Shadows and Lies (Cursed Kingdoms Book 2) by Deanna Ortega

Author:Deanna Ortega [Ortega, Deanna]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-08-30T16:00:00+00:00

Somehow, it seemed wrong that Jane wasn’t present to see how Kaleb was positively thriving.

I should have asked Tessa for more specifics before running out to find him, but I didn’t expect the encampment stationed outside.

Low burning fires lined the outskirts of the property. Raised tents spanned the acres, cobbled together with flower-dotted bed sheets and rotted branches. The hundreds of people milling about with weapons, baskets of produce, and bundles of linens were most jarring, though. The farmlands had been emptied after the riots claimed too many lives. The fields long sat empty, gaining the Barrens as its new moniker.

But now…what?

Tessa called it a rebellion. And for once in my lifetime, the people of Lunasa actually looked to have a purpose. They weren’t scrambling or fighting for scraps. They weren’t lounging around wasting away. Most of them looked well-fed, losing the pallor they’d gained from bunkering inside of ill-cleaned taverns and dance bars.

There were children lunging about, too, with whittled swords and staffs, passing out rations and supplies.

My head was on a constant swivel looking for Kaleb, or even the giant, retired assassin who shouldn’t have been easy to miss.

Each commoner I asked to point me in his direction raised my temper with their hushed amusement at my confusion.

At first, I didn’t recognize the child.

Kaleb was in the field, beyond the back porch. The mountains framed his larger silhouette and that of his sparring partner, who was three times the boy’s size and not going easy on him based on the grunts of exertion and pressure behind each blow.

The boy held one of Lux’s obsidian short swords—and though it was no longer than my forearm, it looked massive in his hands.

Though only a few days had passed since I last saw him, the boy sprouted almost a foot and piled on several inches of muscle.

He parried as an armored man lunged for him, and while the man towered several feet over him and certainly years of training, Kaleb moved quicker. The boy ducked under the man’s arm.

Metal shrieked as Kaleb stabbed at the man’s iron-lined fighting leathers, and the boy hooted.

His mistake was the celebration. He tossed the sword down and leaped in the air while a wide, proud smile stretched across his face.

Kaleb didn’t see the red tinge the man’s face took on. He missed how a vein throbbed in his trainer’s neck as he spun on the boy.

I saw it, though, and I was already moving.

The man’s hand lashed out toward Kaleb’s head, and I swept forward. My hand snapped down into the man’s wrist, and a cracking sounded as the delicate bones fractured.

The asshole screamed, gripping his arm to his chest while his weapon fell away, and I knocked him aside with my shoulder, already kicking Kaleb’s sword up with my boot.

Kaleb finally turned as his blade’s hilt landed lengthwise against my palm. His wide eyes seemed too large for the new, stronger angles of his face.

“Never turn away from an opponent,” I kept my voice even—though all I could think of was Jane’s face when she told me of Kaleb’s near death.

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