Page 96 of Season Warriors & Wolves

He jumped forward to retrieve it and I wrapped a hand around his throat, ice slipping in the air and coating his lungs and throat until he collapsed to his knees, breathless. Tsking, I said, “How rude.”

“Grey, my man, you’re looking a bit ashen,” Mal said, striding towards us and I threw him the bread bag.

He’d avoided me for days. Only resurfaced when I’d told him I was going to corner Grey who he had a grudge against.

While Grey choked for air, I unfolded the paper and read the first few lines written in Darsan. “Me and you are going to have a little chat,” I said, pulling him to his feet and dragging him to follow me into the library.

Thora was already there, waiting and ready. The moment I had him sat on a chair, I let go of his throat, letting him breathe. “Fucking bitch!” he howled, first thing to come out of his mouth.

“You kiss the mother I’m going to kill with that mouth?”

He shook violently from anger, turning red. “Heavens will take my justice. They will take all of our justice, filthy whore!”

Mal chuckled around a mouthful of bread and then kicked his foot right on Grey’s chest, knocking him to the ground breathless. “She sat you politely on the chair,” he said, crouching to the ground and smacking Grey’s head with a slice of bread. “I rather think you’d be more comfortable on the floor. Get used to the cold ground before she buries you shallow in it and lets birds pick you out of it little by little.”

The Highwall Captain snarled, baring his teeth, almost feral. “From you I’d expected it. But from your brother, never. To fall for her trickeries and seduction that will lead your souls to hell. To hell!” he bellowed.

I crouched next to Mal and flipped the paper open, turning it to him. “Talking about hell. Using children to send back and forth to the border, really?” Flicking the paper to his face, I pulled out a dagger. “How long have you been attempting to kill your king?”

He pressed his lips tightly together, staring me dead in the eyes, refusing to answer.

“Actually, scratch that,” I said, fisting his hair and pulling him up. “Let’s go see your family.”

Mal put a hand over my arm. “I’ve got a better thought.” A grin spread over his face. “But he seems like a screamer. Are your ears going to be okay, my queen? I don’t want my brother coming after my dick.”

I rolled my eyes. “He isn’t that scary.”

“To you,” my brother-in-law said, grabbing Grey’s neck, brown eyes disappearing under a curtain of black. Spidery veins spread around his face and the captain bellowed, the entire library shaking from his screams and incoherent mumbles that sounded like the most desperate pleas I’d ever heard. “Hm? Did you hear something, sis,” Mal patted his cheek. “Got words for me, cupcake, or should I keep going?”

“His heart is about to stop, Mal.”

“I know when it’s enough. I’ve stopped enough hearts in my lifetime.”

Just then, Grey’s mouth began foaming, his eyes rolling back, and he blacked out, body going stock-still.

“Wake him, little bird,” Mal said to my sister, taking a seat and leaning back while she put a hand to Grey’s chest, pumping air into his lungs, causing him to jolt awake.

The man had turned violet from pain, veins almost bursting through skin, and he no longer had a voice to use for screaming, so he gaped like a dying fish, moaning his pain silently.

“That was unhappiness,” Mal said, chewing on bread and my head snapped to him. “Anguish is next.” He gripped Grey’s jaw, forcing the captain to look at him. “You know what I am capable of, Grey. Do not try to find out. There has yet to be a man brave enough.”

Grey sniffled, his mouth trembling. “The…p-prophecy…lives,” he mumbled. “People…are…afraid. I am…afraid.”

Mal leaned forward, grasping his jaw tightly. “That was not what she asked.”

Grey’s eyes slowly turned to me. So much disgust and hatred. “A while, but no one could get close enough. He has not stayed in Adriata for months and now that she is back, he is never alone.”

That made me giggle a little. “You think you could best Kilian that easily?”

“Everyone has weaknesses.”

“And what is my husband’s, if I might ask?”

“Family.” His mouth stretched into a grin. “You know what poisons an Obscur’s heart? Pain. Like father, like son. Silas took you, and I made sure to pass on to him what your father did to you—he had written it in such impeccable detail, my heart almost broke for you, my queen. Nesrin took Driada. Tainted her fragile mind and soul little by little with despair to the point even Kilian could not ward off death.” He turned to Mal. “I would have taken you. With poison, my prince.” He laughed maniacally, tears and snot dripping down his quivering mouth. “It has been so easy to slip it in your drink when you’re half conscient most of the time. Even if I failed, you would have poisoned yourself eventually, one drink at a time. And that is how you kill the Night King.”

Venom seeped into my blood at his words. There was no time to feel anger or anything at all. The urge to hurt shook me entirely.

“You killed Driada?” my sister asked, tears streaming down her face.