Please, please, don’t be there. Holy Four, let me be wrong. Let there be no mark on the wall.
I skid to a halt in the dirty alley, my panicky gaze searching for his mark. But there was only our old one. Nothing new. No sign that Renwell was calling for me.
I heaved a sigh of relief?—
Just as a bag descended over my head, and something hit me hard from behind.
The world went black.
Chapter 36
Kiera
Pain ricochetedin my skull as I slowly opened my eyes.
Black spots swam over my vision. I tried to focus.
Golden hair. A familiar face.
“Maz,” I croaked. “Maz!”
I reached for him, but something held me fast. I groaned, trying to collect my bearings.
I was face down on a long table. Ropes strapped my legs and shoulders to it. I was cold and damp, but clothed. Maz was bare from the waist up, his tattoos on full display.
My eyes rolled, searching the dimly lit room we were in. A cave. Shelves of jars full of murky liquid and floatingthings. A small barrel of fireseeds. Racks of weapons. A familiar whip braided with sharp chunks of glittering sunstone.
Just like his old lair in the palace dungeon.
No. Gods, no.
I whimpered, struggling against the ropes. I stretched my fingers toward Maz’s limp ones.
“Wake up, Maz! Please!” A tear dripped down my nose.
“He can’t hear you.”
I gasped and wrenched my head as far as it would go, peering at the voice near the foot of the table.
Korvin.
He stood with his hands behind his back, watching me with a small smile on his face. His oily black hair hung in strings around his face. Those cold black eyes held no mercy, no emotion other than cruel delight. He, too, was shirtless, sweat dripping from his blood-streaked, muscular torso.
My body started to shake, and his smile grew.
“Don’t worry, princess,” he said, gesturing to the blood on his skin. “It’s not yours. Or his.” He nodded to Maz. “Not yet, anyway.”
I cowered, wordless, helpless, as he sauntered between the tables that held me and Maz. Korvin passed me, stinking of carnage, and fondled the whip that had torn my back years ago.
“I’ve learned a lot since I last saw you,” he murmured. “So many interesting things I want to try out.”
My mind was blank with fear, a stark white canvas, while my heart pumped frantically. More tears slipped silently down my cheeks.
Korvin let the whip’s strands fall back, the sunstone chips clinking together. “I’ve been waiting years to see...”
He approached me again, and I thrashed, desperate to get away.
“Hush now,” he said, his eyes glittering like the sunstone. “You can’t escape.”
