جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 70

EMBER By midday, my fingers were stained green, my back ached, and the entire preparation room smelled like someone had boiled a forest inside a corpse. I held a clump of bloodwort beneath my nose and regretted it right away."Nara."She looked up from the other end of the table. "What?""This smells horrible."She chuckled, slicing ironleaf into thin strips.We had taken over one of the smaller preparation rooms near the kitchens after the healers made it clear they didn't appreciate me hovering over their shoulders and asking whether everything they touched might accidentally kill my husband.The long wooden table between us was covered with bowls, drying racks, bundles of herbs, and the instructions we had copied from the ridiculous fertility manual that had somehow turned out to contain the only useful information anyone had found about frost poison.The frostroot needed constant heat.The ironleaf had to be dried until the veins turned almost white.Moon-thistle had to be

EMBER I awoke slowly to warmth at my back and a familiar mouth brushing over the side of my neck.At first, I thought I was dreaming. Then Azai's arm tightened around my waist, drawing me closer, and something very hard pressed against me beneath the blankets.My eyes flew open, a choked sound slipping out of me.A low laugh rumbled against my skin."Good morning, Firefly."I turned so quickly that I nearly knocked my forehead against his chin. "Azai?"He was watching me with clear crimson eyes, his long black hair spread messily across the pillow. There was no grey cast to his skin, no glassy fever in his gaze, and when I immediately pressed my palm to his forehead, I found warmth instead of that horrible burning heat from yesterday.I stared at him.His mouth curved. "You look disappointed.""Shut up.""That bad?""You were vomiting black poison yesterday. And now you're lying here with..." My gaze dipped beneath the blanket helplessly.Azai's eyebrow lifted. "With?"Heat rush

AZAI Kairos's gaze moved over me, and the surprise that flashed across his face was small enough that most people would have missed it."You look..." He paused."Alive?"He smiled. "Much better. It's such a relief."I leaned back against the bedpost, allowing my weight to settle there casually. Kairos's eyes tracked the movement."Did you need something?" I asked."I came to report on the eastern gate."I kept my expression unchanged. "Go on.""We questioned every guard assigned there yesterday.""And?""Their stories remain consistent. Lady Ember came out alone. But there was one detail."I said nothing. Kairos continued after a moment."One of the guards remembered that she stopped just beyond the outer arch for a few seconds.""Facing which direction?" I tilted my head.Kairos hesitated."North."I kept my face blank. "Then?""She turned east and continued into the forest."The Veil lay north. Selene's lake lay east.And now my wife wanted to travel north because the final i

ATHENA I left Azai's chamber with my heart pounding hard enough to make me feel sick. We were leaving tonight. I walked quickly down the corridor, ignoring the ache in my right hand. "Mother Selene," I whispered beneath my breath. "Please." I swallowed and kept walking. Pain shot through my palm so sharply that I nearly stopped. My breath caught. "Please grant us speed," I whispered. "Please let us find it." The corridor blurred for a moment. I blinked hard. I would not cry now. "Please let us come back." I pressed my lips together and looked towards one of the narrow windows. The sky beyond it had darkened with heavy clouds. Evening was coming quickly. Everything felt too quick now. I squeezed my eyes shut. There was somewhere I needed to go before we left. Someone I needed to see. I turned away from the main stairs. The western wing was quieter than the rest of the fortress. It had been that way for months. The guard outside straightened when he saw me. "My la

EMBERBy the time we entered our chambers, I had managed to make myself look somewhat respectable.My dress was back where it belonged, although one stubborn wrinkle refused to disappear no matter how many times I smoothed it, and my hair had decided there was no recovering from whatever Azai had done to it in the archive. I had tried fixing it twice on our way upstairs before giving up.Azai, on the other hand, looked perfectly fine.The bastard.He stood near the table fastening the last strap around his wrist, his long hair tied halfway back from his face. Apart from the slightly swollen lips and a few strands of hair I knew I'd pulled loose myself, nobody would have guessed what he'd been doing less than ten minutes ago.I glared at him.His crimson eyes lifted. "What?""You look normal while I look like I fought for my life.""You did."My mouth dropped open. His lips curled.I was still deciding whether there was enough time to kill him before our journey when Athena stepped ful