29
Zara
The morning dawned far too quickly. Groggily, I awoke, feeling like I had only slept twenty minutes. Every part of me ached like I’d been beaten—thanks to being knocked down on the hard floor and nearly mauled to death by the undead corpse of Raven. Thank the Earth Mother Talon had come when he did.
With a jolt, I realized Talon was no longer in bed with me. I sat up and groaned in pain—several of my ribs felt bruised.
He appeared by my side immediately. “Are you all right? Don’t move too fast.” He put his hand on my shoulder, steadying me.
“I’m fine,” I said, brushing my thick hair away from my face. “I just feel like I’ve been trampled.”
He put my hair behind my ear for me. “I can’t stand seeing you in pain. Can I bring you something to eat?”
“No,” I said quickly, grabbing hold of his arm at the thought of staying in this horrible room alone, “please don’t leave. I can get something to eat later.”
“Of course I won’t leave, then,” he said, his gaze intent on mine. “Whatever you need. I do need to speak with the emperorsoon, though. I want to try one more time to get through to him about Ozul.”
At the mention of Emperor Altair, I bit my lip, remembering what I had seen and overheard. The truth about Altair and his father. “Talon,” I said, my breath hitching at the prospect of telling him, “there’s something you should know. About Altair.”
His brows furrowed. “What do you mean?”
I took a deep breath to try to steady myself, but the shaky feeling remained. I wasn’t sure if it was from what I was about to tell him, or from the giddy sensation left over from kissing him the night before. “The night I overheard Altair and Lord Heron talking, the Devourer showed horrible things from Altair’s life to torture him. I witnessed a terrible beating from his father, and I could only imagine the misery and trauma he went through, so it almost made sense that he would…” I paused, suddenly afraid to go on.
Talon touched my cheek, his hand warm. “It’s all right. You can tell me.”
“Altair had been through so much with his father—he’d nearly been whipped to death. His back was like raw meat. I really think it was only a matter of time before the emperor did kill Altair. But one night,” I said, my voice barely above a whisper, “Altair went to his father’s room, and he stabbed him to death with a dagger.”
The muscles in Talon’s neck and arms became rigid, and his eyes widened as he seemed to slowly digest my words. Pain flashed over his face. He shook his head before finally saying, “I should have known he hadn’t been killed in battle. The nobles—Lord Heron in particular—must have seen the value in having a young, malleable emperor on the throne. One they could control. One who wanted to expand trade rather than endlessly warmonger. They had to have helped him cover it up.”
“Do you blame Altair?” I asked. “The things I saw…”
“No, I understand why he was pushed to that point. But taking a life like that, especially your own father…it has consequences.”
I thought of the way Altair still spoke to his father as though he were alive. No wonder he was so tortured by the ghost of his memory.
“So this is how he let in such a creature,” Talon said thoughtfully, his tone somber.
“It’s truly evil,” I agreed, glancing down at my injured arms. “We need to destroy it as soon as possible.” I threw the covers off and got out of bed. “I should get dressed.”
His gaze swept over me as I stood beside the bed, still in my nightgown. Flames of desire lit in his eyes, making my stomach flip.
I stared at his beautiful face, my gaze dropping to his lips, as warmth spread through my body. I very much wanted to get back in bed and continue what we had been doing, but I also knew it wasn’t the time. By the way he kept zeroing in on my mouth, I knew he was thinking the same thing. After last night’s attack, though, we needed to do whatever it took to destroy Ozul—before it killed me first.
I broke eye contact and took a shuddering breath. It seemed to break whatever spell I had over Talon, because he cleared his throat and said, “Before I came to your room last night, I spoke with Baz, Zamir, and Kestrel. They have agreed to help us in our mission to destroy Ozul.”
I tried to hide my dismay, but…only three? Though they were absolutely the most trustworthy—even Shazeera had said so. “How many servants have gone missing? How many more walking corpses does the Devourer have to send as assassins?”
“At least thirty,” he said grimly.
My jaw dropped.Thirty?This was so much more than the seven I had expected. I felt suddenly lightheaded. So that meant five against thirty, plus the Devourer’s unknown abilities. This was beginning to sound like a suicide mission, but then again, what choice did we have?
“We have to find the spy today,” I said. “They could have critical information about the Devourer that we should know before confronting it.”
“That’s easier said than done, I’m afraid. There’s a reason this spy has gone undetected for so long. For one thing, the emperor is always surrounded by servants.” Something he said must have triggered a memory, because he suddenly looked thoughtful.
“What is it?”
“It could be nothing, but in thinking about the servants attending the emperor, I remember an instance of someone acting strangely. Shortly after the head steward told me about the missing, we entered the emperor’s rooms and found a servant carrying Altair’s journal. The head steward confronted the man about it, of course, and it turned out that Altair had asked him to retrieve it, but the whole thing seemed a little strange.
