Ashes of Chaos (Legacy of the Nine Realms #2) - Amelia Hutchins Page 0,79
Realms who aren’t evil as fuck, live. If you work out, I think you and I will make great friends. If not, I do enjoy barbeque.”
“I don’t know if I should be terrified or have a serious girl crush right now. I can’t say I trust you yet, Aria, but I can say that if you’re serious about helping us, I’m your girl. I am all in with you. I don’t want to die, and I don’t want to bury more headless bodies. I worked in the killing fields, and I can’t do that again.”
“What killing fields?” Esme swallowed and shook her head. “Show me.”
“It’s not safe there.”
“We won’t stay long, and if they find us, I’ll kill every last one of them to ensure we escape, Esme.” She nodded, moving her attention to the girl and boy I’d not noticed. “Hello, urchins,” I whispered, smirking as they slowly moved closer.
“Little traitors,” she grumbled, opening the portal. “I’ll remember that.”
“Do they have names?” I asked, smothering a laugh.
“Yeah, it’s urchin one and urchin two. They don’t speak. Tristan removed their tongues after murdering their mother once her usefulness had expired.”
Nausea swirled through me as I stared down at the children that held my hands. “How could he be so cruel?” I asked.
“Tristan was their father. He planned to breed the evil out of us with his seed, or he had, up until you murdered him. Now I guess he won’t be breeding anything, will he?” She turned her attention to the children and nodded toward an older woman. “Go see old Agnes and ask her for some sweet cakes. She’s hiding them in the larder room. Stick out what’s left of your tongues at her. She’s a softy for a sad tale.”
“That’s kind of fucked up,” I muttered, watching the two children rush toward a witch who didn’t look any older than thirty. Old Agnes wasn’t that old if you were to judge her by her appearance. Unlike humans, though, we didn’t age past thirty, so as far as I knew, she could be ten thousand or so.
“Barbeque? What is that?” Esme snorted, stepping through the portal as I followed behind her.
“It’s something you eat after you cook it over open flames.”
“But if you cooked me from within, wouldn’t I be something other than barbeque?” she questioned, tilting her head.
I exhaled at the rows of sticks fashioned into awkward crosses covering the ground as far as the eye could see. It wasn’t a typical graveyard with headstones and tomb markers; this was a sea of nameless graves that stretched on for miles and miles. My breath caught in my throat, and I swallowed, turning to look at Esme, who stared out over the field.
“Who are they?” I whispered.
“Witches, monsters, men, and women,” she said thickly. “My mother is here, and several of my sisters. This is where we bury the dead. Some are headless thanks to your boyfriend, while others weren’t smart enough to bow to the high queen and ended up here one way or another. This is a glimpse at the future of the Nine Realms if the war continues to ravish through them.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
I moved toward the hillside with Esme, peering out over the men who endlessly dug graves. Chains clanked around their feet, and I turned, peering at Esme in question.
“They’re prisoners of the realms,” she swallowed loudly. “Once charged, they work until they expire and succumb to exhaustion. Some aren’t immortal, so those will work until death or until the wounds fester on their backs, and they are too weak to work. Once that happens, they’re added into the graves alive.”
I took in the thick mist that rolled through the clearing, and a chill ran up my spine as the putrid scent of revenants got closer to us. My eyes burned, and I covered my mouth to suppress a cough, noticing Esme’s panicked expression.
“No noise when it comes,” she whispered barely above a breath.
Esme grabbed me just as their shrieks began. We rushed over the field covered in graves, Esme pulling me down with her when she tripped. I turned, staring over my shoulder where the revenant mist was moving quickly toward us.
I shoved up from the ground, grabbing Esme as we once against took off to the forest that was a little over a football field away. My lungs burned by the time we reached the thick woods, turning to see the gray, husk-like creatures as they stepped from the mist, rushing toward us.