Night Spinner (Night Spinner #1) - Addie Thorley Page 0,105

looked straight through the gore, as if it weren’t real. Her voice was firm, yet calm. Coaxing almost.

“I had to counteract the threat, En. We couldn’t take any chances. It was a necessary risk, but we needn’t ever speak of it again. We’ll tell the Sky King a band of Zemyans attacked the nomads. And you were injured fighting them off. He will never know the truth. No one will ever know.”

“I will know!” I thundered. The effort left me gasping. “Innocent people are dead, Ghoa! You killed them. And attacked me.”

“So you plan to turn me in?” Tears seeped from her eyes and left icy trails on her cheeks. “I’ll be stripped of everything. Warriors have been put to death for lesser offenses. And I didn’t mean for this to happen.”

“That’s precisely what makes you so dangerous,” I said before I could stop myself.

Ghoa’s beautiful face went slack—pale and white and emotionless, like the doll she had pitched to the snow. Then her features slowly pinched into something sharp. She dropped to her knees and bunched my coat in her fists. Pain crashed through my limbs as she shook me. “I saved you from that burning hut. I gave you everything. We are family, Enebish.”

“I know, but I can’t just forget what you did.”

“You can,” Ghoa whispered in my ear. “I’ll help you.” Her fist crashed against my temple, and a blast of bitter cold tore through my skull—a cold so complete, my skin burned and my ears rang and each tooth froze in its socket. The chill spread outward like a sickness, hardening the blood in my veins and stilling all coherent thought. As the vortex of ice and agony entombed me, I saw the yellow flare of a torch and ash-covered hands. My final frozen breath reeked of burning flesh. Then everything dissolved into white.

When I jerked back into consciousness, I was on a hard metal cot covered in a scratchy blanket that smelled of alcohol. The pounding in my head was unbearable, my arm throbbed with every beat of my heart, and it felt like a blunted saber was sawing through my right leg.

What happened?

I tried to sit up, but my arm and leg howled at the movement, and the strap across my chest kept me pinned to the table.

Why am I strapped to the table?

Panic ripped from my lips in a scream. I thrashed against my bonds, but that only made bursts of light explode behind my eyelids.

“Lie still or you’ll tear your stitches.” Ghoa’s cool hands pressed me down, and her familiar scent of grass and steel washed over me. “Take a deep breath. You’re safe. I’m here.”

“What happened?” I gasped. “Were we attacked?”

There was a long moment of silence, and when I glanced up at Ghoa’s face, I noticed her tear-streaked cheeks and her puffy, bloodshot eyes. “There was an incident,” she said slowly. “I tried to stop you—”

“Stop me from doing what?” The last thing I remembered was leaning against the barricade, freezing my tail off.

“I didn’t want to hurt you,” Ghoa continued babbling, “but I didn’t know what else to do. You were on a rampage.”

“A rampage? What are you talking about?” I closed my eyes and clenched my teeth, but when I sifted through my memory, it was blank and white—like the grasslands after the first snowfall of winter. Panicked, I lifted my good hand over my face, searching for a lingering trace of starfire, but there was only cold, clammy flesh. “I don’t remember anything,” I said. My voice sounded shrill and high, and I trembled as if feverish.

Ghoa eased my arm back to my side and smoothed my hair away from my face. “You lost a lot of blood, and I had to hit you over the head—it was all I could do to bring you down. I’m sure your memories will resurface in time, but for now, consider it a blessing. You don’t want to remember.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

THE MEMORY DISSIPATES AND I’M BACK IN THE SPIRE SALON, pinned beneath Ghoa, watching her dagger fly toward my chest.

To cut me down.

To silence me—like before.

But this time I’m ready.

I throw my weight to the side and Ghoa’s dagger slams into the floor instead of my chest.

“It was you!” I pant. “You killed the caravan of merchants at Nariin. Then you froze my memory and sowed your seeds of deception while I was blinded by pain and reeling from blood loss. And you ensured they stayed that way by implanting that