A Promise of Rage and Ruin: Book 2 in the Court of Infinites Series by B.L. Talley

Author:B.L. Talley [Talley, B.L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Independent
Published: 2023-08-30T16:00:00+00:00

42

Renata

I spent my days between training and the pit fights, always moving in one way or another, never allowing myself to stop for one second. Whenever I did, my mind wandered and the torment began.

I couldn’t escape the torment, even in my sleep. My dreams were a stream of nightmares, haunted by Archer’s screams and pleas for mercy—a never-ending mantra. Sweat coated my face, sticking my hair to my clammy skin. I pushed the strands from my eyes, clearing my face and rubbing hard, trying to erase the image of Archer in chains from my memory. She kept calling for me, reminding me she was alive, but every time I reached out for her, arrows pierced my body. Then, as I lay on the floor, blood pooling around me, she was killed. They forced me to watch, over and over each night, as I failed her.

I threw back the covers and dressed in the darkest clothes I could find, which were still too light in my opinion. I needed to figure something out with this, and soon. After running a brush through my hair and tying it back, I caught my reflection in the mirror and scowled at the dark circles forming, offsetting my pale skin. I sighed and left the room.

After eating my breakfast, I was given the summons to meet with my uncle Atlas in an hour. I asked the messenger what for, but they gave no further information. I had half a mind to ignore the summons and skip it entirely, instead going to work on my shadow powers more or workout with Callax and Vallen, but there were questions I wanted to ask and things I wanted to discover about the wards so I might try to leave again.

I still had an hour to kill and everyone else had gone to the arena to train, so I found myself in search of an old friend.

I knocked on the infirmary door, looking for a petite figure. When I spotted her, she was behind a desk, her face buried in a stack of books, her vials and tonics in a variety of bowls around her.

A few of the healers tried to bow as I passed them, but I waved them off. I sat down in the chair across from Camilla and waited for her to notice me. It took her a moment to lift her head from a bowl of some mottled red mixture, her hair frazzled as she stirred meticulously. When her eyes met mine, I smirked at her state and she burst into a grin.

“Lady Orion, what a pleasant surprise,” she said.

“Hello, Camilla.”

“It’s nice to see you up and about and not near death for once.” She prepped a few vials as she divvied up the red liquid. It looked nearly identical to the rhonevane from the fights.

I cocked my head to the side. “What is that?”

“Oh, nothing, just something I was asked to make for a friend.”

A friend…perhaps one who couldn’t see and ran an underground fighting ring.

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