Bloodtraitor by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes

Author:Amelia Atwater-Rhodes
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2016-04-12T04:00:00+00:00

“PLEASE.”

Alasdair knew that voice would reverberate in her dreams and nightmares forever.

Shkei, bleeding, broken, begging…and her with a knife near to hand. The trainer had left them alone, because he didn’t believe she would ever do this.

He had made her do the work of hurting Shkei this time. He had assured her it would be worse if he did it, and so she had…

The memory, the thoughts, made her dry-heave.

And Shkei just said, “Please.”

He had given her a weapon.

I can’t.

But she also couldn’t even say the words aloud, because the light was already gone from his eyes. In his mind, he had given himself to the next world already; he did not want to live, not in this place, where he would only be used to hurt others.

He had been so good to her…

She heard Master Gabriel finishing his conversation. He would be back in the room in moments. She only had another second.

“Please.”

She held him close, and balled one hand in his hair to keep him still. She didn’t trust herself to hit the heart with one blow, and wanted to make sure the end was quick, so she held the knife in a tight fist and drew it across his throat as firmly as she could.

The blood seemed to fly at first, as the last few beats of the heart drove it up into the air as if it would soar to freedom…but then it just gurgled, and finally slithered, out and down his skin.

She wasn’t crying. The tears were gone.

There was nothing left as the trainer knelt beside her, took the knife from her hand, and said, “I’ll let you dig the grave.”

—

Alasdair had killed Shkei, and it had been a mercy, but it had broken her. She had given everything for my brother: her freedom, her pride, her soul, and finally the last bit of self she had, because Alasdair Shardae was not a murderer.

Alasdair Shardae could not dig a grave—even a shallow one, which was all she could manage in the frozen ground—and cover her last friend up with earth without even looking up at the sky. It had been the first time she had been allowed outside since she had been sold into that place, but the notion of escape never occurred to her.

Alasdair Shardae was not the one who had returned to the trainer’s arms, after, and let him comfort her. That queen was gone. Only Ashley remained.

“Malachi.”

I woke, shivering, in a serpiente cell.

This prison was quite unlike the one in which my brother had died. It was not even as nice as the one in which I had been born and lived for several years. In fact, it had a decidedly damp smell, and moisture settled into my skin from the dank, musty air. Whatever else one might say about them, at least Midnight’s cells were dry and clean. I doubted this was out of mercy on anyone’s part; Mistress Jeshickah was aware that human diseases spread quickly in poor conditions, and she wanted to maintain her property in good shape.

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