Tous les chapitres de : Chapitre 1 - Chapitre 5

AZIZAI heard my mother scream once in my life.It was when I was seven, a hunting accident. My father came home with an arrow through his shoulder and she made a sound I never forgot. She pressed her hand over her mouth after, ashamed of it.I heard her scream tonight. It didn't stop.I was in my chambers when the first explosion hit the east wall. The sound came up through the floor before it came through the air, a deep rolling boom that shook the water in my cup and knocked my mirror sideways on the dresser. I stood up. I stood there for three full seconds and then the second explosion hit and the screaming started everywhere at once and I ran.The corridors were in chaos, smoke so thick was pouring from the east wing. Servants ran past me in both directions, some carrying things, most carrying nothing, faces frozen with pure fear. Guards pushed against the current toward the noise, weapons drawn, shouting at everyone to get back, get down, get out!Someone grabbed my arm hard eno

RHYDIAN The door opened.Vessa came in, like she had been expected and was doing everyone a favour by arriving. She was dressed in a manner fitted for a ball."Am I interrupting?" she said, in a tone that made clear she knew she was and had decided that was fine."Rhydian was just explaining how we should be comfortable housing our new omegas," my father said.Vessa looked at me with warm, amused eyes. "He worries," she said to my father, like I wasn't in the room. "It's one of his qualities." She set her hand briefly on Bram's shoulder as she passed him, an easy familiar gesture, and took a seat at the table. "The south compound is being cleared for the Goldencrest inventory storage. There isn't space.""The storage can wait," I said."The gems can't." She picked up a piece of fruit from the table and turned it in her fingers. "Some of what was in the palace vault is delicate. It needs proper housing immediately." She smiled at me. "I'm sure the omegas will manage for another day or

AZIZAHe knew the compound in the dark the way I knew the servants' passages in the palace. I thought he had an impressive memory already. Every corner, every shadow, every place the torchlight didn't reach. We moved through it quickly and quietly and he didn't speak and I didn't speak and in seven minutes we were at the east gate and he stopped.He let go of my wrist.I resisted the urge to look at where he had been holding it."Tell me what you need," he said quietly. He was not looking at me. He was watching the gate.I stared at him. "What?""The conditions," he said. "In the holding area. What do they need?"I looked at him for a moment. "Water," I said carefully. "Access to it. The rope line is thirty feet from the nearest point and the guards aren't allowing movement after dark." I paused. "Shelter and heating. There are children in the group. It is cold in there."He nodded once, still not looking at me. "It will be addressed."He stepped back from the gate."Don't let me find