Page 141 of The Lure of Wolves and Whispers

And he can die just as easily as the rest of us can.

The steel of Saraid’s narrow blade reflects the darkness. The High King shifts in his sleep. I draw in a deep breath and will my shaking hands to steady as I position the needle point of the blade just below his left nostril.

I’m not sure what I expected this moment to be like.

At first, when Wolf told me what he wanted me to do, I thought I’d feel guilt, somehow. That I’d have to wrestle with myself to do this.

There’s no whisper of guilt in my heart now.

This feels like justice.

And I feel like… a Whisperer.

I tilt the blade up into the dark crevice of the High King’snose and risk one last glance back at Cash where he stands at the other side of his father’s bed.

If he’s going to go back on his word, if he’s going to betray me, this is his moment. Talon knows it too—their hand clenches on the hilt of their blade, eyes flickering between Cash and me.

But there’s no blue in Cash’s eyes now—only the cold, stark black of a bottomless, hungry sea, a well so deep there might be no end at all.

He nods.

I turn, draw in a breath, and steady my fingers around the hilt.

One thrust is all it takes—the blade slices cleanly right into the High King’s brain.

He jerks under my hands. The sound that slips from his lips is almost a sigh.

A single trickle of blood oozes out of his nose. I pull the blade back; it comes free easily, and there’s no cut or wound visible on his face.

He could’ve had a stroke in his sleep, for all anyone will be able to tell.

I glance to Talon, now standing guard beside the door. Hovering next to the dead body of the guard as if they expect her to surge back to life, or for someone to come storming in. Talon tilts their head toward Cash, one hand tightening on their sword.

My heart drums, and I look for his sapphire eyes. But Cash is as silent and as still as stone, staring at the corpse that was his father seconds ago.

“Cash?” Old Ones, my heart is racing.

We have to get out of here.

He rips his eyes away from the body.

“I’m fine.” Cash makes a strangled sort of noise in the back of his throat and rubs a hand over his face. “This is what had to happen.”

It is. Iknowit is, in my bones.

“We have to move.” Talon glances down to the dead guard. “Before the gardai realize she’s not outside anymore.”

“You go,” Cash says. “If they come back and find you here, you’re dead.” His eyes sweep over me, lingering. “I can’t save you if I haven’t taken the crown yet. So I need to…” A glimmer sparks in his eyes, cold and bright. “I need to go do that.”

Cash is going to beking.

And with the caoranachs soaring over the city, everyone will soon learn the truth.

That there’s still magic left in the Seven Wells.

That there’s still hope for all of us.

Something dangerously close to—is it longing?—flickers across Cash’s midnight gaze as he looks at me.