Blood of Ravens by Jen McIntosh

Author:Jen McIntosh [McIntosh, Jen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781914434020
Publisher: Jen McIntosh

Chapter Twenty-One

It was almost sunrise when Théon joined him at the front, pulling her steel-grey stallion alongside him. She said nothing, but he could feel the tension rolling off her. Sensed the argument brewing. Didn’t bother with tact.

‘You need to train,’ he said. There was a heavy pause. From the corner of his eye, he saw her lips purse and her fingers tighten on the reins. But when she looked at him, it was with the air of someone waiting for the punchline of a badly told joke.

‘You think so?’ she asked, unable to hide the amused irony in her voice.

‘Yes. Kieyin almost killed you, and you wouldn’t have lasted long against that Hunt.’ He didn’t bother to mention that if Kieyin had been intent on killing her, she would be dead already.

She snorted. ‘I would have been fine.’

‘Really?’ he snapped. ‘Then why didn’t you use the Casting?’

‘I told you why.’

‘Bullshit,’ he countered. ‘You didn’t hesitate to rely on the Casting against Kieyin. Why not this time?’

Théon snarled, baring her teeth and a wild, unbroken part of herself. ‘I had to use the Casting against Kieyin, but I didn’t need it against the Darklings. I wanted to feel their lives spill out on the edge of my blade.’

‘And that was your first mistake,’ he insisted. ‘You let your emotions cloud your judgement and almost died as a consequence.’

‘I would have used the Casting before—’

‘Your second mistake,’ he said, continuing as if she hadn’t spoken, ‘was insisting on doing it all yourself. Illyandi is at least as powerful as you, and you’ve not trained her to fight. She’s reliant on you for survival. Worse than that. You’re overconfident, undisciplined and reckless, and one of these days, it’s going to get you both killed.’

It was something that had bothered him since he’d first laid eyes on her. Keriath was the same. They were arrogant, the pair of them. That arrogance was likely to be the end of them. Petulant rage crackled in her eyes, that terrible, eerie light pulsing again. But she swallowed it, nodding in understanding.

‘Alright.’

It was a minor victory, but he savoured it. ‘We’ll need to stop and rest soon, but once you’ve recovered, I want to get an idea of what I’m working with. I don’t want to get caught off guard again.’

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