in the street. Finn told me you signed your name to the murders. And I trusted Finn.”
He cocked his head, but the rest of his body was unnervingly still, his hand still on my cheek. “Interesting. Who the fuck is Finn?”
“An absolute prick, as it turns out. Used to be my best friend, but now he’s one of the Free Men. He said you were killing women, ripping out their lungs. He said you signed your name. And then I found Alice’s locket in the Tower of Bones. I knew she worked there. I had my doubts, still. Maybe you weren’t what you seemed. But then Finn showed me a photograph. It was proof.”
A muscle twitched in his jaw. “A photograph.”
“It was you. You had a bloody sword in one hand, and my sister’s severed head in the other.”
“I don’t remember killing someone called Alice.”
“You didn’t. She’s still alive, somewhere. The photograph was faked. Double exposures, and painted by a great artist. So yes, I did try to assassinate you, but I'd been given bad information. That's why I ran back to you, to try to stop it when I realized I’d been tricked. I’d wanted revenge. You can understand wanting revenge, can’t you?”
He let his hand drop. “Oh yes. I understand revenge.” His words slid through my bones. That was a warning.
“Where are we?”
“An island, off the coast of Albia. This castle was my home for a very long time. It has a very long history. But you won’t be seeing anything except this room.”
“Just because I tried to kill you?”
“It’s a bit of a pet peeve of mine, as it happens.” The fire in his eyes faded to an icy gray again.
My legs felt weak, and I sat down on the bed. “What if I want to leave?”
“You simply can’t. I don’t know what your role is yet, but I know it’s important, and there are more important things in this world than where you do or do not want to be.”
I narrowed my eyes, clutching the edge of the bed. “Is that so?”
“How did you knock out half my army?”
I shrugged. “I don’t really know. It might have been the spirit of the Raven King. It just happened.”
He studied me for a long time. “You’re dangerous, Lila.”
I shook my head. “I don’t know about that.” I touched the skin on my arm, and it shimmered with magic. “How did I recover?”
“Slowly.”
“Who are the nephilim?”
“Children of the Fallen. Have you wondered why Sourial is always drunk? He drinks to forget that his sons and daughters have been killed. The Free Men and the others like them have made it their mission. They are growing in power, day by day. They thrive among the nobility and mortals with power. They are lawlessness in the name of the law. Only by uniting the Fallen against this mortal scourge can we stop it. And Lila, I will not let you get in the way again.”
“I won’t get in your way. They set me up and tried to kill me.” As I breathed out slowly, I felt like dark shadows were seeping from me. “I want to crush them.”
His gaze flicked up and down my body for a moment, like he was drinking me in. “Hmm. It will be a long time before I trust anything you say.” He turned to leave the room, and a chill settled over my skin. Here, in this castle over the river, I felt completely alone.
If I could read, I could make my own decisions. On shaking legs, I crossed to one of the bookshelves, and scanned the spines until I saw something thin with colorful letters at the bottom. Something that looked like a children’s book.
I knelt down, and pulled it out.
Because all I had for company was a library of books. But that meant knowledge, and power.
I had work to do. It would start here, and I would win Samael over once more.
Thank you for reading!
If you want to discuss the book with others who read it, you can click here to join our Facebook reader group, C.N. Crawford’s Coven.
Want to get a hint of how Samael feels after the explosion?
I wrote a scene that didn’t make the final cut of the book, and it’s one of Samael’s dreams. In the deleted chapter, we get a hint of how he feels about Lila right now. It’s not central to the plot though.
You can click the cover for the deleted scene. It also features a