Torrent of Tears (Scourge Survivor Series Book 3)(57)
“What does the sorcerer do with their souls?”
I shrugged. “We haven’t figured that out. He’s obviously siphoning off power from them somehow—he’s very powerful—but my other brother, Julian, figures with the number of Scourge that have been inducted, there must be something much bigger happening. Something we’re not seeing.”
I thought about that for a bit, my mind still occupied by Tasso and his funky stench last night. I needed to talk to Terran and Rowan. “Has Rowan been by this morning?”
“Yes, but we assured him we could take care of you ourselves and sent him on his way. I doubt he’ll be back.”
“What? What did you say to him?”
Her eyes widened as if my reaction surprised her. “We were protecting you, Princess. Your doctor friend is in league with the Queen.” She bit her lip and brushed her forehead with the tip of one of her wings. “It won’t do to have people thinking the two of you are—”
“Are what?” I drew a deep breath and tried to hold back the anger burning in my gut. “Rowan’s a good man and, as a Noble, he should be respected by his people. Where do you get off judging what he’s had to endure?”
“Endure?” She arched a brow. “He’s the Queen’s whore, Princess, a Noble no longer. He turned his back on our people and chose a coward’s path to survive. He’s done nothing but shame himself and the members of the fifth district for years.”
I jolted up, the sheet pooling to the floor. Clamping my hands, I took a measured step away from the woman. Like last night, I experienced true ferocity. I reached for my shirt and awkwardly pulled it over my head. “Rowan’s sacrifices safeguard his sister’s life. She’s the only family he has left—”
“Despite whatever lies he has spoken, Princess, his sister is dead. Killed a full cycle past with his parents.”
I shook my head. “Elani is a prisoner at the Palace, a pawn in the Queen’s game. When Rowan steps out of line, the Queen hurts her.” I pulled my pants up my thighs and steadied myself against the wall. I needed air. Sliding my vest over my shoulders, I tightened the lacing and met her eyeball to eyeball. “What would you do to save your children from the Queen’s evil? What wouldn’t you do?”
“There is nothing.”
I nodded. “If that’s true . . . and if there really are no secrets in Attalos, I want everyone to know Lir-Rowan, Noble of the Fifth House, has done nothing but protect his sister. It’s his district and the citizens of Attalos who turned their backs on him, not the other way around.”
Before I said too much I turned to the stairs. As I lifted my foot to the first step, I looked over my shoulder. “If it’s safe, I’ll send for Eury at nightfall. I expect he’ll be well cared for until then.”
She met my gaze straight on and bowed. “Of course, Princess.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Duty soldiers and Strati swarmed the city streets like angry wasps. They stood at every intersection, patrolled the alleyways and perched on rooftops, watching from above. Obviously, it would be smarter to stay hidden. Safer to go back into that cellar and wait till nightfall. I wasn’t in the mindset to play it smart or safe.
I needed to find Rowan. Needed to find my boys. But first, I needed to find Sera and learn more about what she and Balor had done to me. What was I capable of? How did my connection to the elements work?
Stealth was a polished skill of mine. It was the work of twenty minutes and I was down the hidden stairs in the back of Balor’s townhouse and searching the underground apartment.
I knew before I finished looking around that Sera had cleared out. Balor’s things remained in place but the apothecary room was cleaned out. The only thing left was a piece of paper sitting on the mixing table with a single sentence written on it. From the one with forethought and prudence, a leader shall rise.
Allrighty then. So, Sera would be no help.
I made my way back to the street and considered my next move. Beeline it to Rowan’s mansion, check on Coal, and see what the legal ledgers of the Nobles said about ousting the Queen. Rowan still owed me and my injuries a private once over. My current need to get naked with Rowan was more than a biological urge to satisfy and more than easing the hurt and anger of the way his own people judged him.
A brush with death had a way of bringing the world around you into hi-def, surround-sound focus. It made you want to live out loud and crank up the volume. And time spent skin-to-skin with Rowan was exactly the kind of sensory explosion I was amped for.
Ousting the Queen could wait. Our troubles could wait.
I skirted down a side street and jogged along the backside of a low retaining wall. My leg was still kicking up a stink and my shoulder felt as if it had been ripped from its socket and knocked back in place with a sledgehammer. Boo-fricking-hoo. In the long list of ‘things that have gone to shit’ that was the least of my problems.
I tucked behind a stone monument as the rhythmic footsteps of a military run of soldiers approached. A faint, metallic k’tang . . . k’tang rang in the distance. Lifting my head, I caught my bearings and wondered if I could find his blacksmith shop without Terran or Coal to guide me.
The formation of Strati soldiers passed without incident and I ducked through a merchant’s yard and then down a side street. After slipping behind a dozen bronze architectural buildings and down another alley, I peered around the corner and saw the modest one-story building with huge paneled walls and smoke rising up through the chimney.