Page 110 of Shadowborne: Reckoning

I frowned, but scanned the message, my blood running cold.

One short message.

Only two scribbled codes indicating a reversal of intent and persons, including a rise in rank.

I was confused, until I read it.

The two females, bound together in service, are to be placed under the Crown’s protection. They should be relieved of all further sacrifice, so that they might retain merit in the eyes of the citizens.

This service stands in full light. You are free to speak of it as the queen’s mercy, for no restraint is placed upon your tongue, nor censure upon honest mention. Let the deed be carried by your brothers-in-arms, an honor guard.

I know you will choose wisely.

I looked at Voski, whose forehead lined with tension.

“If you read it in Shadowfang code—”

“It’s a call for Bren and Akhane to be quietly removed from service and sent home,” I whispered.

He nodded. “But if you use their code… Sir, it’s calling for your assassination. And they’re expecting to kill Kgosi as well.”

My stomach dropped. “And they’re not telling anyone… even the queen.”

Voski blew out a breath and clenched his hands to fists as if he’d hoped I’d see another interpretation.

I didn’t. My heart began to pound again as I read and re-read the message over and over, wishing I could see some other way, just one other purpose for these words that made sense.

But then it hit me. Something Voski couldn’t know…

I cleared my throat, head screaming. It couldn’t be… could it?

“Voski… when you copied this, did you… replicate the handwriting?”

He nodded, his gaze intense. “I traced the paper to get it exactly. Is that significant?”

My heart stopped, then rushed into spasm, threatening to pound out of my chest.

The order was written in the king’s hand.

37. An Uncomfortable Truth

SOUNDTRACK: I Surrender by Hidden Citizens and Sam Tinnesz.

~ DONAVYN ~

I stood in the pasture near the back of the Fyrehold fury stable, in the shade of a tree. My dragon faced me, his fathomless eye fixed in the distance as we awaited Bren’s return with what we hoped would be Ruin’s message to the royals.

No. To the king.

There was a solid sense of that in my heart. I didn’t know the details. I didn’t yet understand it. But I’d seen the proof and now I stood in the quiet, under my wise dragon’s eyes and required myself to accommodate the truth I didn’t want to accept: The man I had served my entire adult life, the ruler I’d forwarded, strengthened, and trusted, was calling for my death. At the hands of the man who’d almost succeeded in destroying my mate.

The betrayal left me breathless.

“It’s strange,” I told Kgosi quietly. “I am… offended. Not because a king moves a pawn into danger. I’ve always accepted that soldiers are sacrificed to the greater good. But this isn’t that. I thought… I thought he was my friend, Kgosi. I thought we trusted each other… I enjoyed that.”

Kgosi rumbled. He’d been very quiet since I joined him. From the moment he’d been close enough to reach, I’d shown him what we learned. Now we stood together and I wasn’t sure what else to say.

My dragon had already been forced to set aside the grief of Ciar’s death, and leave his herd to honor this very man.