Chapters (46)
- Title Page
- Copyright
- Dedication
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-one
- Twenty-two
- Twenty-three
- Twenty-four
- Twenty-five
- Twenty-six
- Twenty-seven
- Twenty-eight
- Twenty-nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-one
- Thirty-two
- Thirty-three
- Thirty-four
- Thirty-five
- Thirty-six
- Thirty-seven
- Thirty-eight
- Thirty-nine
- Forty
- Epilogue
- Acknowledgments
- About the Author
The woman continued, but Kyra stopped listening. She was suddenly inundated with memories of countless nights roaming the city. Kyra had always thought she was nocturnal because her job demanded it, but if she was honest with herself, that wasn’t the whole story. Kyra had chosen that life because she loved the darkness. It had felt natural, safe somehow. Even now, she found herself longing for a shadow to hide in. Unbidden, the puzzling memory of someone carrying her through the forest came into her mind. And what about her childhood nightmares, the ones with the bright heat and sharp fangs?
“Have you killed?” asked Pashla.
Kyra went still. Did they know?
“If you’ve hunted or taken a life, our blood would call to you.”
Bile rose in her stomach. “What do you want from me?”
“Tell me about yourself first. What do you do for James?”
The question grounded her and reminded her to be careful. They didn’t know she had left the Guild. That meant they didn’t know that she had been working with the Palace against them.
“He hired me to sneak into the Palace. As you said, I can do things they can’t.”
“And why did James want to kill you?”
Kyra hesitated for as long as she dared. “I went against his orders. He wanted me to kill the Minister of Defense,” she finally said.
“Why didn’t you?”
“It wasn’t part of our original agreement. He hired me as a thief, not an assassin.”
“And he tried to kill you when you refused him?”
“Aye.”
Pashla seemed to accept her answers. “A few months ago, we raided a marketplace in the city; do you remember that, Kyra?”
“I do.” How could she not?
“I was the one who chased you onto the rooftop.”
For a split second, Kyra relived that moment, watching the creature delicately sniff, then taste, her blood. She had thought that the cat had retreated because of the arriving soldiers.
“That’s why you spared me.”
Pashla nodded, eyes distant. “We’ve known about you since the attack. Afterward, I told Leyus about you, but we never saw you again. It was only when we heard you scream at the Guildhouse. The smell of your blood was so thick in the room. It was unmistakable.”
“Who’s Leyus?”
“Our leader. We’ll talk to him tomorrow, now that you’re awake. He will decide your fate.”
Thirty-one
T H I R T Y - O N E
Tristam dug his hands into his knees so hard as to leave bruises. If he wasn’t careful, he would say something to Councilman Willem that he’d regret.
“Your Grace,” he tried again, struggling to keep the anger out of his voice, “I’m willing to put in extra shifts, as are some of my shieldmen. It needn’t interfere with our normal duties.”