Page 36 of The Crown’s Temptation

He pulled away and straightened his cuffs.

"No. I will not leave Sadie," she says firmly. "No matter what state her--"

He laughs before she can finish. "You know, today you have taught me something, sweet Ivy."

"Yes, Father?"

"I have realized that you are all I need." He points. "But I have spoiled you. I have made you think you are more powerful than you are."

He raises his hand, the tips of his fingers turning gray and then black.

The sound comes first. Then the ground moves. Then the tower folds in on itself and goes up in flame.

Nox screams until there was nothing left in her to scream with. He turned her into his chest and held her there and kissed the top of her head.

"Sweet Ivanoxa. I have always favored you. I would like to keep you as my wife. You remind me so much of your mother."

I want to vomit. I do not know what to do, I do not know if I run toward the tower or if I stay and watch this twisted interaction or if I run away from it all.

I cannot help it. I am already running toward the tower.

The doors are heavy and I hit them before I have fully reached them, throwing my lightcraft ahead of me, and they do not open. I hit them again. I press everything I have against them and the wood shudders and holds and I can hear them inside, I can hear movement and voices and I cannot get through.

Behind me I hear Nox scream.

The ground moves before the sound does. A low grinding that becomes a roar that becomes everything at once. I throw myself against the doors and they give this time, finally give, and I am inside and the ceiling is coming down in great slabs and dust is everywhere and I cannot see and I cannot breathe and I am screaming their names into the dark and nothing comes back.

Something hits my shoulder. My knee. My head.

Then a hand.

An arm around my shoulders, pulling me upright, pulling me out of the dark and the dust and the ruin of it.

"Daughter," a voice says. "I have been looking for you."

I look up.

Tamal saw me. The deathmages saw me. I do not know why, and I have not had time to wonder past the fact of it. But nothing else in this memory has looked at me the way King Orsin is looking at me now. He sees me the way you see something you already own and have simply misplaced.

Something pulls.

It starts behind my ribs and drags outward. A hook set deep and yanked. I feel it the way I felt the poison. Wrong. Cold. Taking. I try to scream and nothing comes. I try to pull back and there is nowhere to pull to.

His smile widens, pleased, the way you smile at something finally within reach.

"Daughter," he says again, quieter now, almost gentle. "I am coming for you."

Everything goes white.

CHAPTER 5

Nightmare

Darkway Palace, Morrath

Iwake up. I can sense, somehow, that this is Morrath. This is where I am meant to be, for now.

The ceiling low and damp above me. The candle on the table burned low.