Page 171 of Ashborne Forged

He sighed and eased back, sitting up again, letting me go, and taking my hands, so we faced each other. When he didn’t speak immediately, fear jangled through my chest.

‘Tell me! What’s wrong?’

His chin dropped and he glanced back over his shoulder. He’d levered a chair under the doorknob, I realized. How had he done that without waking me?!

‘We have to get out of here. Tonight.’

My breath left me in a huff. ‘I know it was hard to say goodbye tonight, but if I run, he’ll just pursue us—and with the king’s favor. I have a plan—’

‘No, Grace. Hear me: We have to leave. Tonight. You have to be removed from these people. They’re so much darker than even I anticipated.’

Our eyes locked and his were dark with worry and something I couldn’t identify. ‘What did you learn? What’s happened?’

He grimaced. ‘Breckon isn’t just a pompous ass. And the king isn’t being his friend. They both want you, Grace. And they both plan to use you.’

My head jerked back. ‘What do you mean?’

‘I mean we need to get you out, and figure out how to avoid them later. There’s no more time.’

‘We can’t—I have to marry him!’

His head snapped back and fear lit in his eyes. ‘Why would you speak such ugly words?’

‘Because he’s going to ruin my parents—not just ruin them. Make them suffer. Hurt them to hurt me. He warned me if I run, he’ll know and he’ll make me watch him destroy them. Then he’ll come for me—’

‘Grace, you can’t listen to that—’

‘I’m their only child! Unless I marry well and bring enough money to carry them for a generation, they’ll be in debtor’s prison within a year—’

‘Debtor’s prison is nothing to these people, Grace. I know it’s hard to watch people you love be hurt, but you aren’t responsible for the fact that they chose a Cruormancer to marry you!’

I went still. ‘They… what?’

Voski exhaled heavily. ‘Have your parents ever mentioned, or have you heard reference to, or seen—God, I hope you haven’t seen—the… the Cruor Rites?”

An uneasy churning began in my stomach. ‘I haven’t. I mean, I’ve heard whispers, but it’s just an old fable—’

He shook his head. ‘No, Grace. It’s not. There are many people for whom this is real.’ His grip on my hands tightened like he thought I might pull away. ‘The king, Breckon, and people I know—people I knew before Kham—they live by this. They seed power through it. And some use rituals to impart power. To themselves and their children. They believe there’s power in bloodlines and—’

I jerked back, not because of his words, but because the moment he’d said them, something like a silent scream cut through him, vibrating in the bond and stealing my breath.

He dropped my hands and shoved himself off the bed, away from me, eyes wide, hands clawing into his hair.

‘Voski… what was that?’

He swallowed audibly. ‘I’m not supposed to talk about it. It’s painful.’

I threw the quilts back and slipped out of bed to go to him, but he backed away when I reached for him, and I stopped.

Something roiled within him. Something terrifying and cold and— ‘Tell me!’ I sent desperately. ‘What’s happening? Why do you feel so hurt? What did you find out tonight?’

He stared at me, frozen, for so long, that I almost took a step toward him again. He seemed so pale, even in the dark. My heart swelled, and I reached for him through the bond, because his face… his expression, and the emotions coursing through him…

I didn’t understand, but I was suddenly desperately sad, desperately afraid, and so, so worried.

‘Voski—’

‘My mother is a Cruormancer. A powerful one,’ he whispered, even in the bond. ‘The most powerful one. It’s not a fable, Grace. It’s real. And it’s dark. So dark. She’s always been able to manipulate people, and change their minds and… but that doesn’t matter. What matters is, she’s here. I brought her here because I thought—well, it doesn’t matter what I thought. Because I was wrong. Tonight I found out that she’s not just manipulating. Breckon and the king both listen to her. They’re practicers, as well. They don’t just believe these things. They do them. And all of them—including my mother—believe that you will bear powerful children. Very, very powerful.’