Chaos Queen 01: Duskfall by Christopher B. Husberg

Author:Christopher B. Husberg [Husberg, Christopher B.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fantasy
ISBN: 9781783299164
Publisher: Titan Books (US, CA)
Published: 2016-06-21T07:00:00+00:00

27

Oden tunnels, Navone

WINTER AWOKE TO THE sound of men talking and the loud, painful echoes in her own head.

She opened her eyes, but quickly shut them again. Everything was so bright. Light thrust spears of pain through her eyes. Winter lay there for a moment, eyelids squeezed together, breathing deeply. With an effort she tried to sit up, then gasped and fell back.

Her whole body ached. Every muscle in her body felt like a tenderized deepfish before the yearly fish fry in Pranna.

She moaned, but the sound came out more of a gasp. And, in that moment, as the pain coursed through her with all the fire of faltira, she remembered. Navone. Knot. Frost. The violence.

Murderer.

Winter did not know if the voice was her own or something else entirely, but it rocked her soul and shook her very bones.

Murderer, the voice whispered. And suddenly Winter was there, in the Circle Square, watching people die all around her.

You did not watch.

Winter gasped, trying to sit up again. She had to get up, she had to move. She couldn’t stay here, alone with the voice. She had carried a dull, aching guilt from what happened in the alleyway in Cineste, but after her conversation with Kali, that guilt had faded. Now, a new, very different guilt flooded through her, smothered her. And, this time, she knew she deserved every bit of it.

You will never be the same.

Winter cried out as the pain from her muscles and her head paled to this new, visceral agony. A frost crystal could make the pain go away. She wished she had one more than anything on the Sfaera. If only for a moment, it would be worth it.

Knot.

Where is he? Winter opened her eyes again, slowly, ignoring the pain. The only light, she realized—the light that exploding across her vision—was that of a small fire near her. She was indoors, in some kind of cave. The fire burned in a crude mantle, cut roughly from the rock around it. The fire’s heat kissed her body, and again she ached for frost.

Winter’s mind was foggy. She craned her neck, looking away from the fire, and discerned shapes in the distance, illuminated by torchlight. She almost succeeded in sitting up, the muscles in her back, neck, and abdomen straining. She had barely raised her head when pain overwhelmed her and she fell back again. Her eyes burned with the sharp threat of tears. I’m stronger than this. I don’t need tears anymore.

Winter squinted at the shapes. Two of them seemed to be talking to each other; she could hear their voices incoherently above the ringing in her ears.

Kali and Nash. They had found her. She strained to hear what they were saying.

“They made it through the gate this morning. I am sure of it.”

“Eward was with them? He has a tendency to do what he pleases.”

“I know. But he was with them, as was Father, and Mother, and the rest of the children, and Olan. Only you, Kovac, and I remain in the city.

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