Wicked As You Wish (A Hundred Names for Magic #1) - Rin Chupeco Page 0,140

with unexpected rage. “You are never to repeat those words ever again,” he practically snarled. “Swear it!”

“But—”

“I said, swear it!”

“All right, Your Highness,” Nya said hastily. “If that’s what you wish.”

Alex glared at her for a few more seconds before turning back again.

“What did you say?” West whispered. “Why did he get mad at you like that?”

“I have no idea.”

“Either he’s a damn git,” Ken said, “or he’s in the middle of a very nervous breakdown.”

“Let’s not make things worse,” Loki murmured. “From now until we enter Lyonesse, I expect everyone to be on their best behavior regardless of what else His Highness decides to throw at you.”

“Fine, fine.” Ken made a show of taking something out of his mouth and throwing it in the air before them. “See? This is me, tossing out all my negativity as far as I can—”

An explosion racked Maidenkeep, nearly sending Ken off his saddle. They all stared as the smoke cleared, as a smaller series of shock waves followed after. But Alex was already moving; a swift kick to its sides sent his horse galloping hard toward the city.

“Ken,” Loki said. “What the hell did you do?”

* * *

“Something’s wrong,” Cole said. They had just passed through Lyonesse’s broken gates and were driving toward the palace, or at least, where Zoe hoped the palace was. The truck seemed intent on going over every broken cobblestone and bumpy ridge the road had to offer. The seat belt was broken, so Zoe’s only option was to cling to the seat’s armrest, grimly holding on for dear life. Cole had said very little before this, with his face the closest thing to green Zoe had ever seen it, and he was the one behind the wheel.

“How can you tell?” Zoe asked, wincing when the vehicle went over a particularly deep pothole.

“Nightwalkers.” Grimly, Cole gestured at the Gravekeeper, which he’d placed on the dashboard. The brambles around the hilt were moving on their own, lashing angrily at the air around them. “It’s never been wrong before.”

“Are you sure? Lyonesse’s protected by all kinds of charms, and from what I can see around us, there’s a lot of them still in place. The frost was the only thing that broached this city. Nightwalkers can’t even get within a mile of it, much less be hiding inside it.”

“It’s never been wrong,” Cole repeated stubbornly.

Something clattered hard against the roof of the truck.

“Is it raining hail again?” Zoe asked, about to roll down the window to find out. Except the window had been stuck halfway down ever since they started out, and was clearly going to be stuck for the rest of the journey.

A dark shadow stole across the upper windshield, blinked red eyes at them. It was most definitely not a hailstone.

Swearing, Zoe drove a shoulder against her passenger door, preventing the shade from stealing in through the half-open window. The inside of the truck was too small for her to be using the Ogmios; she was going to accidentally hit Cole or herself. “Nottingham, floor it!”

Cole very carefully laid both his injured and uninjured hands against the wheel, then stomped down hard on the accelerator.

The truck careened cheerfully down the road, mowing down objects at random. One sharp turn sent Zoe slamming against the door, but the move was successful at dislodging the shade. Zoe could hear its shrills growing softer as they left it behind. “I stand corrected,” Zoe said ruefully, rubbing at a freshly forming bruise on her arm. “But if there are nightwalkers in these streets, do you think they’ve infiltrated the castle as well?”

A sudden explosion nearly sent her flying out of her seat. Cole lurched forward and the truck screeched to an ungainly stop. By the time both managed to work their way back up to a sitting position, thick black smoke was visible, rising up several buildings away.

“Never mind,” Zoe said.

32

In Which the Nine Maidens Unleash Their Power

It used to be a feast. Now it was a rotting mess of mold and sludge; what hadn’t been consumed by rodents and insects was left to fester. Not even the cold could preserve most of the food, and the banquet spread before them appeared to have been abandoned midway through preparations. And yet the huge cauldron in one corner had been frozen completely solid, sitting on a bed of stalagmites where fire once burned.

They hadn’t gone into much detail about this part of the war in history class, if it was even taught at