Page 94 of Wings of Destruction

I haven’t personally seen the damage done from the mines but the stories are horrendous. My shiver deepens.

“This is your last chance,” Milkin finishes.

Throat constricting, my lips peel back over my teeth. The smile isn’t pretty by any standards but when Milkin looks at me, she knows, somehow, what I really am. What she and the others are making me become.

I straighten and say nothing to her or to any of them.

She grunts, satisfied her point’s been made, and disappears into the crowd, swallowed by her minions of maids. Druella drifts at the rear of the pack and kicks me on her way past.

Yelping, I go down, pain splintering through the area and my knees hitting hard. She gives me a judgmental once-over, her fingers wrapped around the sapphire, then sneers.

“I’ll make better use of this piece than you ever could.”

Her parting shot lands askew but she’s faster than I am and scrambles out of the way before I grab her. My eyes narrow on her back and the sway of her bony hips.

For some reason, my chest clenches and I don’t run after her.

The room empties out and I shake my head, knowing my thoughts won’t find order anytime soon. My neck aches from the loss of the necklace but my heart is shredded.

I take one deep breath, then another.

Fear makes us do some crazy things. Maybe mine has finally bubbled up enough for me to call it what it is. I’m scared of the mines. I’ll never give voice to it, never give any of the others the satisfaction. I’ll simply see Druella’s smirk in my head and pretend I’m not bothered.

Pretend I’m not planning my retaliation detail by precious detail and marking their names for the future.

Until I win my freedom somehow. That will change everything. Once I’m free, then they’ll be the ones afraid. And I’ll gladly damn my soul, dancing barefoot through their ashes.

Twenty

Kieran

The first meeting for our rebellion is tonight.

The thought keeps me awake and staring at the ceiling while the long hours tick down, my hands beneath my head, waiting for the right moment to push the covers aside. My heart ticks out an erratic beat opposite that of the small hands on the clock and leaves me lightheaded.

A crescent shard of moon glints outside the windows, rising higher in the sky as the minutes stretch. Energy thrums beneath my skin.

Who’s going to be there?

Who do I trust well enough to see in the midst of the group? Astrid is the only one I know to trust implicitly and the nerves nip at me with every passing breath.

She said she’d found people, good people with steely hearts and the necessary combination of perseverance and brawn to be an asset to what we’re trying to do.

I roll on my side and stare at the moon until black crescents wink across my vision.

The voice of panic dances in my bloodstream in a fast paced tap and tells me I’ll get caught. Before we even begin to get this thing off the ground, someone will sniff me out. The rest, whoever they are, will go down with me.

Tristan will know.

How can he not know?

He watches me keenly on the best days.

His direct line of communication to my father is something to consider.

But the last time I checked on Tristan, he’d been deeply entertained by one of the junior warriors bound to a thunderbird. Hopefully she’d have the necessary skills to keep him distracted for hours.

Finally the clock hits the right time and I kick the covers aside. They tangle around my ankles like a noose, and the panicked part of me reminds me that there are omens everywhere. This might be one.