Page 151 of The Shrouded Queen
Voices.
My head whipped to the left. Across the entrance hall stood an archway. And out of that archway echoed voices.
“Let’s go back upstairs,” my qareen hissed. “Quick!”
I should listen to her. Just because Shaya had sent me here didn’t mean it was entirely safe. Whoever was through that archway had been lying in wait for hours.
But I needed to find that amulet. If there were people living here, they would know where it was, surely. A few sweet promises, and the amulet would be in my hands.
I took a step forward, and my qareen grabbed my arm. “We have to hide!”
Even with all the brawn she possessed from never having ended her training with the Khada Guard, she was a coward. I was not.
“Stay here,” I told her, and slipped free of her grip.
I would not hide from the echoes. I would meet them. And get what I needed, one way or another.
SIXTYSAMIRA
Mere seconds later, sandaled feet slapped through the archway. Peering around Keir’s shoulder, all I could make out were filth-encrusted toes poking out beneath a plain dress. A girl.
Adrenaline surged through me. It was difficult to make out her features beneath what appeared to be layers of grime. Her head was shaved to mere bristles, and an odor drifted across the room, so horrible it managed to span the several feet between us. It smelled like… feces?
Was this my qareen?
“Forgive the intrusion,” she said in a sweet, polished, proper voice. “I seem to have gotten lost. You are… Kaldfolk, yes? Is this Kaldfold?”
If Keir responded, I couldn’t hear him over the rushing in my ears. I knew that voice. Knew it better than my own. It was a voice I never thought I’d hear again. It felt like a trick. Work of the jinn, maybe.
But then Keir shifted to the side, and I couldn’t deny the evidence before my eyes.
Queen Amunet Khada’s clear emerald eyes were bright as ever, if a little unsure as she took in the hulking Kald in front of me. A shackle hung from her wrist, and streaks of filth covered every visible inch of her skin. There was something different about her,more than the signs of rough treatment on her body. There was a gleam in her gaze that hadn’t been there before, a fidgeting in her stance, a hollowness to her cheeks that seemed more than just hunger.
Then her Khada-green eyes moved from Keir to me, darting from my ear-length hair to the runes across my forehead. Her shapely brows pulled together. “You’re Ashoran,” she said with surprise, her eyes flitting between me and Keir as if trying to explain to herself what an Ashoran might be doing with a Kald.
A ringing started in my ears.
She didn’t recognize me.
I had spent sixteenyearsat her side. I had tended to her every whim. Dressed her. Bathed her. Fed her. I had received scars at her hands—my chest ached even now from renewing theXshe’d given me. I’d traded my verylifefor hers.
And she didn’t have a clue who I was. It was written all over her confused, pretty face.
She held out her hands in front of her, flexing her fingers. “My power feels stronger. Like it… knows you.” The queen’s gaze on me was curious. Calculating.
Conditioning ordered me to curtsy. Duck my head and clasp my hands in front of me. Exclaim what a relief it was to see her.
But as the ringing faded, a fire breathed to life in my gut.
She was here. Somehow, for this last leg of the Merging, she was here. She could finish this. She could find Rade. She could charm Keir. She could get rid of the Shroud. She could save everyone.
The Gods-Chosen had stepped into the story at exactly the right moment.
I wasn’t needed anymore. The burden I’d been bearing all these weeks in Kaldfold was gone. I should be rejoicing. I waited for the ecstasy of relief to sweep over me.
Instead, the fire bloomed larger in my stomach, my heart pounding like a fist on a door.
“What are you doing here?” I said. My grip was so tight on Keir’s arm, I could feel the give of his skin under my nails, but he didn’t pull away.
