Ashes of Chaos (Legacy of the Nine Realms #2) - Amelia Hutchins Page 0,142

it matter? This happened a very long time ago. The dead no longer care, Aria. Leave it alone. You have no idea what it was like back then. War is brutal, and often those who are innocent pay the price for the deeds of the guilty.”

I snorted, leaving him standing in the room as power slithered over my flesh. I turned silently on the staircase, staring at Knox, where his eyes glowed with red embers and extinguished so quickly that I wasn’t certain I hadn’t imagined it.

He stepped toward me, pausing as I dismissed him, slowly starting down the stairs to find a shimmering apparition waiting for me. The temperature in the house dropped, and my breath came out in a cloud in front of me. A chill rushed down my spine, and nausea churned in my stomach.

The ghost wore a purity gown, her wrists and throat dripping blood upon the floor, and yet no blood reached it. I stepped back, finding Knox right behind me, his arms going around me protectively.

Her ghostly eyes lifted to the man behind me as her mouth opened, and a shrill scream escaped from her. The volume of her scream caused me to cover my ears, holding them as she continued shrieking like a banshee.

Knox picked me up and rushed us outside, only to pause as a sea of dead witches stood around the house we’d entered. Knox’s men closed in around us as he set me down. My skin ached from the chill in the air, and I shook my head while blinking to keep my eyes from freezing open. It was as if we’d stepped into the Arctic Circle, and yet the sun shone around us but didn’t offer heat.

“They’re cursed to remain here,” I whispered more to myself than to the others. “They’ll kill us to keep this place protected.”

“How the fuck do you know that?” Knox demanded.

“Look at the markings on their heads. They carry the curse into death, forcing them to remain where their soul last lived. That is why there was so much power in the cave. This place is someone’s power source. Someone is siphoning magic from the dead and storing it for something massive. Considering the amount of magic kept in the caves, it’s someone very powerful. Possibly the same person creating the power grid in the other village,” I pointed out, crossly.

“Let’s go,” Knox growled, and the witches all let loose ear splitting screams that took us to our knees as pain ripped through us.

“I think that’s a no,” I groaned, searching through the ghosts for the head witch anchoring the others with her magic. “I told you we shouldn’t be here.”

“It’s unclaimed land, which I added to Norvalla by force.”

Knox turned glowing eyes in my direction, and I shook my head. “By all means, King Karnavious, explain that to the dead. I’ll just sit here bleeding out of my ears while you make them see reason.” He growled as my lips curled into a pained smile. “I’m waiting. Or, you can unbind my magic and let me send them on to the next life, freeing them from this place of death in which you caged them.”

Chapter Forty-Eight

Blood dripped from our ears, noses, and eyes while waiting for Knox to choose between death or freeing me. I’d offered to give them a solution, and yet he procrastinated. His warriors were rattling along with him, but no one moved. After another moment had passed, Knox grabbed my arms carefully, his eyes burning with a silent warning.

“One wrong move, and I won’t hesitate, witch,” he snapped.

The cuffs slipped from my wrists, and I stood, smiling down at him as power rippled around me, sending my hair into the air. Knox stood with me, unfearful of the power slithering over him as I pulled the magic to me. I drank it into my pores as the pain from the beating lessened with the taste of magic that instantly began healing some of the damage.

“Step aside, King Karnavious. This is a job for a witch, not a warrior. We wouldn’t want you to get hurt, now would we?” I hissed, moving past him to face the witches.

The deceased witches continued to howl and shriek with cries. I started through them, moving toward the strongest witch. I rushed forward, expecting to slide through one witch, only to end up shot backward from a jolt of power the moment we collided. Her black gaze turned, lowering to me as her head