Page 110 of Wolf of Ashes
“You’re on the wrong side of this, Veda,” she calls, and with that, she soars up through the hole in the ceiling and disappears into the night.
I’m exactly where I need to be.
I hold on to that thought even when Lucian rages toward me, his wings tucked into his sides. His cheeks are flushed, his lips twisted, and the starry quality of his skin has been replaced with dark shadows.
A cut on his cheek is oozing blood.
Redblood.
One of Halle’s vines must have nicked him, but damn, that wound seems to be taking a long time to heal.
The color of his blood and the fact that the cut isn’t healing quickly confirms what Mom told me: the second child—that is, my uncle—is always weaker, and so are their offspring. The power dilutes with every subsequent child.
In the background, Jonah crosses his arms over his chest.
Even if he knows who I really am, there’s one thing I’m sure of: Lucian doesn’t.
He’s too young to have met my mother. At most, he would have been a baby when my father was murdered, if he had yet been born at all.
If hehadrealized my real identity when he saw my claws, he wouldn’t be screaming about me stealing Elijah. He’d be focused on the fact that I’m his cousin with a claim to the empire.
I’ve remained standing in the middle of the cleared area, and I could easily duck the fist he aims at my face, but I choose not to, recoiling just enough that I won’t bleed.
The last thing I want is for Lucian to see my black blood.
Anarchy’s blood could camouflage it, but I can’t be sure, and for now, Lucian may well believe her red blood is my own. There’s so much of it that he may even believe me to be badly injured.
I drop to my knees, registering the pain in my face, holding my hand over my cheek as a safeguard.
I don’t have any feeling in that palm, since it’s the one I burned when I was trying to make Jonah listen to me.
Lucian roars at me. “Where’s Elijah?”
Without waiting for my response, he reaches down, wraps his hand around my throat, and wrenches me into the air. His hand nearly slips in Anarchy’s blood, but he holds on tightly.
“Tell me where you sent him!”
I glare down at Lucian, my throat too constricted to speak even if I wanted to.
“Tell me!” he roars before he throws me to the ground.
I let myself land hard on my side, and I take the kick he aims at my stomach.
As the airwhooshespast my lips, I gasp, “I’ll only speak to your father.”
He crouches to me, his question sharp. “What?”
It’s a good thing I heal quickly or the lacerations he left around my throat would prevent me from speaking at all. “You want to know where Elijah is?” I rasp. “Take me to your father.”
With a shout of frustration, Lucian rams his fist down onto my head again. There’s nowhere for me to go this time to lessen the blow and I sense the skin split across my cheek.
I throw my hands up over my face, just like Halle did, hoping to cover the blood, watching Lucian through the gaps between my arms, but he doesn’t seem to be paying attention to my features.
He leans back on his heels, running his hands into his hair and gripping hard. “Dad’s going to kill me.”
Jonah’s voice sounds from behind him and it’s surprisingly worried. Probably because he thinks I’ll reveal Elijah’s location despite my vow to protect the boy. “Your father wouldn’t go that far—”
“No?” Lucian jumps to his feet and whirls on Jonah. “You think he hasn’t been waiting for an excuse?”
