Page 42 of Lies That Bleed
I bristled at that.‘That’s complicated…’
‘I know. I’ve seen your memories. I still like him.’
Okay… noted.
“We should get out of here before they wake up,” Kohen announced.
Liana peered down at the two men and I followed her gaze. These two menstoleandhurtmy creature. They tried to keep me from bonding her. I pulled the blade from my boot and walked over to them. I promised myself I would never be the stupid girl in the books who let the bad man live only to be shocked when he came back for her again and again.
I wasn’t a stupid girl and I was going to make sure this was a one-time thing. I remembered when my father first took me hunting. My arrow wasn’t a clean shot, so he made me slit the deer’s throat to put it out of its misery. It’s easier if you moved your face away and didn’t look at them.
Dropping to one knee, I turned my head and slit their throats cleanly, tucking the trauma away in my little black box. Elaine and my father would approve of this. Let this send a message to whoever thought they could steal from Aisling Everhart, future empress. Because that’s what this was, an attempt to steal my creature from me. They couldn’t kill a firebird, but they could keep her and I from bonding. And they almost succeeded.
“Okay, that shouldn’t have been sexy but it was,” Kohen mused behind me, and I scoffed. He thought murder was sexy?
Ignoring him, I walked back inside. I finished off the man in the barn.
After stepping back outside, I wiped my knife on the ground, reholstering it.
Five people. I’d killed five people and I wasn’t even enlisted in the Imperial Fleet yet.
“I don’t relish killing anyone,” I announced, because I didn’t want Kohen or his creature to think any less of me for killing an unconscious man. “But I will not allow this kind of thing to ever happen again. Enemies must be dealt with quickly and fiercely.” It was something my father taught me, and words to live by.
‘Well done, young one, but the man who is in charge of all of this still walks free,’Liana said.
Chills raced up my arms.‘Who?’
‘I did not see him, as my eyes had not yet formed, but I would know his smell from anywhere. Cigars and whiskey, burnt ember, and cheap musk cologne.’
Relief rushed through me at her description of the smells. I hadn’t realized until now that I had suspected my own father of possibly doing this in an effort to keep me from overshadowing him with my power. But my father didn’t smoke, nor did he wear cologne; Zuri hated strong smells. I couldn’t believe I’d gotten so paranoid as to suspect my own father of this!
Chill out, Aisling,I chastised myself.
“What time is it?” I asked Kohen.
He peered at his watch. “Half past eleven.”
Crap. My curfew.
“I gotta get home or my dad will send the entire Imperial Fleet out looking for me,” I told him.
He nodded, slipping his leg over the back of Onyx and hoisting himself up. I guess we both had our own rides now.
“Hey, thanks… for helping me find and free her.” I stroked Liana and looked up at Kohen.
He nodded, his face expressionless. “Now we’re even.” Then Onyx kicked off the ground and took for the skies.
Man, he was hard to read. Calling me hot one second and then shutting down the next. Pretty on par for the men I seemed to attract.
‘Can I ride on you?’I asked Liana, unsure if that would hurt her or not.
She bowed deeply in response. It took a few minutes for me to find a comfortable way to sit on her and not feel like I was going to fall off.
Once I was snugly seated, she kicked off into the sky and we sailed over the city on my way home. I just prayed my father was asleep when I got there.
Chapter
Twelve
