The Blood Marrow by Gabel Kiera Shen

Author:Gabel, Kiera Shen
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Happy Dagger Publishing, LLC
Published: 2023-11-26T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 26

Nothing is the same. Dravkia looks as it always has, but the familiar glow and electric excitement of the city is long gone.

Naveen is recovering slowly in the infirmary. The doctors keep telling us that injuries like his always take time to heal, and he’ll be back with our squad in a few months.

The three of us visit Naveen as often as we can. Jaice spends most mornings with him after breakfast and Crayln and I take the night shifts before dinner. Naveen is still his usual self, but I can tell he’s not pleased with being cooped up in the infirmary all day.

Simu left me photos before he left for a mission. I found the stack in his workshop upon my return along with a hastily written note. The photos capture the ruins and remains of the Kuyang tribes in southeast Imperia. I don’t know what to make of them. In each photo, there’s a body. A dead body.

In his note, he wrote six bone-chilling words.

Do not let him find the others.

I assume he means the rest of the Kuyang, those who escaped from their lands and now take refuge across the continents. How Simu expects me to help keep them hidden, I don’t know.

Ever since our return from the Mangra, the leader has scheduled weekly meetings with me. According to him, it’s to ensure my training is progressing adequately, but I know there’s something more. The leader knows something about the Marrow that he isn’t telling me, that much is clear.

“I trust that your training is coming along well,” the leader says during one of our meetings.

I hate even being in the same room as him.

If he wanted you dead, he would have killed you by now, I remind myself over and over. It’s the only thing keeping me still as I sit across from his desk.

“It’s fine,” I reply.

“I hear you performed well in the Mangra,” he continues, fiddling with the silver rings on his fingers.

I shrug. “I would’ve died without the commander.”

The leader laughs. “And how are your studies?”

“They’re going well,” I say, trying to sound uninterested. “I’ve learned a lot.”

“Miss Wu, I think that’s enough dancing around the real subject of interest,” the leader says, a small smirk growing on his face.

“And what is that?

Suddenly, I become all too aware of the tinted windows and the heavy metal door keeping me trapped inside.

“It has come to my attention that one of my suppliers, Simu Gong, has been snooping into some business that does not concern him,” the leader says, a black puff of smoke erupting from his mouth as he pulls away his cigar. “And that he has decided to share extremely classified information with you. It’s perplexing. So please, enlighten me, Miss Wu.”

“I don’t know what you’re referring to,” I say. “But I can assure you I have only ever traded light conversation with him. Nothing more.”

“Miss Wu,” he says. “One of the first lessons that I hoped you would have learned by now is that lying to me is dangerous.

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