Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 131875 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 659(@200wpm)___ 528(@250wpm)___ 440(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 131875 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 659(@200wpm)___ 528(@250wpm)___ 440(@300wpm)
She had always wielded it like a weapon. But wished more than ever that she could be rid of it. She wasn’t used to people staring at her. She was used to stabbing them. After all, she was the best assassin in Kinkadia.
“What do you plan to do now?” a woman asked over the chatter in the council.
Isa recognized her. She’d come to their side long ago, eager to serve, eager to bring the Fae to the front and silence the human and half-Fae majority in the city. Isa knew that she had enough money to help make that happen. And a husband who didn’t care about her dalliances with the human staff. Hypocrite.
Bastian waved his hand to silence the crowd. He sat at the head of the council chamber within Draco Mountain. In what felt like an endless stream of meetings to quash rebellion and bring the full Society under his mantle, he had been meeting with his followers and detractors alike. Buying out those who were reticent. Killing those who refused to bend to him. Cowing others with threats. It was exhausting work, and Isa had never considered having to endure it. She had been a blade at the throat. Not a diplomat.
Not that she was the diplomat here. Bastian handled everything. He’d been on the Society council for decades. The rise to the head of the council was his crowning glory. If only Isa could just stab everyone who offended him.
“I plan to bring the tribes to heel,” Bastian told the chamber calmly.
“How do you plan to do that?” the woman asked. “The tribes of Alandria have always flown under the Society banner. Now, there are factions refusing your reign. Are we to have civil war?”
“Nothing about what I plan for those who turn their back on their country will be civil,” Bastian told her solemnly.
A man in the front row shuddered. “There has already been so much bloodshed.”
“Change requires sacrifice,” Bastian said.
Sacrifice. Like Valia. Another person to get Father all that he wanted. The thing that made her hate him. Yet she stood at his side, as she always had. The end of this would be harder than a sharp blade and a quick death.
Alura sat straight-backed in her father’s council chair. Her onyx skin gleaming in the light. Her face a mask of composure. Lorian Van Horn had been another sacrifice for the greater good. The scapegoat the Red Masks had needed at the time to deal with Kerrigan Argon.
“What about Kerrigan?” Alura asked, her voice carrying.
Bastian never gave away how he felt about Kerrigan—the girl he had raised to be a symbol for the Red Masks. The girl who had everything a half-Fae could possibly have and did what was within her power to raise up others instead of burying them beneath her ambition. The girl who had gotten away despite their best efforts.
“We are still looking for her,” Bastian said.
Alura made a sound of disbelief. “You won’t find her.”
Bastian bristled at her tone of voice. “Do you have a better suggestion, Councilwoman?”
“Simply that none of this is safe until you have her in hand,” Alura said.
And she would know. She had trained Kerrigan during her dragon training. She had taken the girl to the Battle of Lethbridge. She had been injured in battle with her and lost the use of her legs. Now, she had a cane.
Not to suggest she wasn’t formidable. If she hadn’t been taken out within minutes of the initial Red Masks invasion, she might have been a real threat. Instead, when she had woken, she had joined their side. Isa doubted it was genuine. But Bastian was set on leaving the status quo as much as possible.
“We will have her soon,” he assured her.
“Because Tieran lives?” Alura asked.
Tieran was the only reason they knew that Kerrigan wasn’t dead. She and Fordham had disappeared in a cloud of black shadows. His dragon, Netta, had escaped captivity at Holy Mountain. Tieran was nowhere to be seen. He’d been under wards when Kerrigan disappeared. He collapsed shortly after, and they all believed Kerrigan was actually gone. But after moving him within the mountain, he revived. He’d taken down an entire section of the aerie with his fury and escaped.
It was her father’s biggest failure. They could have killed Tieran and ended Kerrigan. A dragon or rider couldn’t survive the other’s demise.
“Don’t worry about Kerrigan. Let’s focus on the tribes for now,” Bastian said, swaying the conversation back to the topic at hand.
Isa let the hours slip away. This had been going on for weeks. It would continue until her father had the entire island back under control.
She was jolted from her thoughts by the council adjourning. It was night again already. Her time to play.
“Isa,” Father said.
She nodded, falling into step behind him. She didn’t speak as they traversed the complicated hallways of Draco Mountain. When they were within his private chambers, he finally removed the blood-red mask that melded to his face and became her father once more.