Chapter 23

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE

I llusion magic was one of my least favourite practises because my useless left hand made some of the more complex casts difficult, meaning more times than not, I ended up frustrated as shit. They may have been easier to cast with two hands, but that didn't mean I was giving up.

"Again," I growled at Galomp who stood opposite me in the triangular courtyard in the Vault of Frost, pushing myself to my feet after being upended by his last attack.

We were occasionally paired up in practical Cardinal Magic classes and I had quickly learned that he was one powerful motherfucker. He cast with such casual ease that it was impossible not to admire the six illusions that stood around him, all in the perfect mimicry of himself. The trick was figuring out which one was the real him.

The courtyard was alive with shouts of attack, Fae clashing as they used illusions to confuse their opponents before landing strikes with their water element. A group of Reapers were moving between the ranks of conscripts, offering out sharp corrections as they went.

We never trained practically with the other nations, and I guess it was in an effort to stop us accidently murdering each other. Or not so accidentally.

Reaper Lily moved toward me, her thin mouth a harsh line and her eyes as cold as winter. "Begin," she instructed me.

Galomp and his illusions moved together into a group, trading places, side-stepping and making my eyes dart left and right as I worked to notice any flaws in his casts. I blasted water at the one lurking behind another, but the illusion fizzled away and was reborn to my right. I whirled away from it, casting water at another, then another, but the water crashed through each one and Galomp remained hidden among his decoys.

"Your hesitation will see you dead on the battlefield," Reaper Lily said simply.

I snarled, sending more and more shots of water out with my good hand, working to make it seem as though I was casting with my left hand too. My concentration was split and the disadvantage was showing with every failure I made.

"She has a head like a hot potato," Galomp said, all of his illusions speaking it at the same time. Damn, he was casting voice illusions too, able to project it with a skill I hadn't mastered during our instructions and all of our practice sessions since.

I blasted water at three more Galomps, failing to find him still as they all reshuffled themselves somehow keeping him hidden.

"What would you do in battle?" Reaper Lily demanded.

Those words struck something inside my head, realisation dawning on me. I was running drills just like I did back in my quarters, acting as if each target was its own opponent, giving them my attention one at a time. But if this was a fight to the death, I knew exactly what I'd do.

Water poured from my hand in a swirling vortex, slamming into all of the Galomps at once and triumph snared me, certainty filling me that I had surely found him now. The illusions all fizzled out in front of me, leaving no Galomps at all, and I stared at the empty space in shock.

"Galomp is behind you," he said and I spun around, finding him laughing in his low chuckling way, his shoulders heaving up and down with every guffaw. "I have been behind you this whole time, Miss Everest."

Reaper Lily shook her head at me then stalked away into the crowd muttering, "She's the next one they'll be scraping off the floor in the corridors."

My blood chilled as I stared after her.

The fact that a Reaper thought so little of me at this point, after all my tireless training was like a punch to the gut. I could defend myself, I'd proved it in these practical sessions time and again. Illusions were still new magic to us and it was hardly fair I be dismissed so easily after one defeat.

"That no-lipped, snake-eyed dick, how dare she?" I hissed to myself. "I can fight. I can kill. I can win. Stupinti tiska." Stupid bitch.

I thought of that naked, rune-covered Stonebreaker in the depths of the Keep wondering if Reaper Lily had been there that night. If more Fae were being tortured in that horrible place, I didn't know how to help the poor bastards. It made me think of Harlon though, fearing the secrets of the Reapers and what they might be doing with their acolytes. What if they were forced to take part in strange rituals like that? Would Harlon stand idly by? I couldn't picture it. That wasn't him.

The death toll in Never Keep had already climbed to twelve, though the Reapers only acknowledged it to say they were still hunting for the culprits. Then it would be a swift and bloody execution, but no killers had been caught as of yet and I had to wonder if any more of the supposedly ‘murdered' Fae had ended up in that awful place under the Keep.

Not enough Raincarvers had died for me to claim a room in the Vault of Frost, but I was growing used to the quiet sanctuary of my quarters, and I might have grown to like it even more had those screams not continued to haunt me in the night. It wasn't my place to question the Reapers on their dealings, but what I'd seen didn't sit right with me. And whatever dark entity had been in that chamber with them had left a sliver of dread in me since.

"You are pacing," Galomp pointed out as I stalked back and forth in front of him, my Order form rising to the surface of my skin and begging to come out.

After I'd shown the Reapers my Leopard Order, I'd been tossed into Order Enhancement sessions with the Relic Leopards despite the fact that I clearly wasn't one of them. They had decided I was a ‘smaller, white version of a Relic Leopard' which sounded a hell of a lot like being called a runt, and I was so fucking tired of being written off as that. I was meant to learn the ways of my Order from my kind so I could use my Order gifts in battle, but when all the Relic Leopards gave you one look and ran off every time you showed up to their meetings in the west wing of the Vault of Frost, you kind of lost motivation to go.

Instead, I'd been doing my own research in the Library of Frost. But the problem was, most of the books there detailed battle tactics and magical study. There weren't many tomes that covered topics outside of those subjects, so I was pretty much left to figure out my Order gifts alone. So far, I'd discovered very little besides from the obvious. I could climb even better than I'd been able to in my Fae form. My fur was so warm that I'd taken to sleeping in my Order form, curled up by the fire, and I had a lot of sharp teeth and claws that could likely do some real damage in a fight. That was…it. And maybe that really was all my Order had to offer. Not every Fae Order held magical gifts, but I'd hoped I'd have at least one that would strengthen me for battle. Perhaps something rare that my father would be forced to take note of and admire. Maybe something he'd praise out loud, regale to his friends, hail from hill to hill. Was a little hailing from hilltops really too much to ask for?

I was re-paired with another Fae for the next round and was glad when I managed to get her on her ass and win the fight. By the time the session was over, I'd won around half of my fights and I was getting better at both spotting illusions and destroying all those in my path. I also didn't forget to check behind me again thanks to Galomp's move. Whenever it had been my turn to cast them, I hadn't done it well at all, but I wasn't going to focus on how bruised my ass felt from being knocked over and forced to yield during those particular brawls.

The sky above had darkened to deepest obsidian, the stars glittering beautifully and making my gaze flit from one sparkle to another in fascination. I let the crowd sweep me inside, my thoughts turning to my favourite pool in the Poseidon Spa, then to that mysterious hidden door Galomp and I had ventured through all those weeks ago.

I'd tried it several times since, but whatever magic held it in place would no longer budge, and I wasn't sure what my plan would have been if it did. I'd not seen any sign of that strange lizard which had led us down into the depths of the isle either, and honestly the whole thing seemed like a fever dream now.

Galomp and I hadn't spent much time together since, and when I'd tried to bring the subject up with him, he just laughed and called it ‘our little adventure' then lumbered off. He hadn't seen the monstrous things that I'd seen, and he wasn't woken in the night by those bloodcurdling screams that carried through the pipes. Even when I cast a silencing shield around me to try and block it out, I'd wake hearing it regardless, my shield having fallen while I slept. My heart would be racing, and I'd often think of Harlon, fearing what had become of him, of what the Reapers might be making him do.

The only thing that kept me calm was the thought that the Reapers wouldn't hurt their own. Multiple elementals were rare and they would be trained well to take up their positions as Reapers. Perhaps I didn't understand what I'd witnessed anyway. The Reapers were guided by the hands of the stars. Maybe what I'd seen wasn't as terrifying as it had appeared. But the knot in my chest told me those were just pretty lies I was trying to sell myself. The truth, I feared, was that Harlon was in trouble.

Despite the longing in my bones for bathing in hot water, I forced my legs to head for the refectory, exiting the Vault of Frost and making my way for something even more tempting. Food.

Since arriving here and claiming three meals a day, I'd lost my scrawny look, my body filling out how it should have. I had real curves to my hips now and my tits had never looked better, but it was the way my ribs didn't have that pokey look anymore that was my favourite thing about this new form of mine. Mama had fed me well enough growing up, but after my sisters had been sent off to war, her Provider stipend had mysteriously dried up. A fact she had tried to hide from me, but I'd overheard Mama begging my father, Commander Rake, to send word to the Magistrine that she still had one last warrior to raise. But the words he had spoken that day were still branded onto my soul.

"If you cannot feed yourself, boil the leech that ails you."

I'd started eating less after that, sliding some of my meal onto Mama's plate whenever she wasn't looking. I didn't want to be anyone's burden.

My father had made enough comments about the government's resources not being wasted that I had put two and two together. He was the reason Mama's stipend had stopped coming. As one of the finest warriors in Cascada, his word held power in the Magistrine. If he had decided I wasn't worth nurturing, then it was done. He had likely thought I'd die on the streets of Castelorain long before I made it to Never Keep, tossed at his feet by his pride and joy, Ransom. Part of why I was still here was definitely down to spite. I might not have had a full stomach back then, but spite was a fuel that knew no bounds. People could do great things in the name of proving assholes wrong.

The refectory was busy this time of night and my eyes roamed warily over the Fae of other elements, moving through the open space with its exposed rafters and grey walls to where a buffet was laid out on a vast wooden table that spanned the length of the room. I grabbed a bowl, piling it up with stew, a couple of bread rolls and a small iced bun before moving to perch at the end of a table claimed by the Raincarvers. They didn't acknowledge me, but it was better than the scowls and wicked sneers thrown my way by the other elementals – expressions which I offered back in kind.

My skin prickled as my gaze landed on North Brimtheon milling by the buffet table with a couple of women. I'd surmised that he was another of The Matriarch's orphans, sharing Kaiser's name, but they were of no real blood relation. I did a quick scout of the area, but Kaiser wasn't in sight, and I shot a glance over my shoulder just in case he was pulling a Galomp.

"Party starts at nine," North said to the pair of Fae who were looking at him like he was something to eat. "Here."

He offered them two plain black masks and a chill raced through me as I recognised those very masks from the night my mother had been killed. North and Kaiser had been wearing them.

"He is coming right?" one of the women asked, taking a mask and shooting a hopeful look at her friend.

"Of course. Kai wouldn't miss one of my world-famous fuck fests," North said with a smirk. "Clothes are optional by the way."

The women only seemed more excited by that prospect and North leaned in, whispering in one of their ears, making her laugh riotously and slap him on the shoulder.

"Where is it?" the other one asked keenly.

"South tower, tenth floor," North said. "Don't be late or someone else might catch my eye. And Kai's an impatient fucker."

"How about the four of us spend some time together when we arrive?" one of the girls purred, running a hand down North's chest.

"Deal," North agreed with a dark grin before heading off down the buffet table, leaving them chattering excitedly together.

My heart pounded a little harder and I shot a silent thanks to Scorpio for setting this up for me. It had to be fate. I had a time and place where Kaiser was going to be tonight. Sure, it would be in the Vault of Embers and sure, I'd be risking serious punishment if I got caught over there – and execution if I pulled off the kill. But maybe the stars were aligning tonight, and as I thought of my mama, I knew I couldn't pass up this opportunity.

A flash of pink in my periphery made me glance back and I noticed the Sky Witch lingering close to the Flamebringers a little further down the buffet table. She stalked right up to the closest woman, plucked the black mask from her back pocket and slipped away again without ever being noticed. Except by me.

As I watched her go, a plan rolled together in my mind, one that was ripe with danger. But that happened to be my favourite kind.

The rooftops of Never Keep were as welcoming as they appeared from the ground. They were made up of sharp tiles that were slanted and slippery as shit. But even with the ice and snow clinging to them, I made quick work across the Vault of Frost in my Order form with the hilt of my dagger clamped between my teeth in its sheath. Then I headed south around the sloping roof of the heart of the Keep and the glass spires of the Galaseum.

I sprang from one place to the next then leapt across to the roof of the Vault of Embers, landing lightly and padding onward on silent paws. My tail swept along behind me, covering my tracks and my claws helped keep me from slipping as I traversed the sloping roofs, paying little notice to the deadly drop on my right that overlooked the snowy land between the Vaults.

I could see well at night with the eyes of my Leopard, picking out every movement in every window I spied in the tower ahead. I raced toward it, reaching the high wall of the south tower and beginning the vertical climb. It was all too easy, my claws finding gaps in the bricks and my body made for this kind of agility as I moved ever higher, counting the floors.

When I made it to the right one, I shimmied around to a window, peering in at the dark corridor beyond to check it was empty. I rested the dagger on the sill, clinging tight to it then shifted back into my Fae form, leaving me naked. I slipped on the ice, losing my footing in the shift and I bit my tongue as I grabbed onto the sill for support.

My heart juddered as I caught myself and heaved myself back into a balanced position, pressing my hand to the glass pane. The crackle of a magical barrier told me my way forward was blocked, but I had something of a plan. I cast a silencing shield around me and the window then let ice spread from my palm, spilling over the glass. Throwing my magic into it, I tried to break it along with the magical barrier.

The glass shattered, pouring inside onto the floor while my silencing shield kept it from being heard. But the magical barrier held firm.

I cursed, reaching my magic toward it and trying to work out the intricacies, needing to unravel it. But I simply didn't have the skill, or at least, I thought I didn't until a twist of magic in my chest and a strange, roiling power slid from me into that barrier and it fizzled out of existence.

"Hia kaské," I exhaled in disbelief, unsure what I had even done to achieve that. But I didn't have a moment to question it, my time here already running dry. I had to get in and out.

I picked up my dagger from the sill, but before I climbed inside, a flash of movement in my periphery made me glance back at the rooftops.

For a moment I could have sworn I saw a glimmer of pink, but all was still. My guard was up though and I waited a few more seconds before climbing inside, careful to avoid the glass on the stone floor.

I slipped behind a statue of Aries by the wall, the ram standing proud with curling horns, then I held my breath and waited. As I suspected, a Fae appeared at the window and my pulse quickened as the Sky Witch climbed inside, leaping over the shattered glass and landing lightly beyond it.

She jogged away down the passage and I twisted the dagger in my grip. My enemies were everywhere tonight, and it looked like at least one of them knew I was here. But she was out of bounds just as I was. And whatever she was after, I doubted it had anything to do with me.

I waited a few more seconds before heading off down the corridor, the warmth of flames carrying through the stone and heating me despite my lack of clothes. The sound of music carried from somewhere close by and as I reached a turn in the corridor, I shot a glance into a large chamber beyond.

It was a grand common room with five roaring fireplaces set into the walls. Black armchairs, chaise lounges and sofas were filled with half naked Fae, all of them dressed for the occasion of North's so-called fuck fest. A few of them were already taking that name literally, one girl splayed out on a couch with two guys feasting between her legs and her moans lost to the classical music filling the air.

Seemingly centre stage at the party, North was spread in a wingback chair in the middle of the room, his chest bare and the tight muscles of his abs revealed as he lazed there watching a group of women dance for him. But my gaze didn't linger on him long, moving to the more imposing creature beside him in a chair of his own.

Kaiser Brimtheon had a formidable look on his face, one arm hanging loose over the side of his chair. His black tunic was long-sleeved and he seemed to be the most clothed person in the room, even his boots in place, done up tight over his dark trousers. He had a look of sin about him, his black eyes moving from one dancing girl to the next like he was seeking out sustenance instead of sex. They were the only two at the party not wearing masks, perhaps their reputation too well known to bother trying to conceal their identities.

A woman in an ebony corset and high heels came sauntering my way and I shrank back behind the doorway. As she stepped out of the room, I lunged. My hand slapped over her mouth and froze her lips shut before she could scream and I sealed her eyes closed so she couldn't look at me. She grabbed hold of my arm and flames burned me, but I didn't let go, gritting my teeth against the pain and forcing her through a door to my left.

We stumbled into a broom closet and I kicked the door shut, sending my water element out in a blast that drenched her and sent her flying to the floor. Then I started to freeze it, her limbs becoming stiff as she shivered beneath me in fear.

I began stripping the clothes from her body before she froze completely, pulling on the black shorts that rode up to reveal a lot of ass cheek before strapping the corset onto myself and cursing as I struggled to do up the laces at my back. I glanced at her high heels and figured fuck that, grabbing her mask and placing it over my face. The burn on my arm was red but it wasn't blistering at least and I ignored the sting of pain in it.

I threw a silencing shield around the woman in case she got the ice to melt around her lips before I was done here and I slipped out the door, sealing the lock with ice too.

I strapped my dagger sheath to my hip as I walked into the party, lifting my chin and acting like I belonged. There were plenty of Flamebringers carrying weapons here, so it would go unnoticed easily enough.

My gaze slipped to Kaiser and I wondered how I was supposed to get this soulless being to go somewhere alone with me. I was acutely aware of the fact that I was standing in a viper's pit about to try and charm the biggest, baddest snake in the room to follow me to its death.

"He's spoken for," a girl with blonde hair sang as she moved to my side. I could only see the bottom half of her face beneath the black mask she wore, her lips painted red and pursed at me.

"By you?" I asked.

"By them," she said, jerking her chin at the four women who were dancing for North and Kaiser. "They fought for the privilege to win their eye in the Courtyard of Embers tonight, weren't you there?"

"I took a nap," I said and the girl breathed a laugh.

"Well it was vicious. One of the women they took out had to go to the Reapers to see if they'd heal her fucked-up arm. It was broken in three places apparently."

"What if North or Kaiser wants someone outside of their group? Don't they get a choice?" I asked.

"North likes them to fight for it, he encourages it," she said. "He says it's his Alpha Werewolf nature."

"And Kaiser?" I asked, mentally taking note of North's Order. Werewolves could be as vicious as they could be cuddly. And I got the feeling North spent far more time in the first category than he did the second.

The girl blew out a breath. "Surely you know what he's like."

"I don't spend a lot of time outside my room," I said. "My father encourages my studies. This is my first party."

"Shit, girl. You need to get out more," she laughed. "I'm Tyrine by the way."

"I'm Ella," I said quickly.

"Well, Ella, Kaiser Brimtheon is not your regular, everyday psycho. And the women he takes to bed come back scorched."

"Scorched?" I whispered.

"Burn marks," she clarified. "They wear them like trophies, it's pretty fucked up if you ask me. Although…I wouldn't say no." She eyed Kaiser appreciatively. "But I don't think his brand of fucking is for the faint of heart."

"My brand of fucking won't be either if I get him to choose me," I said. Because it involves driving a dagger into Kaiser's black heart.

"You really wanna catch his eye?" she asked, intrigued.

It felt strange having a Flamebringer talk to me with ease like that, the guise I wore veiling all lines drawn between us.

"Maybe. What does he like?" I asked.

"Hard to say. He usually just picks one when the moment strikes him. Or two. Or three. Depends what mood he's in."

The woman with the two guys licking her pussy let out a high-pitched moan that said she was coming and a few people cheered. One sweeping glance around the room said the party was starting to descend into something of an orgy. One man was sucking another guy's cock in the chair to my left and his grunts of appreciation were echoed by the moans of two women who were caressing and licking each other's breasts beside them.

North got to his feet, drawing my gaze to him as he stepped into the middle of the dancing women and pulled one towards him by the back of her neck, sinking his tongue between her lips.

Kaiser still seemed unmoved, but with the orgy growing more heated I might not have much more time before he selected someone. Or multiple someones.

My eyes tracked over the cut of his jaw, those demonically perfect features of his, from the deeply etched lines of his cheeks to the heavy set of his eyes. He was a dark kind of temptation for anyone daring enough to try and draw his attention, but I scowled at the allure of his face. I was no prey of his. It didn't matter what he looked like, seducing my mother's murderer made my skin crawl, but I had a job to do and I wasn't going to fail at killing him again. If I had to catch his eye, then I'd find a way to do so.

I started towards him, my pulse thundering in my ears, telling me to stay away from this hollow monster, but there was no turning back now. Before I made it to him, however, one of the dancing girls peeled off from the group and raced in front of me.

She leaned over Kaiser, pointing her ass at me and I was forced to stop and wait while she ran her hand down his chest. Running kisses down the side of his neck, she moved ever lower, and his gaze fell on me as she sank to her knees between his thighs. My jaw tightened and I wondered if I was going to have to stand here while she wrapped her lips around his dick, unsure how to draw his attention away from her before that happened.

She caught hold of his shirt, pushing it up over his abs and I noticed a ring of scars on his side, like some beast had clamped its jaws around him and left its teeth marks there. Her hand lowered, riding over his cock, but Kaiser snatched her arm, forcing her away from him with a movement so sudden that it made my heart jolt.

Fire blazed beneath his palm but the woman moaned instead of whimpered, leaning into him instead of away. And I got the feeling that was a bad, bad idea.

He stood up so abruptly that she was knocked onto her ass and I wasn't remotely prepared as he came striding right for me.

Kaiser Brimtheon was a desolate soul housed within a body built for power. He towered over me and I was consumed by his shadow as he lifted a hand to grip my chin between his forefinger and thumb, jerking my head up to look him in the eye.

"Here or in private?" he asked in his dark, flat tone and I couldn't believe how easily I'd managed to gain that offer from him.

"Private," I answered, adding a husky kind of purr to my voice that spoke of how much I wanted him. Which I did. If wanting him dead counted as wanting him.

He ran the pad of his thumb over my lower lip, his skin so hot it was near molten. His hand dropped to take mine, curling around it possessively and sealing my fate. I let him guide me through the common room towards a spiralling iron stairway that led down through the tower, feeling eyes on me from all around, angry, jealous curses falling from the lips of the women who ached to take my place. But none would claim it after tonight because Kaiser would be left bloody in my wake.

His hand was rough against mine, his touch a sin in itself and I wondered if any woman he desired had ever denied him. But choosing me would be the end of him tonight.

The iron stairway led down several floors and he guided me along it, passing doors where moans and sighs of pleasure carried from beyond. He walked me to the one at the furthest end, away from all the rest and the door opened at his touch, his magical signature allowing him access.

I stepped into the grandest room I had ever entered. An iron railing ringed a firepit at the very centre of it and beyond it, large stained-glass windows rose up at least two floors where Leo, Sagittarius and Aries were depicted in red and amber tones. There was a balcony opposite them where I glimpsed a gothic lounge, but my gaze fell from it to the enormous four poster bed Kaiser was leading me toward.

We were alone now, but his guard likely wasn't down enough for me to strike. I doubted I could defeat him if he brought out his Order again, or if it came to a physical fight. So I had to make sure he was disarmed, caught off guard right before I plunged my dagger into his chest.

"On the bed. Take off your clothes," he commanded, releasing my hand.

"What? No foreplay?" I scolded, unable to bite my tongue. "The great Kaiser Brimtheon doesn't even warm up his women first. Note taken."

He paused, turning back to face me with eyes like two slivers of the night sky. "Most women just say yes sir and get on with it."

"You didn't ask most women to your bed tonight," I said, stepping toward him and hesitantly placing my hand on his chest. His heart thudded hard against my palm, slow and steady, unaffected by me in any way. Mine was the opposite, thundering with the prospect of what was to come, my bloodlust rising and the heat in my skin igniting. "So why did you choose me?"

I glanced up at him through the mask, a shiver of anticipation rolling through me at how close I was to my goal. I had dreamed of this moment so many times and I hoped when my blade ripped into his skin, his eyes were no longer empty, but full of terror for his end. This statue of a man who was so unmoved by the world and all its torturous reality would finally be moved by something. And it would be his death.

"Why?" he mused, something akin to intrigue crossing his features for once. "I fuck to feel something. That's what you'll provide me."

I frowned, sensing a lie in his tone, seeing the truth of him all too starkly in that moment. "No, you don't. You fuck to try and feel something."

His brow creased ever-so-slightly and he stepped closer to me. "Enough," he said blandly then caught my waist and pulled me all too near.

The heat of his skin melded with mine and I felt him everywhere despite the fact he had hardly touched me. But his presence was so thick, I could feel the weight of it in my lungs. I couldn't blink as I took in that face, angled down toward mine, close enough to count the dark eyelashes framing those villainous eyes.

An ounce of fear found me as he loomed over me, his hand sliding up my back, deftly starting to unthread the corset. His mouth came down on mine and my shoulders stiffened, his kiss anything but sweet as he forced my lips apart and took a taste of me while I refused to return the favour, leaving my body thrumming with the touch of him. Fuck. My skin was starved of contact and little shivers ran through my flesh in rivers, awakening to this cruel man instead of flinching.

He tugged my lower lip between his teeth, biting almost hard enough to draw blood, and my hand pressed hard to his chest between us while my other closed around the hilt of my dagger.

"I don't normally kiss the women I bring here," he said against my mouth. "But I'm curious about how far you plan on taking this."

"What do you mean? I want it all. All of you," I said, a little breathless from the taste of a killer on my lips, my heart rioting with fear. I felt too hot, my skin itching with the need to feel more, to have someone caress and kiss and want me. But it would never be him I allowed that privilege. I had just gone too long without skin-on-skin contact. It was instinct, nothing else, and it made me hate him all the deeper for eliciting such sensations from me.

My hand tightened on the dagger as I carefully drew it at my side, my pulse wild as I prepared to strike. To rid him from this world at last and secure my revenge.

"I can taste your fear, silka la vin," he said darkly, and a cold river of dread trailed down my spine at the use of those words. The same thing he had called me in Wandershire.

In a flash, I struck, driving my dagger up, but he shifted left so it stuck in his shoulder instead of his heart. He didn't even flinch, his hands snaring me and throwing me onto the bed with force, making a true kind of terror spill through me. He was on top of me in the next second, my dagger now in his grip, held to my own neck and his powerful weight forcing me down.

Rage crashed through me, tearing me apart at how easily he had disarmed me, how surely I had failed my mama. It ripped through the centre of my being and awoke that mysterious, dark power inside me, making it rise and rise like the roaring of the ocean. It blazed with an intensity that ricocheted through the edges of my skin, a power like no other burning out of me and driving into the hellion on top of me. But nothing happened, he wasn't thrown off of me or impacted in some way that I could tell, though his brows drew down like he had felt something . But whatever it was, it wasn't enough to save me.

"You think I didn't know it was you from the moment you stepped into the room, bare footed and as lost as a lamb in a slaughterhouse?" he snarled, rage flaring in his eyes.

Suddenly it seemed he could feel, and all that lived in him was anger, floods of it twisting his features into the most frightening of expressions. I started punching him, coating my fists in ice, trying to force him off but he pressed the dagger tighter to my throat in warning.

He stared down at me, teeth bared and eyes blazing, then he faltered, a gasp slipping from his lips. His weight left me as he knelt up, my dagger falling from his hand to lay by his knees and he held a hand to his chest, then looked to me in utter confusion.

I lunged for my dagger, grabbing it in my right hand and stabbing it at his chest with savage abandon, but he caught my wrist, crushing it in his grip.

"What did you do to me?" he rasped.

I tried to drive my weapon forward, my fingers tight around the hilt, frost sliding from my palm to rush over the blade and a snarl slipping from my lips. He had to die. I had to finish this.

"What did you do to me?!" he bellowed again and growling started up in the room, his Order gifts spilling into the air and bringing his three blood-red hounds to life.

Fear jarred through me and I could feel Kaiser feeding on it, starting to drain the well of magic in my chest and replenishing his own power reserves. I didn't know what I'd done but the way his aura was snaking into the room and those vicious hounds were drawing closer had me trapped in a vice of terror.

"Out," he said in little more than a whisper, and when I brought up my left hand to strike him, he roared it at me. "Get out!"

He swung me off the bed by my hair, dragging me to the window and hurling it open. I screamed as he launched me out of it, my knees slamming into the roof tiles of the Vault of Embers below the tower and the ice clinging to it sending me slipping away toward a deadly drop.

With a curse, I drove my dagger into a gap between the tiles to stop my fall, willing the ice around me to melt as I tried to get purchase with my feet.

Kaiser stared out from the window, glaring at me for two long seconds, his eyes dark as pitch and filled with all the wild, unbridled fury of a madman. Then he slammed the window shut. Huge icicles broke from the jutting edge of the tower roof far above, sailing toward me at an alarming pace. I raised my right hand, clinging to the dagger with my left and melting them at the last second so icy water splashed over me instead.

I shifted, letting my Order take over, my Leopard body tearing the corset and shorts off of me, but my sheath remained tight around my waist. I snatched the dagger in my jaws then raced away across the rooftops, needing to get back to the Vault of Frost as fast as possible.

The Sky Witch launched herself out of a window ahead of me and screams sounded behind her, her hands coated in blood and her eyes alight with murder.

"He's dead – someone killed him!" a shout came from inside and she glanced at me, grinning wickedly like we shared a secret of death and revelry, before taking off fast across the rooftops, aiming for the Vault of Sky.

My heart thundered as I overtook her, making it to the roof of the Reapers' Quarters then running across it and landing on the tiles of the Vault of Frost. One glance back showed the dark shadow which was the Sky Witch making her way east to the Vault of Sky and I knew she wouldn't speak my name to the Reapers – if she even knew it. Because I would speak hers in kind if she did. But that wouldn't save me from Kaiser's wrath if he decided to offer me up to the prophets of the stars for punishment.