Total pages in book: 141
Estimated words: 136009 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 680(@200wpm)___ 544(@250wpm)___ 453(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 136009 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 680(@200wpm)___ 544(@250wpm)___ 453(@300wpm)
“Gods,” Kerrigan whispered, hiding behind the shrubbery she had taken cover under. She couldn’t hear what was being said, but she could read the body language.
Roake sidled up to Audria and gave her a long, lingering kiss. Audria shook her head at whatever he said next. She gestured to the horizon as if she was informing him of her watch. He was clearly insinuating something else. Audria stood, and what looked like a small argument took place. Eventually Roake put his hands out conciliatorily and stomped back to his tent.
Guess he’d been expecting some action. Good. Audria’s refusal bolstered Kerrigan’s confidence in her. Still…
Roake would be up for a while after that argument. He’d always been the type to stew. Eventually Audria returned to her feet, double-checked that everyone was sleeping, and began to pace the perimeter. Their signal to begin.
It’s time.
Kerrigan slipped lower into the valley, heading toward Audria. It was a few minutes until they were far enough away from the rest of the camp for Kerrigan to approach her. Audria glanced around as if she were unsure the conversation with Kerrigan days ago had actually happened.
Kerrigan grinned, reaching out and grasping Audria on the arm and yanking her away. Audria gasped. Kerrigan put her hand over her mouth, jerking her back to Kerrigan’s front.
“It’s me,” she hissed.
“Oh gods,” Audria said. “I didn’t know if you were going to come.”
“You did good,” Kerrigan said. She released Audria, getting her first look at her. She looked haggard compared to her perfect prim-and-proper self. “What was the argument with Roake?”
Audria flushed. “He wanted to use our time alone…”
“Ah,” Kerrigan said. “And the scholar?”
Audria gestured to the camp. “In the middle. I don’t know how we’re going to get past all the guards.”
“Leave that to me.”
A sharp laugh sounded behind them, and then a sword was leveled at Kerrigan’s neck. “Release my girlfriend.”
Roake appeared out of the darkness.
Chapter Nineteen
The Diversion
“Hello, Roake,” Kerrigan said.
She tugged Audria back against her, putting her in between the sword and Kerrigan’s throat. She treated Audria as if she were in fact a prisoner. That was an easier explanation than defector, traitor. She didn’t want him to think that—not yet at least.
“Roake, no,” Audria said. “How…”
“How?” he snarled. “You forget that I trained with you both for the year of dragon training. I was part of the team.”
“We didn’t forget,” Kerrigan said, “but we certainly would have liked to.”
His face screwed up with a mix of fury and hurt. Ironic, considering he’d been the one to double-cross their team. A hidden Red Mask in their midst who turned on them all in the middle of a battle in which he should have been at their back.
“You don’t know anything,” Roake said. “I had to.”
“Had to?” Kerrigan asked with a gasped laugh. “Are you kidding me? You had to be a Red Mask? You had to turn against your team? You had to defect?”
“Defect? I stayed with the Society. I stayed with my people. You were the one always running off and causing riots and giving political speeches. You should have just stayed in your lane.”
“Well, that’s rich. I should have just let the Society, the Red Masks, and Bastian slaughter his dissenters and all the humans and half-Fae? That’s what I should have done?” she demanded, her fury a living creature in her chest. “Be more like you?”
He flinched at her words. “We didn’t kill everyone.”
“No, not everyone. You need to keep your enemy close, a reminder of what could happen to others who disobey. But people are still disagreeing with the Society, aren’t they? People aren’t just falling into line like you hoped.”
A spark of surprise lit on his face. “How did you know?” His gaze shifted to Audria. “Did you?”
“As if the houses aren’t speaking among themselves? As if I don’t have ears, however faintly pointed they are, that can tell me that things aren’t going so well for Bastian and his little coup?” Her eyes flicked down his front and back up. “Not going so well for you either. Had to get Audria here out of prison and have her attached to your hip before she would ever consider taking your traitorous ass to bed.”
“Kerrigan!” Audria gasped.
Roake snarled and thrust his sword forward, but there was nowhere for it to go. He would have to kill Audria to get to Kerrigan, and they both knew he would never do that.
“Stop!” Audria gasped.
“Yeah, stop, Roake,” Kerrigan taunted. “It wasn’t enough that they murdered Helly in front of us, stripped away my magic, and imprisoned Audria. What more do they have to do before you realize that you’re on the wrong side?”
Kerrigan needed to keep him talking. He had always been easy to rile, but the last thing she wanted was for him to pay more attention to what was happening in the valley than what was right in front of his face.