“I didn’t think I’d see you so soon,” he said.
“Surprise.” I banged the doors closed, sealing the two of us inside.
Alone.
Silent, even as the air fizzled and cracked with tension, surrounded by weapons both old and new.
Maces, swords, axes, spears, all of them large and dangerous, some dented and displayed behind glass in their sharpest angles, showing this crater’s history unfold. The jagged hooks and spears pockmarked by the salty sea had slowly morphed along the years, blade by blade, into the broadswords and axes.
Most blades waited on the walls for battle.
No bows.
No daggers.
Hisdaggers.
“How can you freeze people?” I asked, palms fisted so tight, my nails dug into my flesh. The lesser of two pains fighting in me right now.
I didn’t know what he was expecting, but his brows jumped in bewilderment. He took his sweet time placing the sword back onto its ancient place on the wall, as if he delighted in keeping me waiting.
Or he doesn’t want to reveal his secret, my mind whispered.
He turned, hands clasped behind his back, facing me like we were two generals discussing battle tactics.
“Blood,” he said simply. Methodically. “I freeze it in their veins so their limbs can’t move. I can halt it in some parts of the body or throughout, but still keep their heart beating. It’s a grizzly task I don’t enjoy, but a great asset.”
Shivers raced down my hands, but I kept them tense and still. I refused to twitch in front of him. “It didn’t feel cold when you froze me.”
His eyes sparked once more, the glow bluer than ever. “I was very careful to only stop you from attacking me.”
In the state I was in back then, I probably would have cracked that beautiful head of his and saved myself the sorrow of today.
“Are you the only one who can do that?”
“I’m the best at it,” he admitted half-heartedly. “But any good Blood Brotherhood wielder can.”
I nodded. Evie was attacked near the Blood Brotherhood Capital, after all.
“But what happened to the Lost Daughter doesn’t sound like Blood Brotherhood magic,” he said. “From what she described, her friends were simply not all there. That’s not controlling blood. That’s controlling the mind.”
A new wave of terror slithered into my veins. What fresh horror wasthis?
“Explain,” I said, firm voice ricocheting off of the metal and stone.
“The Dragon has suspected Banu and Valuta are controlling the King and Queen,” he said grimly. “I believe him, though we have no proof.”
I exhaled sharply. “The advisors hail from the Northern Clans.”
“The Mountain Clan,” he said, as if trying to divest Solkar’s Reach of any connection with those two banes on Evie’s existence. “Rumors say some can control weaker minds, with ancient scrolls they found when they dug too far deep. If Beren has indeed discovered and deciphered them, he wouldn’t have shared that power with Lioran or Edrin.”
A strong Clan like the Blood Brotherhood ruled by weaker minds was dangerous.
Northern advisors controlling them was deadly.
“And what do you say?” I asked.
“I believe the rumors.” The lines of his face sharpened. “My father also slurred something about the eyes being the access to the mind, not the soul, during one of his many drunken nights. He insisted he’d never heard anything more ridiculous whenmy mother asked about it the next day. I didn’t bother. But I remembered.”
