Crown of Cinders (Imdalind #7)(88)

“Oh,” I said, my voice dark as I let it rattle over the stands, hitting all of them. “You thought this was the gift?”

My laugh continued, pressing against them and wilting their souls as I twirled the blade once in my hand before tucking it into my pocket. The men watched the movement, their eyes widening as their jaws began to open and close in panic and fear.

They thought it would be that easy.

Fools.

“No, no, no, no.” I clicked my tongue with each word as I shook my head.

Circling around them, I looked up at the stands, my heart thundering pleasantly due to the mirrored look from all those above me as well as below. Panic, confusion—they all felt them. Now I needed the last piece to fall into place. I needed the fear to come. Then they would be mine. Luckily, that piece was steps away.

“This is not your prize. I have a prize for all of you!” I yelled to the crowd as I stopped in place, the backs of the two Trpaslíks to my left, bare and vulnerable. “Ovailia! Come, my darling. Let us show them!” My voice rang throughout the stadium, my eyes cast toward the large door I had hidden Alojz behind earlier that day. My heart thundered in my ears, excitement ringing as I waited for the doors to swing wide, for my creation to enter.

There was nothing.

Nothing but silence.

“Ovailia!” I yelled, the single word echoing around the silent space, banging against the two men beside me, against everyone in the stands, wiping the panic from their faces, smearing it over my chest in a coating so thick I was having trouble breathing. This is not what happened in the sight.

This was not what I had seen.

“No,” I gasped, the word swallowed by the laughter that had begun to pop around the stands, little titters that quickly began to multiply.

“You’re right,” Bronislav said from behind me, his own laugh clear. “This is a wonderful gift. I’ll have to thank Ovailia for abandoning you. We hadn’t planned on that.”

“What had you planned on?” I snapped, turning toward the man, the robe rippling behind me. I expected them to cower, but they both stood, smiling, looking far too smug and proud.

I would smack that look off their pretty little faces.

“This,” Georg said with a smile, his arms folding over his chest as something hit me in the back and pain swept over my ribs and down my spine.

Someone stabbed me in the back.





OVAILIA





22





“Do it now.” Damek’s whispered words followed me into the underbelly of the stadium, locked inside my head as I was locked out of Sain’s little alcove. All with the snap of a door. A snap that ricocheted painfully inside my head, mixing with the angry thunder of my heartbeat and the rapid pulse of my breathing.

As if I needed another reason to go through with our plan. As if I needed another reason to destroy that man.

No matter what pain awaited me on the other side of this choice, I couldn’t say no. It was worth it if only for the chance to see him bleed.

I always knew his promises of regality and equality were for the horses. But now, to be treated as nothing more than a servant …

“No one treats me this way,” I hissed, taking one last look at the door before I stepped away, my heels clicking against the cement as my heart pounded in my ears. The sounds were discordant, like in an out of tune marching band that pulled me forward. My anger fueled my magic into a rumble.

“We will show them, will we, Sain?” I said in an irritated jest, my brow furrowing in a deep scowl. The tap of heels grew louder, my gait increasing into a run. “Will we?”

Magic sparked through the air around me with the pulse of my anger. Angry little pops of it swept over the air in snaps, singeing the metal framework of the underside of the bleachers black, sending smoke and ash into the air behind me. The air was burning like everything else in this world. Everything in this life I had chosen.

Let it burn. I would set it on fire.

The sparks of my magic continued, igniting over walls and sky. Ashes fell around me as I came to a stop, color and light dripping through the air and down the concrete steps inches before me.

I stood, watching the color fade into the dark cavern, staring down the long, dark stairwell that Sain had sent me to. The haunted cave would take me down to the pit, down to the cage where Sain had taken Alojz … where he expected me to release him like a lion into the arena.

That was my job. That was all he wanted of me … until he killed me. The need for that moment was growing in him, I saw it swell in his eyes every time he spoke of my beauty, every time he spoke of my future. Even though he might mean them, they were words that were based on lust; a bitter falsehood for what he really meant. For what he really wanted. I could see that in the look, in the desire he fixed on me. I had the same in me, the same need to end him. I was just better at concealing it.

“Do it now,” I repeated Damek’s words aloud, my hair falling around my face as I took one step closer to the stairs, the toes of my heels pressing against the edge of the topmost step, my weight pulling me forward.

My hatred pulled me back.

Damek and I had originally agreed that we would release the mutilated Alojz before going to the girl. That way, Sain wouldn’t have any idea anything had changed in our loyalty, that anything was wrong, not until the knife pierced his back.