Page 58 of Throne of Ice and Blood
A dark chuckle rumbles from his throat. Leaning closer, he slants his mouth over mine and whispers straight against my lips, “Gladly. When I’m done with you, your wet little cunt will?—”
Loud pounding comes from the door.
It startles me so much that, for a second, I can’t even figure out what is happening. Then the sound comes again, and I realize that someone is knocking frantically on the door.
“Commander,” a man calls from the other side while continuing to pound on the door. “Commander.”
Draven keeps his hands on my throat and my pussy, but his gaze darkens as he turns his head to glare at the door. And when he shouts back to the person on the other side of the door, his voice is dripping with threats.
“Someone had better be dead, or I’m going to rip your fucking throat out for disturbing me over nothing!”
The knocking stops immediately, and the man outside the door falls silent.
Draven tilts his head to the side in a half nod, as if satisfied that his threat worked. But right before he can turn back to me, the man outside speaks up again.
“But Commander,” he calls, sounding worried and apologetic. “Someoneisdead.”
Draven continues scowling at the door for another second. Then he seems to understand what’s going on, because he heaves a deep breath and turns back to me. Closing his eyes, he leans his forehead against mine for a second.
“Next time, little rebel,” he whispers in promise.
Then he releases me and stalks over to the door.
After yanking my panties back on and smoothing down my dress skirt, I quickly shift my hair so that it’s covering my throat and hiding the fact that I’m not wearing a collar. Draven glances back at me when he reaches the door and, apparently satisfied with my hair solution, then shoves the door open.
A male shifter in messenger clothes leaps back to avoid getting hit by the door. He wrings his hands and gives Draven another apologetic look.
“What is it?” Draven demands.
“The Red Hand has killed again.”
CHAPTER TWENTY
Both anticipation and worry pulse inside me as I follow Draven and some of his soldiers towards the scene of the crime. We took the northeast stairwell. My heart patters against my ribs as we ascend the stairs.
I have to stifle a sharp breath when Draven leads us out of the stairwell as soon as we reach the third floor. This is where the treasury is. I flick my gaze around the pale ice corridor, lit by faelight gems in the ceiling. Don’t tell me the humans tried to break into the treasury prematurely instead of waiting for my intel.
Boots thud against the floor around me as Draven and the other shifters hurry down the hall. We round a corner.
Blood stains the ice.
I trail to a halt while the others continue towards the man who is lying on the ground a few strides ahead. He is wearing silver armor but carries no sword. His brown hair is wet with blood from the pool of it that he’s lying in, and his brown eyes are wide with shock. My gaze drifts to his neck. His throat has been slit with one precise cut.
“Seal off this entire wing,” Draven snaps to his soldiers. “Check the entire floor, and the ones above and below it too. He can’t fly, which means that he’s still in the building. Find him!”
“Yes, sir,” his soldiers reply before darting away to follow his orders.
I scramble to the side and press myself up against the wall as two of them barrel past me.
Cold air hits the back of my neck.
Stunned, I flick a quick glance over my shoulder to find the window behind me slightly open. It’s nothing more than the tiniest of cracks, and it’s not visible unless you’re standing right next to it the way I am. But it looks as if someone pushed it closed in a hurry without being able to properly check that it was fully closed.
Sudden realization hits me like a shovel to the face, and a gasp almost escapes my lips before I manage to suppress it. I quickly turn my head back so that I’m facing forwards again and take a discreet step to the side so that my body is blocking the window more fully.
Mabona’s tits.That’show he does it.
I’ve been wondering how the Red Hand is getting in and out of the castle without anyone seeing him roaming the halls. And this is it.
