THRONE OF CLAWS AND FANGS
ck, breath caugh
k flame that cast no heat. His eyes were Asher's, violet and sharp. His smile was Asher's t
ad," Aeryn
r tilted his
issed shut with a rush of wind and frost, sealing off the world he knew. Before
nes in shifting colors-red, green, blue-pulsing in time with his heartbeat. The floor breathed beneath his feet. The
le. Runes crackled across the floor, forming a pattern that seemed alive. The ceiling was lost in
oots were heating up. Whispers echoed around him, but the faces behind the hoods remained still. A dozen strangers cir
o the circle. Her skin was grayish-blue, an
e?" she intoned, her voi
e ans
en conjured a short, curved dagger. Before he c
to jerk back, but the
pped onto the
idian. The surrounding runes ignited with violet fire. Sigi
me from
e," someon
bri
mina
something furious. "This child carries both
ll cradling his burning hand
ll, shadow-cloaked figure with silver embroider
what any of this m
is a luxury we
l staff capped with a dark gem that hummed as he approached. "He is under a
rs," the horned woman c
y." The staff bearer held up a shimmering sigil-black wax over bo
nt. Screaming voices. Spells
vanished in a gust of black wind
his staff and
. That's the last mer
denly dizzy. "Who
an was al
-
ver snow-laced cobblestone, pulled by no horses, steered by no driv
yways of shadow and smoke. Aeryn saw other students moving between buildings: one floated on a cushi
d the side of a massive m
Hollow
the sky like claws. Black fire flickered in the braziers. The air reeked of magic and memory. Flo
Aeryn stumbled out, boots crunching into ob
from the shadows
aculate: a black doublet with silver-threaded cuffs, and a House of Blood emblem s
ate," the
I was busy being kidnap
Lucien Damaris. House of Blood. "They've assigned
cky
o Aeryn's chest. His ey
. The silver had stopped burni
get that?" Luci
rother gav
step closer.
hed. "I...
en. That chain was
e meant, Lucien turned and wa
breakfast," Lucien ad
-
n," which apparently meant outcasts. It had no windows, only mirrors. No bed, only a platfo
, every muscle aching.
. The blood reacts to the glyphs
What did tha
, the fire in the hearth had burned low and his neck was sli
omeone else
ned his e
l. Thin. Cloaked in ragged gray. Their fac
into his throat wa
ed to be alive," t
n fr
sour and sharp. "You were meant
ryn asked
along his collarbone-not cutting, just tracing the sied back like the
emerged from
lded note-and vanished onto the wall. Litera
at up,
note with trembling
written in d
win. He
eath c
flared wi
is neck blazed with he
dn't
dn't
tared at
for it
f Asher w
e else want
ne had just be