Series: Lords of Rathe Series by Meagan Brandy
Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 93354 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 467(@200wpm)___ 373(@250wpm)___ 311(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 93354 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 467(@200wpm)___ 373(@250wpm)___ 311(@300wpm)
Home.
A piece of paper is the first thing I notice on top of the carpet, and I drop to my knees to grab it, opening the folds.
London,
Despite my efforts, you find yourself closer than you should ever be, so listen to me, young Crow, as it may be your only hope.
You must never go near Rathe U. See this as a warning. Everyone you’ve ever loved will die.
Your G.
I read over the words. And then reread them again. Is this the letter I found all those weeks ago? Why the fuck didn’t I open it?
Who would warn me away?
Who knew I wasn’t really London Crow but Villaina Lacroix?
Flipping it backward, I try to find any other details when his voice catches my attention.
“London?”
I whip around, a different kind of relief washing over me.
“Ben!” I cry out, rushing to where he’s standing, his eyes wide on me. “Oh my god, I’ve missed you!”
I throw my arms out as I run to him, and my best friend smiles wide, ready to accept me in his warm embrace, but then his face falls, the flesh on his throat splitting wide open.
Blood fills the wound before a sharp dagger materializes in front of him. His body falls to the ground and everything moves in slow motion.
Knight appears, his eyes slicing to mine as he swipes the end of his blade along the base of his tongue.
“No…” My legs turn to jelly as I drop to the ground near Ben. “It can’t be real,” I whisper, knowing this is as real as it gets. With shaky hands, I lift his head, gently placing it on my lap. I push my hand over the incision, but blood only slides between my fingers. “Please. No.” Tears fall from my eyes as pain stabs me through the chest and takes hold of my heart, tearing it straight out.
“You took from me. I take from you,” Knight announces, but I can’t. I can’t even fucking look at him.
“Ben!” I shake his body, forcing his eyes to mine. I watch as the hazel eyes I found comfort in, that I felt most at peace and at home, slowly dilate. His pulse weakens against his neck as his body turns limp in my grip. “Ben.” A wail so loud tears through my vocal cords and I taste the faint metallic liquid at the back of my throat. I ease him down, shooting to my feet.
A scream ripples through my body, the sound so loud the earth shakes beneath my feet, and then silence.
My eyes snap up to meet cool, cold-blue ones.
“You killed my best friend.”
Knight lifts his chin. “You killed my sister.”
His words are sharp and true, and if I weren’t so fucking numb, they’d be painful, too.
Because, yes.
I was the daughter of the boogeyman Argent mothers warned their children about, expected to be a monster as he came to be, but the king and queen of my people, of the Stygians, saw me as an innocent little girl.
And then I killed theirs.
I murdered Temperance Deveraux, the princess of Dark Magic.
My then best friend.
My mate’s very own…triplet.
Too many emotions swirl within me, but my brain has shut down, blocking them all out until all that is left…is rage.
Burning, boiling rage.
I get it now, why my father turned on his kind.
It’s too much, cuts too deep, like a blade forged from the bone of a dragon.
That’s when I feel it, my Ethos, born of my bond. As weak and incomplete as it may be, it’s tearing its way to the surface.
Ready for a fight, though it doesn’t yet know our fated is the target.
Knight’s eyes narrow and my mouth curves at the edges.
I don’t call on my new gift.
I become it.
Tears roll down my cheeks in steady streams, but I hardly feel them as a flash of that last day with Temperance slips into my mind, Ben’s lifeless body following.
My head tips to the side, every inch of me tingling with rage and it bleeds into my warning of a whisper. “London’s bridge is falling down…”
And then everything goes black.
Twenty-Nine
To be continued …