Page 12 of White Raven

To bring Brynden in here had been a huge error on my part.

“Where is she?” My father’s voice boomed from deeper down the passage. There was no doubt he was looking for me.

“Go! Now!” I shoved at Brynden, the thrill of being here vanished up in smoke.

Brynden rushed for the door, not even looking back as he ran out of the room, panic clipping his boots down the corridor, the door slamming behind him.

Instinct to retreat from my father’s office, pretend I was never there, bounced me forward. I paused. Worry nipped my attention back to the files and documents still spread over the floor. If I could straighten this quickly, clean up the desk before he saw the disarray, he might never know what happened here.

Turning back, I caught movement out of the corner of my eye. A dark shadow loomed next to the servant’s passage.

Father found me.

Yet the moment the thought slammed into my head, it broke apart into pieces when my brain registered the figure—dark hair, grey tunic, and black hateful eyes.

A Northerner. Night Raven. Thrall and prisoner. From behind him, the shorter one with a wound on his neck stepped up.

Terror surged like lava through my body, burning my skin and scalding my airways. A scream strangled up my esophagus as I started to turn for the door.

“HEL—!” A hand slammed over my mouth before I could move, the tall one yanking me back into his muscular frame. The cool metal of a blade nicked at my throat.

“I wouldn’t do that, kanin.” Rabbit. His deep, raspy voice growled in my ear with a guttural, throaty northern accent, shivering dread down my spine. “If you make one sound, anyone that comes into this room looking for you . . .” He pulled me back even tighter, his lips brushing a sneer against my ear. “They die.” He pressed the sharp ridges of the blade deeper into the soft skin of my neck. “You understand me?”

I nodded, trying to clear through the haze of absolute terror, my training not combating the panic I felt.

“Get the files,” the man holding me ordered the other. It was clear he was more in charge. The shorter Northerner scoured the ground where most of the folders lay, grabbing pages from the file I had been looking at.

“Fuck, you made this so easy, kanin.” Behind, his husky voice tickled my ear. “Except having to watch that pathetic show of him nutting all over you in three seconds. It would have been repulsive to watch, if it wasn’t so pitiful.”

Embarrassment turned my fright into rage. I bit his hand. Hard.

“Fuck!” He yanked his hand away. My elbow rammed back into his stomach, pitching myself forward, breaking from his close hold. A warning scream parted my mouth, needing one person to hear and help me, but music from my own celebration absorbed the cry, confining it in the room.

“Dammit!” he growled, seizing the back of my neck and yanking me back into him.

“No!” I swung my arms, landing a shot close to his groin.

“Shut her up!” the other hissed, stuffing papers into his pants.

“Fuck! Stop!” the thrall behind me gritted, his arms jailing me in his embrace. “What did I tell you?” His knife returned to my throat. “Be grateful they can’t hear you, kanin. Too drunk and gluttonous, enjoying your celebration.”

“Just wait,” I spat. “I will gut you like that pig I just ate.”

A dark chuckle vibrated down my neck. His hand circling my waist, gripped my long hair, whipping me around to face him. His features were sharp and brutal, his eyes pools of black ink. “Think yourself so tough, kanin?” he sneered, yanking harder on my hair, tipping my head up to him. His knife cut into my skin. “You like pigs being gutted in front of you, don’t you? Who’s to say I won’t disembowel you first?”

I glowered at him, trying to play out how I could grab his knife, slit his vile throat.

“Wren? Brynden just told me you two were being naughty in here.” The door started to open; Sarina’s giggle floated in before her. “Elvina and your father are looking for you.”

“Sari—!” A cry strangled from my throat, her name spilling out before his hand slapped over my mouth.

She stepped fully in and stopped. Her mischievous smile dropped, her eyes widening in horror at the scene. I could hear her screech bubbling in her chest as the other thrall lurched for her, time speeding faster than I could adapt.

Sarina’s scream penetrated the air in one note. A song of alarm, composed with fear.

The Northerner grabbed her, his blade slicing over her throat in one flick, depleting her ballad in a gurgle.

A wail consumed my body, her name ringing in my head.