CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
As I continue to prowl toward my father, he smiles as if he couldn’t be less concerned.
“Of course, you’re here for my throne,” he says. “I was just telling my people?—”
“I killed your book.”
His smile slips a little.
“Shredded,” I say. “Stabbed. Dead.The Book of Dark Magicis no more.”
A murmur rises from the group.
My father has stiffened. He was obsessed with that book. For decades, it claimed his mind and his heart and overcame his reason.
He gives a harsh laugh and another dismissive wave of his hand. “So you claim. But stories are only stories. There is no proof of it.”
“If that is what you choose to believe,” I say.
“Where is your keeper?” he asks, seeming to go on the attack now in this war of words we’re having. “Where is your pack? Dead, perhaps?”
I can’t hide my reaction fast enough.
“Or…dying,” he says, his smile returning. He saw the way the keeper had been weakened in the catacombs. My father wanted my heart to break because then the keeper would break.
“Yes,” I say, choosing not to hide the truth. “My keeper is dying. But so is yours.”
It’s a guess, but my father’s expression becomes stony, a wiping clean of his emotions.
“You’ve taken without giving,” I say. “And now you’ve taken too much.”
I’ve reached the dais now, and he doesn’t have a guard to stop me from stepping up onto it. Certainly, none of the leaders or their generals has moved to stop me.
Of course, I’m now at a very real risk of being attacked from behind.
I keep my ears peeled, listening for any hint of movement among the leaders, any jumping heart rates that could indicate ill intentions, as I veer away from my father and continue toward the light magic keeper instead.
I fear her magic, but as for the woman herself…
“Who was she?” I ask, keeping my voice raised, clear for the listeners, as I glance at my father. “Do you even know?”
He scowls at me, but he doesn’t appear so comfortable on his throne. In his hubris, he’s allowed me to get too close to him and he has no backup except this golden-eyed woman whose magic is waning.
James was right about the careful knife.
I remain wary of my father—the possibility that he might lash out at any second, since he’s allowed me so close now—as I step right up to the light magic keeper.
He seems to relax again. “By all means, Daughter. Try to take her power from me. I will enjoy the scent of your burning flesh.”
I don’t know how he captured her or what mechanism he’s using to control her.
I gave my keeper the gift of free will, but it’s clear this woman has none.The Book of Dark Magicmust have shown him what to do, but the emptiness of her eyes…
It’s as if she’s here.
But she also isn’t.
What strikes me most is that she made a choice once—a voluntary choice—to save her world and now she’s paying a new price for it. A price she doesn’t deserve to pay.
