Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 92612 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 463(@200wpm)___ 370(@250wpm)___ 309(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92612 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 463(@200wpm)___ 370(@250wpm)___ 309(@300wpm)
Valen lowers his chin, utterly cool and undisturbed.
“And what of Whitbine?” Gregor settles back in his throne and picks at a sore on his cheek.
“He was the traitor, High Lord. Conspiring with Corvidion rebels—” Valen cuts a deadly look toward Coal. “—and feeding information to the enemy. Now that he is gone, we’ll be able to crush the humans beneath our heel.”
“You killed him yourself?” Gregor asks.
“I did.”
“My spies told me it was quite the brutal scene.” Gregor grins, his sunken cheeks clinging to his teeth.
“He deserved far worse for his betrayal, High Lord.”
“Indeed. You should’ve brought him before me!” He flicks some of the blood from his wound onto the floor.
A memory chases through my mind, blood on white marble. On this white marble. Someone screaming my name. Pain erupts in my forehead as Gregor continues, “But it is rather curious how you managed to catch him. After all, you never informed me of his traitorous leanings.”
“I acted on information from my human spy. If I hadn’t, then even more critical plans would’ve been in enemy hands.”
“You acted because you trust the humans?” Gregor asks, his tone turning sly.
“Of course not, but my contact is firmly under my control. He doesn’t breathe unless I compel him to do so.” Valen is clinical, direct. No emotion passes through him except the slightest hint of boredom.
“Easy, is it not?” Gregor says airily, his demeanor spinning like a weathervane during a tornado. “To bend them to our will. They’re nothing more than animals, ripe for slaughter.” He presses his claw so deeply into the wound on his cheek that the tip of it appears inside his mouth. “And this delectable animal here. Where are my answers, Valen? What happened to my son?” he hisses, his eyes narrowing.
“Whitbine tampered with her mind at every opportunity, compelling her to misremember details, forget events, and any number of tricks in an attempt to cover his tracks. He programmed her to lie and lie and lie.”
Gregor leans forward, his eyes almost glowing. “You believe Whitbine had something to do with Theo’s death?”
“I have no doubt of it. The only person who can tell us what happened to Theo is this human. She’s the key. I expect to have the answers from her soon, now that Whitbine is no longer tampering with her mind.”
“Bring her to me,” Gregor commands.
Valen takes my arm and pulls me around the desk until I’m standing beside Gregor’s throne, then pushes me to my knees.
“A pretty one. Still a pretty one.” Gregor traces a claw along my cheek. “Why didn’t I keep you?” He actually seems confused, his pale brows drawing together. Then his eyes snap back to me. With a quick movement he slices his wrist, then presses it to my mouth.
His bitter blood flows across my tongue, and I gag. Valen grabs my hair in a vicious grip, then puts his other hand at my throat, massaging it until I’m forced to swallow.
Gregor grins, his tongue darting out to wet his pale lips. “Now, girl, tell me what happened to Theo.”
Gregor’s blood isn’t Tantun, but it’s poison all the same. I writhe against Valen’s hold as it scorches through me. And when the words, “I don’t know” pour from me, I feel it burning like lava in my veins.
“Tell me what happened to my son!” Gregor screams in my face, black blood oozing from his sores.
“I don’t know,” I wail, the pain rising as I burn from the inside out.
“Pah!” Gregor shoves me back. “Useless human!”
Valen drags me away, hauling me around the desk and placing me on my knees.
“She is playing games. A student of her sister, I see. The same. All of them, all humans the same. Mud-dwellers crawling on their bellies.” He gnashes his teeth, his crazed eyes on me. “And you, are you enjoying your time at the Dragonis home?”
“No.” The truth burns through me.
Gregor cackles, amusement draping over him like cobwebs. “I should think not.”
“Surely there’s something within those walls you like?”
“I liked Melody until you murdered her.”
His face contorts into a black grin. “We danced, you and I. Waltzed right past her corpse. I should’ve fucked you on it.” His voice rises. “Tell me who killed my son!”
I try to answer him, to give him what he wants. My blood demands it. But I can’t. I can do nothing but suffer through the axe that’s splitting my skull as I scream, “I don’t know!”
Carlotta clucks her tongue and walks to me, the click of her heels like gunshots in my pounding head. “Whitbine was this powerful, was he? I didn’t realize he was of Gregor’s direct line.”
“He was not,” Gregor cries.
“Oh.” Carlotta feigns surprise. “Is that right? Hmm, it certainly seems that he had great power over this human, tampering with her mind so completely.” She bends down, her eyes level with mine, her white hair falling like a curtain over one shoulder. “To ruin her so fully.” Her gaze rises to Valen. “I would’ve thought it would require a pureblood Dragonis—” She smirks “—or someone close to it, to do such damage.”