Ruins of Chaos (Legacy of the Nine Realms #3) - Amelia Hutchins Page 0,7

the woods as the sound of steel meeting steel abated as if the fighting had ended.

Pain echoed through my head while blood pumped through my veins, causing my ears to fill with the roar of it coursing through me. The wagon lurched forward quietly, and the sound of the wheels and horse’s hooves crunching over the forest floor filled the air. I assumed they were taking me north, to Ilsa, and the Kingdom of Vãkya instead of Norvalla.

I could hear hushed grunts and words that flowed around me. Men talked in a strange language I couldn’t identify or understand. The witches within the caravan spoke the language taught to me since birth, uncaring that I would hear them if I woke, which meant they didn’t intend to keep me alive.

Tears burned my eyes at the thought of Knox finding his brother and men slaughtered without a sign of me, and pain rocked through me. He’d assume I had helped murder them, and that would send him off the rails, hunting me down to end my existence. My heart lurched, tightening until a sob threatened to explode from me.

Greer, Lore, and Killian couldn’t be dead. It wasn’t right for them to die on some road because witches wanted me dead. I’d rushed through the kingdom, leaving havoc and ruins in my wake of chaos, and now they were all dead because of my body count while showing Knox I wasn’t some child he could threaten and own.

“Lord Andres had better hope he is present when we arrive. I am not willing to allow her to live much longer. Her death should prevent the king from finding her, with her sickly sweet breeding stench oozing from her. Lord Andres should have told us what she was so we could have had something to counter her aroma. I’m not even her species, and I can smell her reek.”

I sniffed myself, frowning. Was I the only one who couldn’t smell my scent?

“The bodies we left on the road will slow down the king. One is his brother, which means we should go before he arrives. If he shows up with an army, they will outnumber us, and not even you can match the King of Norvalla in strength.”

“We won’t be here when he arrives. I only need to extract her scent and mirror her image. Once we have finished with that, I will appear like her, and the king won’t be able to tell the difference between Aria Hecate and myself.”

I rolled my eyes at the woman’s reasoning and then frowned. Was it possible to duplicate someone and appear as them? Yes. Easily, but this was Knox. He’d figured out my replica within minutes of being close to me when I’d used it on him. Not that it would matter if I were dead.

“Ditch the wagon. It’s slowing us down,” a woman ordered.

Someone wrenched me up like a sack of potatoes and slammed me onto the back of a horse. I sucked in air, forcing no response to escape my lips or lungs. Beefy hands pushed into my spine, using me as a prop to get onto the horse’s back. Even the horse grunted beneath the heavyweight.

We took off again, this time at a faster pace as if fear were rushing us away from the site where they’d murdered Knox’s brother and friends. Like that would prevent him from reaching us? For once, I was glad for the tattoo on my inner thigh, relieved that he would track us, drawn to the general vicinity in which they intended to murder me. Hopefully, he’d show up before they ended my life.

Hours passed before we entered what sounded like a camp as metal clanged and voices spoke or argued. The moment we breached the hub of noise, silence reigned. The male that had ignored my existence, other than to grab my body when I started to fall, yanked me from the horse, and held me in his arms.

“Bring her to the tent,” the witch ordered. “Is Lord Andres here?”

“He is here, Mistress,” someone answered.

“Good. Find the runner who failed to return and take her head.”

The male took me into a tent and dropped me on the ground unceremoniously. I sucked in air, remaining limp as the sound of heavy breathing entered behind us.

“I see you found the bitch,” Lord Andres snorted. “I trust you murdered Killian and Lore to stall the king from hunting her?”

“Easily. It’s a pity that I couldn’t play with the king’s brother.