Page 46 of City of Snakes
“We will tell you!” The light-haired one broke first.
“Nice bluff.”The caress of Krait’s voice in my head made a chill roll down the back of my neck.
“Who?” I demanded.
“The direction to kill you came from the North.”
I straightened. “‘The North’ as in north of here? Sahlmkar?”
“No,” the dark-haired man answered. “The North Corridor. Our orders came from Helos.”
My tongue grew heavy in my mouth. “You’re lying,” I growled and stepped closer.
“We’re not lying!”
“Who from Helos wants me dead?” I spat and crossed the room. I wanted to strike the man, to unhear what he was telling me. Emmerick was in Helos—he could be in danger.
“The Death Origin, Caym, has influence in the North Corridor. We answer only to him. We pray only to him.”
The man glared at Darvanda as he appeared between me and the prisoners. I almost slammed into his broad, muscular back. His Shadows stretched out of him like tendrils of dark vines and lifted the men off their asses and slammed them to the wall. Both prisoners grunted on impact.
“Your necks can be snapped. I can let my Shadows shatter every bone in your bodies.Oryou will tell the Queen everything you know about whoever from Helos you spoke with.”
The light-haired assassin said, “Caym knows that Queen Wymark is the Last Daughter of Isleen, and she is a threat if not contained. His envoy told us she’d be here in Sahlmsara, that she’d be an easy kill, but clearly, helied.” His words were hurried and panicked as he stared over Krait’s shoulder at me. “We do not know what name the Origin goes by now, or his face, only that he is in Helos. He sent an envoy to Sahlmkar who brought a dagger for us to use to kill you. We caught the boy leaving the estate—he was able to lead us to your quarters.”
Krait glanced at me over his shoulder with a creased brow. “Whatboy?”
Shit.
I swallowed hard. “I’ll explain later.”
So would he...because I didn’t know what being the Last Daughter of Isleen meant, but every perfectly sculpted muscle in Krait’s shoulders and back had tightened when the title had been stated.
“Let them down,” I ordered.
Krait hesitated before dropping his Shadows and letting the men fall into a foul-smelling heap with a thud.
“You live only because I do...” I swallowed. “But I imagine a century in prison would suit you both.”
“Three,” Krait concluded. “And her mercy doesn’t match what I’d like to do to you. So thank her.”
The men blubbered their gratitude.
My mind raced, and I began to grow a bit dizzy. Someone from my own realm wanted me dead, the Origin of Death was hunting me. I turned and walked away, up the narrow stone steps. At the top, I took my first deep breath since I’d entered the cell.
I worried for my Em, who lived among people who wished to see his former Queen dead. Thoughts nagged in the back of my mind—what if he knew? What if he had conspired against me?
Those were the sort of intrusive thoughts that had kept me from telling him about his lineage in the first place...
Knowing there might be some part of my identity that had been hidden from me in the same way made my skin crawl with rage. Krait’s heavy footfall on the stairs behind me egged on my anger.
Spinning on him with the ferocity of a cornered animal, I questioned, “Did you know?”
“Did I knowwhat?” He stopped at the top of the stairs and leaned against the doorframe with crossed arms, having the nerve to look both pissed off and attractive.
“Are you the Origin of Death?”
He let out a few breaths of heavy, grating laughter that sent chills up my arms. “No. That would be my uncle.”
