Amaskan's Blood, Raven Oak [read me a book .TXT] 📗

isn’t justice, and it isn’t what we…” Ida swallowed hard and closed her eyes a moment before continuing. “When the others told me what my coward brother couldn’t—that we were to kill the child, I refused. The others attacked me. They said I was a traitor to justice.”

“Did you kill them?”

“Yes, though I had little choice if either of us was to live, and when I returned to my brother with your daughter alive, he… he punished me for my failure to complete the job.”

“He slit your throat.”

“Yes, and he took pleasure in the act. No one leaves the Amaskans, not alive anyway. He grabbed your daughter and tossed me dyin’ in the woods. My own brother abandoned me. And the last thing I saw was his blade to Iliana’s throat. I don’t know how the healers found me, or how they managed to heal such a wound, but I knew I couldn’t return home. I swear to ya, when I set out for Alexander, I didn’t come here with the intent to betray ya, Leon—”

“Then what was your purpose?” He could feel the vein in his temple pulse as his eyes drifted to the four-poster bed in the corner. The sheets were still a jumble of blue fabric, and bile threatened to choke him at the rush of memories that flooded to the forefront of his mind.

She continued talking, her shoulders slumped forward toward her knees. “All I could think about was how my brother killed a child. I fled here to try and make things right, to make up for my role in this. I didn’t know I would fall in love with ya.”

Despite the quaking in his belly, he held himself still as his fingers tried to carve half-moons into the wood of the bedpost. “Get up,” he ordered, and she flinched before rising on trembling legs. “How is Iliana alive?”

“I don’t know.” Leon slapped her with the back of his hand and his ring left a bleeding scratch across her proud cheekbone. “Y-Your Majesty, I swear to ya—”

“Your oaths mean nothing. You betrayed this kingdom. You betrayed me. Get dressed.”

Leon couldn’t risk looking at her, couldn’t risk seeing her clothe herself—an action he’d indulged in many mornings over the past decade. He forced his eyes to look upon her shadow as she gathered her clothing from the floor. It wasn’t as simple as his love for her. His body knew what was before him and urged him forward, but his mind knew better. She was Amaskan—the deadliest of killers. One moment out of his sight, and she could kill him before he’d done more than blink.

While parts of him danced as he listened to her clothing brush against her supple skin, others winced at the thought of her blade in his guts. He caught a glimpse of bare shoulders as she pulled on an undershirt.

Shoulders I kissed in the darkness of night. Breasts I—he halted the thought with the biting of his tongue. His stomach roiled at the thought of touching her now, and her shadow moved to pull leather boots over her feet.

Ida Warhammer knelt before him for a second time. “Why did you return? You had to know doing so would mean your death.”

“I-I couldn’t let ya continue to think on her as dead. When I saw her in the capital, wearing the Order’s garb, I nearly ran my horse to ground to return—”

“Wait. Back up,” he said as he waved a hand at her. “Why was my daughter wearing the garb of the Order?”

His sepier’s mouth twisted, and she tilted her head back to expose her scar to the light that streamed through the window. “If ya wish to finish the job my brother began, I wouldn’t blame ya.”

She didn’t answer his question, nor did she have to. She was Amaskan. His daughter was Amaskan.

For a moment, he was sorely tempted, but here at last was the brave woman he loved. Awaiting her death by his hand. With legs almost too shaky to bear his weight, he stumbled over to where she knelt and touched the scar along her throat. He couldn’t forgive her—not yet. If ever. But use her, he would.

“Does anyone in the Order know you were in Sadai?” he asked.

Ida opened her eyes in confusion. “I’m not sure. It’s possible I was spotted, though I don’t think they knew who I was. Why?”

“I have one last job for you.”

“Ya would trust me enough to—”

Leon shook his head. “No, trust doesn’t even begin to enter this picture. Now listen and listen well, Ida… if that’s even your name. You’re going to return to Sadai for me.” He waited a moment for comprehension to sink in and when it did, her reaction was everything he’d hoped it would be.

He laughed as her eyes sought an escape, an honest laugh that shook him from the belly up, and he retrieved her sword from the chest beside him. When he handed it to her, she fumbled the blade. “Please, kill me if that’s what ya wish, but don’t ask me to go before my brother again—”

King Leon pressed a finger to her lips. “You will go to Sadai and not return until you have my daughter with you. You will return her to me. And if you fail me in this, the Boahim Senate will be the least of your worries, as I will hunt you down like the traitor you are. Don’t fail me.”

“My brother won’t release her. She’s his best Amaskan.”

Inside his chest, a piece of his heart wilted, and he struggled to remain standing as another coughing fit brewed. “Do whatever it takes.”

She handed him another glass of the healer’s brew. “I’m sorry, Leon,” she whispered before disappearing through his bedroom door. Outside, Michael cleared his throat, but King Leon ignored him as his bravado shriveled up and died.

His daughter was alive.

The mug in his hand shook and sloshed liquid across his knees. He had no knowledge of when he’d found