His expression was stony, but warmth shone from his eyes, and I knew it was for me. My fingers itched to hug him.
I contented myself with the knowledge I’d see him later. He was mine now, and while few others knew it, I did, and it was enough for me.
I tore my attention away from him and to the dais and the king, duke, earl, and his sons. Sitting on his throne, Ivan looked irritated while he surveyed the room.
The duke sat beside him with an empty chair to his left. I didn’t know if that was where his fiancée was supposed to sit, but she wasn’t there now.
Three empty chairs sat on the other side of the king. The earl and his sons stood before them.
Before the dais, dozens upon dozens of immortals knelt with their hands and feet chained behind their backs. Blood pooled around their knees, and their flayed flesh hung in strips from their backs.
My hand almost flew to my mouth, but I stopped myself in time. I couldn’t show sympathy or despair for these amsirah; the men on the stage would eat me alive if I did.
I gulped as I tore my attention away from the captured rebels. I couldn’t look at them again.
What they’d done was foolish, and my mother was dead because of it, but what they would suffer because of it was a fate no one should endure. Ryker once shared their fate and bore the scars to prove it, but he’d survived. They would not.
“Get your dead and get out!” the earl barked.
His words echoed around the room, and some of those amid the dead jumped a little. My pace increased toward the row of bodies, even as I yearned to turn and flee.
“Lovely man,” Mr. Fletcher muttered.
I carried the front of the coffin as we made our way through the first row of bodies. We passed a sobbing woman and herdaughter as another woman and a man carried a coffin past us. The child looked up at me with frightened, tear-filled eyes that tugged at my heart.
That little girl no longer had a father; I knew how she felt. But more than that, this innocent child would be more vulnerable to the future horrors that would descend on Tempest… and there would be more of them.
Ivan and the nobles weren’t done playing with us. They never would be… unless we defeated them.
What Ryker and I planned would cause more trouble in Tempest, but if we didn’t do something, the suffering would be worse for all those trapped here. There might be more rebellions like this one; if there were, they would only succeed in destroying more of those who could help us.
CHAPTER SIXTY-EIGHT
Ellery
We were halfwaythrough the second row of dead when I spotted my mother. My steps faltered, my legs trembled, and I almost sank to the floor.
Instead, I stood there, unable to move, as I gazed at her ruined body with a bloody hole in the center of her chest, where her heart used to be. Whoever carried her here had positioned her with her hands on her belly and her heart in them.
My hands shook so badly that the coffin tilted precariously to the side. It started to slump toward the floor when someone caught it.
Tears burned my eyes when I looked into the handsome face of a man I didn’t recognize. He’d brushed his light brown hair neatly back from his face, and his golden-brown eyes shone with kindness when they surveyed me.
At around six foot four, the man was Ryker’s height but much leaner in build. Stubble lined his narrow face and high cheekbones.
“It’s okay, milady, I’ve got it,” he said quietly.
Unable to hold it anymore, I released the coffin to him, and he bent to set it on the ground. Behind him, Mr. Fletcher did the same before opening the top.
When I bent to grasp my mother’s shoulders, Mr. Fletcher rested his hand on my arm to stop me. “Let me do it.”
“You can’t get her in there by yourself.”
“I can.”
“I’ll help,” the other man offered.
“That would be kind of you,” Mr. Fletcher said.
