Heirs of Bone and Sea by Kay Adams

Author:Kay Adams
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Inimitable Books
Published: 2024-03-05T00:00:00+00:00

As soon as the doors to my private quarters closed behind me, I clawed at the cloak as if it was suffocating me, scratching until the fabric tore beneath my nails. I slipped it over my head and tossed it in the corner, gasping for air that wasn’t enough to replace the panic in my lungs. The king who wanted me dead was hosting us in his own castle, even after the captain—queen—denied and refused and politely turned down his offer..

My chest heaved as I lurched towards the attached bathing room. The room spun around me and my hip rapped against the stone basin. Hands trembling, I fumbled with the tap, yelping when steaming water spouted out instead of cold.

Suddenly hands were dragging me away from the basin, and I crashed to the tiled floor amid a tangle of limbs, swatting aimlessly

“Get off, get off, get off!” I cried.

Evhen’s face swam in front of mine, and I reared back, smacking my hand across her cheek.

She froze.

I froze.

The usual anger didn’t come. The anger that I expected, the anger that defined her. It didn’t come in a verbal or physical lashing. Red splotched over her pale cheek, but she didn’t move to strike back.

“Ow,” she said instead, and the most ridiculous thing happened then.

I laughed.

A panicked, nervous burst of laughter that sounded more like it came out of my nose and stung as badly. She stared at me incredulously as I wheezed, clutching my stomach when a painful stitch formed between my ribs. Tears rolled down my face and manic giggles bounced off the tile. Each echo sent me into another tizzy.

She disentangled herself from me, watching my panic spiral into something hysterical. “Why are you laughing?” she finally asked, eyes wide, as if I had well and truly lost my mind.

Perhaps I had. Perhaps none of this was real. The last few days and weeks were just one horrible nightmare, and I was going to wake up in my bedchamber to the smell of coconut in my coffee and see my lighthouse in the distance and perform another Resurrection.

Thinking about the Resurrection, and everything I had heard my father say in the infirmary, quickly sobered me. Between gasps, I stared at my trembling hands in my lap, the familiar curve of many scars, the slender joints that held so much power. Nothing about this was funny. Nothing about anything was funny.

“Are you all right?” Evhen asked carefully, peering at me like I was a bowstring pulled too taut, ready to snap.

“No, I am not all right,” I said, waving a hand through the air between us. My shoulders shook. “The king wants me dead, you want me dead, my father wants me dead. Is there anyone in this world who doesn’t want me dead?”

The king hadn’t recognized me even though I stood mere feet from him. Would have said all those things if he had known? Would he have seen me as a child or a monster? Or would he

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.