Beneath a Shattered Sky (The Fifth Nicnevin Book 4) by Marie Mistry

Author:Marie Mistry [Mistry, Marie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Marie Mistry
Published: 2024-07-13T00:00:00+00:00

Twenty-Seven

Bricriu

Rose’s scream will probably haunt me for the rest of my immortal life. It nearly deafens me, and my ears flatten against my skull at the pain, but I don’t draw them in.

If my hearing hadn’t picked up the hissing. If I’d been a second later…

“Don’t look.” I pull her away, cradling her head against my chest so she can’t see. “Rose, he wouldn’t want you to see this.”

Drystan curses, and a glance reveals he’s looking over us at the severed head in the closet.

Bram’s eyes are wide in death, and the sun-shaped brand on his forehead is framed by decaying skin. The smell is awful; a mix of rot, decay, and the damp stink of reptile excrement that seeps into the room like a plague, making the back of my throat itch.

I finally manage to pull Rose away, out of sight of the closet. My heart is still pounding. If I’d been just a fraction of a second slower to recognise⁠—

Cutting the thought off savagely, I pass her to Jaro, who cradles her as her breath hitches in a half-sob, and crouch beside the head. Drystan takes the spot on my other side, both of us examining it for clues.

Lox nudges at my mind, and I hold my hand out for him to drop the head of one of the snakes into my palm. With a grumpy caw, he disappears back into my skin as I turn the dark snakehead over in my fingers.

Nathairs. Young ones, given their size, but still deadly.

Someone wanted to sentence our mate to a long, painful death.

Beneath it is an empty chest that must’ve held the snakes, and I pick it up, grimacing. It’s a jewellery box, the kind one might give to a child, and it’s charred and blackened, though Drystan’s fire left the wardrobe untouched.

At the top, in tarnished silver letters, is a single name. Máel.

I drop the box.

“Eero did this.” It’s so out of character for the seelie that I doubted it at first, but this is so targeted—so personal—that it can’t have been anyone else.

“His spies must have reported that she was here,” Drystan mutters, picking up the box I dropped. “And he was making a point.”

“Can I kill him yet?” Lore asks, and there’s a manic kind of glint in his eye as he blinks onto Drystan’s shoulders, swinging his legs. “I have plans to try every single knife I own on him until I find the one that breaks unbreakable skin.”

“Lorcan,” Drystan growls. “Please take Rose and Jaromir to the market to purchase some new clothes. She’ll need them when she reaches the Winter Court. Jaromir, glamour her. They can’t know she saw this.”

It seems callous, to expect her to focus on something as banal as shopping right now, but I understand his reasoning. Letting Eero’s spies see that this has affected her will only put a target on the back of anyone Rose cares for. That knowledge doesn’t stop a part of my soul from shrivelling at the thought of Rose being away from me.

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.