Ashes of Chaos (Legacy of the Nine Realms #2) - Amelia Hutchins Page 0,23

creatures were primal, matching our need to go at each other hard and without mercy, but then mercy wasn’t something either of us would ever ask of the other.

“All the death I leave behind,” I swallowed hard, “does it make me a monster you want to kill?” I whispered carefully, studying his face at my words that slipped free. His jaw clenched, and those knowing eyes slid up to meet mine with regret burning deep within. “I didn’t think it would be hard to murder bad people. I wasn’t wrong, not entirely. It’s surprisingly easy to punish those who trespass against the innocent. But I find I’ve become numb to their cries, which honestly scares me. No one should ever become numb to death, or from taking a life. There’s this place within me warning that I may enjoy it too much, which terrifies me the most.”

“You either become the hunter or the prey in this world,” he swallowed, watching me. “Unless the thing hunting you is much stronger as in our case,” he added, drawing his finger into a pattern on the floor. “How many innocent lives have you taken, Aria?”

“None, and I don’t intend to either,” I whispered through the emotion clogging my words into my throat. “You?”

“Thousands.” He watched the narrowing of my eyes as I judged him harshly for admitting something so horrendous out loud. “It is easy to judge what you don’t understand. You see a man where there is only a monster. You look at me as if I should care what you think about what I have done during my life. Someday, when you’re forced to make the choices I have, I hope you remember that no man craves war. Monsters crave war, Aria. Man craves hearth, home, and a woman to carry his babes in her womb. He wants to watch as she feeds his babe from her breast, growing stronger from their mother’s milk. I wasn’t born a monster. I was born a man who housed a beast, but once awoken, our monsters do not simply go silent into the night. They’re built to wage wars and fight them. I am what your bloodline created, and yet I still crave to see my wife with my son, yet everything within me knows that it won’t ever be so. I know war, and I know how to fight it. Have I ended innocent lives? Yes, because in war, there are always those who die needlessly, and those deaths are on us. Losing innocent lives is the price of war and inevitable, no matter how much you try to prevent it.”

“Plan for what is difficult while it is easy, do what is great while it is small,” I whispered on an exhale, watching his lips tug into a knowing smile.

“The Art of War. You’ve read it?”

“Several times,” I admitted, enjoying the sparkle igniting in his eyes as if he’d found me a worthy advisory simply because I’d read the book. “That’s how I judge your moves. You must have read that worn copy a thousand times, with its broken spine and creased pages. The book looked loved and well-read.”

Knox licked his lips, inhaling as the muscles of his abdomen rippled with power, drawing my gaze to the tattoos on his chest and stomach.

“Which of Sun Tzu’s tactics am I using against you?” he asked in a raspy tone, his eyes studying me as my mind turned over what game he may be playing. “I promise you; there are many in play.”

“Thus, the expert in battle moves the enemy and is not moved by him,” I smirked, and he returned it with a wolfish smile that promised blood. “If his forces are united, separate them. You have done that. I am alone in this unforgiving land.”

“You’re not alone. I am here with you. I’m in the shadows, looking over your shoulder, hunting my pretty, ethereal prey as she slumbers, unaware that the biggest monster in all the realms serves as her protector and enemy. You’re never alone as long as I hunt you, Aria. I am never far behind you.”

I closed my eyes, lowering my arm, frowning as he mirrored me. “If you’d never married, or been in love, and I wasn’t your enemy, could you want me?”

His mouth tightened into a hard line, and my brow creased at the pain that flashed across Knox’s face. I closed my eyes and felt sleep trying to pull me into a much-needed respite. My chest rose