes looking insistently into my own.

When his fingers brush over mine, the binds slacken just as I hear them click unlocked.

The moment my wrists are free from the metal shackles, I try to soothe the irritated skin, running my fingers over the red indentations. Ardis nudges me forward into the small room.

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