Page 127 of Dhampira

Whispers rushed through the temple, the words unintelligible. Quick and invasive, they flowed over and around me like hands brushing my skin. A whimper trembled in my throat, but I pressed my lips together to trap it. That, I could do. Marrigan didn’t control my voice.

“A pity,” she said, her gray eyes mocking. “You could do with someone wiser curbing your tongue.” The whispers stopped, and she curled her long fingers over the arms of her throne. “Your mother failed in that regard as well. You’re as ignorant as you are wanton.”

The whimper became a growl, and I let it emerge. “That’s hypocritical coming from someone who trains her followers to seduce.”

“Sex is a tool like any other. What would you be, I wonder? A tool or a blade?”

I knew my dislike showed on my face as I stared up at her. “Why do you keep asking me that? I thought I was a waste of time.”

She lifted a hand, her fingers like claws. My feet moved again, drawing me up the steps. Fear pumped through me, and knowing she knew added to the humiliation of her stripping my will.

I stopped a step below her throne, the dragonstone cloak swaying against my ankles. Even at close range, Marrigan’s face was difficult to make out. Various features sharpened and then blurred, making it impossible to tell her age or true appearance.

But her eyes remained sharp as she studied me, and her voice turned thoughtful as she said, “Rasimir was right. You do have a bit of Lilawen in you.”

Longing tightened my throat. Vander claimed my mother joined the Crau Setra at six years old. When I’d seen her in my dreams, she looked as she did now, a competent adult completely in control of everything she touched. So much of her life was closed to me, but Marrigan knew what she’d been like as a girl—what experiences had molded her into someone who would enter the Drakhold to kill a king.

“You’re curious,” Marrigan murmured. “And for once, you’re correct. I know Lilawen. I know all.” She lifted her veil, pushing the gauzy material over her headdress. Dozens of eyes covered her face, each one centered with a black pupil wreathed by gray as sharp as steel. My pale face was reflected in each one.

A scream tangled in my throat, and I might have fallen backward if not for the Devout Mother’s power holding me rigid. It swirled around me again, thousands of whispers overlapping in my ears.

“I see all,” Marrigan said, speaking out loud despite no longer possessing a mouth. “Past and present. Lies and truth. You think you want the latter, but you don’t.”

“Yes, I do,” I said, my lips barely moving in her pupils. The force of her power threatened to steal my voice, too.

“The truth is painful,” she said, and now her voice was in my mind as well as my ears. “You should know that by now.”

Her power angled my head down. Cyprio’s tiara shimmered in my hand, the gold tinged with blue from the torchlights. Blood dripped down my fingers as the silver underneath seared my skin.

“No matter how skillfully we lie,” Marrigan said in my mind, “the truth will always out.”

Out.

It echoed in my head as I fell to the ground in the maze. Purple dawn glowed around me. Panting, I lay in the grass for a moment before pushing to my feet and looking at my hand. My fingers throbbed, but the skin was whole and uninjured.

Change melted down my dress, the dragonstones winking red in the predawn light. Confusion swamped me as more stones rippled down the skirt, replacing the glittering black. I hadn’t told the gown to change…

Murmured voices brought my head up. The sound drifted from straight in front of me.

A man’s voice…and a woman’s. Delphine.

Ignoring the pain in my fingers, I rushed forward. As I rounded the end of the hedge, Delphine and a tall, nude man came into view. His hair fell to his shoulders, and his irises were bright yellow. Before I could duck out of sight, he and Delphine swung toward me.

Delphine’s eyes rounded. “Your Highness!”

The man snarled, then turned and scurried up the hedge, scaling it in seconds and dropping over the other side.

I stepped toward Delphine, the shock of the temple replaced with the shock of seeing her with a werewolf. “Are you part of the Resistance?”

She stared, her expression frozen. “We have to get back,” she said, spinning and rushing down the line of hedges.

“Wait!” I called, hurrying after her. Her white hair bounced against her back as she whipped down one row of hedges after another. Jogging, I struggled to keep up with her.

“Delphine, wait,” I said as loudly as I dared. She slowed long enough to meet my gaze over her shoulder.

“Hurry!” she whispered before turning and breaking into a run.

Gritting my teeth, I ran, too. My fingers throbbed with every step, and my skirts threatened to trip me. Clenching my jaw, I grabbed them with my good hand and kept going.