The Lady by the Lake (A Throne of Pearls and Bones Book 2) by Macdonald Katherine

Author:Macdonald, Katherine
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: anonymous
Published: 2023-11-25T00:00:00+00:00

We walk back through the forest only a few inches apart, our hands almost touching.

“I won’t say it can never happen again,” I tell him, avoiding his eyes, “I probably should, but I will not. I like to limit the lies between us.”

“As do I,” he admits.

“I won’t say it meant nothing, either,” I tell him. “It meant something, but—”

“Nothing has changed?”

I pause, looking down at my feet. Things between us are always changing. It feels like I am rolling down a hill, picking up speed, falling over a cliff. Going down, down, closer to the water.

But I’m still me, Brianna, heir to the throne. I can’t throw myself at the mercy of my feelings and be with a part-fey thief. I won’t attempt to have a fling with him. I think it would only make it worse for us both, would make it harder and harder to separate when the time comes.

And it will come.

“If I liked you less, I’d be more willing to risk it,” I tell him. “But it will only hurt us in the end.”

I start to move again, but his hand catches mine. “I like you more,” he says, “and I am willing to risk it.”

I turn to face him, smiling weakly. “We can’t,” I say, “and I think you know it, too. Somewhere.”

“Celeste…”

“Honestly, it’s for the best,” I tell him brightly, swinging my arm away from his in a way I hope is casual. I walk on ahead, glancing back. “I know I seem like a gorgeous, sophisticated goddess, but I promise you in real life, I’m a hideous troglodyte of a woman more likely to quack at a boy she likes than talk to him.”

At least one of those things is true, and he half laughs, half frowns in response. “Is that a common thing that women do?”

“Oh, I quack at everyone. All the time. Occasionally neigh. Maybe oink. Just for variety’s sake.”

He laughs properly then, and the awkwardness dispels.

The screaming begins a few seconds later.

Without a second’s pause, we race towards the noise, arriving moments later in another glade. Kron is standing over something. Something red and black and shredded, almost beyond recognition.

Almost. Not quite.

It’s Ashriver, but he looks like he’s been torn apart, his limbs held in place only by the remnants of his clothes. Gashes have ripped through his face. Blood paints the glade, covering the ground, dripping from the trees.

Red Wolf gasps. “What… what happened?”

My boots crunch against a jet black feather. The glade is littered with them. Was something else possessed? I’ve never seen a Blighted creature do this before, but then I’ve never seen a source like the one we’ve just witnessed. Who knows what it could do?

“We were separated,” Kron says, not looking away from the bloody pile that was once his friend. “When I found him, he was already, he was… what did this?”

No one has the answer for that.

“Three hundred years, he was my friend,” Kron continues. “Three hundred years, we walked this world together.

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.