The Kingdom of Copper (The Daevabad Trilogy #2) - S. A. Chakraborty Page 0,201

simmering with anger. “You will answer for the choice you just made. Not tonight. Not to me … but you will answer.”

A fly buzzed past her ear. Nahri barely noticed; she was speechless. Then another swept past her face, brushing her cheek.

Kaveh turned to look at the sky. More flies were coming, a swarm from the direction of the lake.

Grim determination swept his features. “It is time.”

There was an angry shout from beyond the closed door.

Nahri instantly recognized the voice. “Muntadhir!” She lunged for the door. His father might be lying in a pool of blood on the ground, but right now Nahri trusted her estranged husband far more than the mad wazir who’d orchestrated a riot and assassinated a king.

“Nahri?” Muntadhir’s voice was muffled through the door, but from his tone, he was clearly arguing with the guards on the other side.

Kaveh shoved himself between Nahri and the door. “Muntadhir cannot come in, Banu Nahri. He cannot be exposed to this.”

“Exposed to what?” she cried. “The fact that you just murdered his father?”

But as she tried to wrestle past him, she suddenly spotted what Kaveh meant.

A coppery haze was reforming above the dead king. Glittering particles, like minuscule metal stars, swirled up from Ghassan’s pooling blood, forming a cloud twice the size of the one that had escaped Kaveh’s shattered ring.

Nahri instantly backed away, but the vapor flowed harmlessly past her and Kaveh, separating and undulating around her waist like a wave. The flies zipped over them all, dozens now.

Muntadhir broke down the door.

“I don’t care what he said!” he shouted, trying to shove past a pair of guards. “She’s my damned wife and …” Muntadhir recoiled, his eyes locking on his father’s bloody body. “Abba?”

The guards reacted more swiftly. “My king!” Two flew to Ghassan, the other two going for Nahri and Kaveh. Muntadhir didn’t move from the door frame, falling heavily against it as if it was all that was keeping him on his feet.

The flies suddenly flickered into flashes of fire, dissolving into a rain of ash.

“Muntadhir, I didn’t do it!” Nahri cried as one of the guards grabbed her. “I swear! I had nothing to do with this!”

A roar broke the air, a scream like the crash of ocean waves and the bellow of a crocodile. It sounded dully distant, but it set every hair on her body on end.

Nahri had heard that roar before.

The vapor struck again.

The guards who’d gone to Ghassan screamed, clutching their heads. The soldier who’d seized her dropped her arm and backed away with a cry, but he wasn’t fast enough. His relic dashed into his ear with vindictive speed. He shrieked in pain, clawing at his face.

“No.” Kaveh’s horrified whisper cut through the wails. His gaze locked on Muntadhir, still framed against the door. “This wasn’t how it was supposed to happen!”

Muntadhir’s eyes went bright with fear.

Nahri didn’t hesitate. She shot to her feet, running across the pavilion as the coppery cloud, now tripled in size, flew at her husband.

“Banu Nahida, wait!” Kaveh cried. “You don’t—”

She didn’t hear what else he had to say. The vapor just behind her, Nahri threw herself at Muntadhir.

Too late, Nahri remembered that the door opened on to a staircase.

Muntadhir grunted as she hit him hard in the stomach and then he cried out as he lost his balance. They tumbled down the stairs, various limbs bashing against the dusty stone before they landed in a heap at the bottom.

Pinned beneath her, Muntadhir swore. Nahri gasped, the wind knocked from her lungs. Her abilities were still dulled from the iron cuffs, and she was bruised and battered, a searing pain running down her left wrist.

Muntadhir blinked and then his eyes went wide, locking on something past her shoulder. “Run!” he cried, scrambling to his feet and yanking her up.

They fled. “Your relic!” Nahri wheezed. In the opposite corridor from the one they’d taken, someone cried out in Geziriyya. Then, chillingly, the wail abruptly cut out into silence. “Take out your relic!”

He reached for it as they ran, his fingers fumbling.

Nahri glanced over her shoulder, horrified to see the coppery haze lapping toward them like a hungry, malevolent wave. “Muntadhir!”

He yanked it out, hurling the copper bolt away just as the vapor engulfed them. Nahri held her breath, terrified. And then it passed, rushing down the corridor.

Muntadhir fell to his knees, shaking so hard Nahri could hear his teeth rattling. “What the hell was that?” he gasped.

Her heart was pounding, the echo throbbing in her