He extended his head toward me, offering something white and circular, the size of my thumbnail.
“A bone coin.” Dread unfurled along my spine, and a shiver tracked through me as I took it from him. “Did you kill a Liege or find this somewhere?” How could something like this be lying around?
He cocked his head first one way then the other, watching me.
I wasn’t sure I wanted the coin. Most riders collected them after killing a Liege. I’d never agreed they were tokens of luck, though I’d taken them from the Lieges I killed. My other threemust be among my belongings Vexxion packed before we left his estate.
The leathers I’d worn to travel to the castle had been cleaned and hung in the closet. Finding my three bone coins still in the pocket, I added the fourth. Since I was nearly late, I’d figure out what to do with them later. Bury them or burn them, but I wouldn’t collect them any longer.
I flitted to the door outside Brenna’s suite with Drask bobbing on my shoulder. One of the guards let me inside, where I found Delaine and Reyla hadn’t yet arrived.
Brenna sat on her bed, tears trickling down her ruddy cheeks.
I stood in the doorway, wondering if I should make a noise to announce my arrival or wait in the living area to enter with the others.
She looked up and her gaze met mine, deciding this for me. “Tempest.”
“Are you well?”
“I . . . am not.”
“I’m sorry.
“So am I.”
I stepped toward her. “Can I get you anything, my lady?” I still wasn’t sure what to call her. I’d do this job because it was assigned to me, then train in between as much as I could, but in all honesty, I was here to kill her future husband and flee the castle. She might call for my head once I did it. I liked my head. I intended to keep it.
“No.” She wiped her cheeks. “There’s nothing anyone can do for me now.”
Why now in particular?
“Would you like to bathe? I could get the tub ready.”
“Yes. Do that for me.”
She slid off the bed and followed me into the bathing area, watching as I started the water and added a perfume that not only filled the room with a sweet scent, it created bubbles across the surface.
Should I light candles? Find her a rose? Vexxion pampered me all the time, while this woman . . . She must think the king adored her. If I told her what might soon happen, would she believe me? If I could tell her something that would make her run, I could save her life and delay this long enough to give me more time to build the skills I’d need to kill him.
“Do you want to bathe with your hair up or do you want me to wash it?” I asked.
“Up.”
I bound it with a strand of fabric, making sure I didn’t miss any tendrils.
“What’s that?” I pointed to a swirling mark on her wrist I just now noticed. I’d swear it wasn’t there earlier.
Lifting her hand, she shifted her wrist in the sunlight, staring at the mark. “I don’t know. I probably laid on my arm wrong when I napped.”
It looked more like a deliberate pattern to me than a crease from her clothing, but what did I know?
“Why is that crow with you all the time?” she asked, her hand twitching back down to her side.
“I found him wounded near the border fortress where I grew up.”
“That’s right. You were a rider. A dragon trainer.” She shuddered. “Honestly, I’m not eager to get close to dragons, though I flew on one to reach Bledmire Castle. They’re so big. They blast fire. And Madrood, Ivenrail’s dragon, is the scariest one of all. He watches me.”
“Stay away from him.”
