Power & Majesty Read Online Free PDF Page B

Livilla is in pieces, and Poet’s drinking again, and half my sentinels are mourning their frigging families?’
    ‘No,’ said Ash. ‘I came to see if you were all right.’
    ‘I’m peachy.’
    ‘Can see that.’
    He tipped back his head, staring at those devil-damned benign stars. I can see him now, the image of him. I couldtrace around him with a finger. I remember exactly his tone of voice. How careful he was not to accuse even as he said, ‘Must have been something we could do. Heliora warned us weeks ago.’
    I hated him in that moment. There had always been moments of hating him. For all I loved him, I could never forget that he was the aristocrat slumming it in the streets, while the Creature Court had given me more than the daylight world ever could.
    ‘Our precious seer isn’t always right,’ I growled. ‘Do you know what she told me the other day? She said, “Ashiol will be the death of you.” What do you think she meant by that?’
    He actually grinned, the bastard. As if somehow I had changed the topic to a more amusing one. ‘Well, she’s not always right.’
    I wasn’t smiling. ‘This charming idea of yours, that we could have somehow done more to save Tierce from the sky even if it meant abandoning our own city to do so. Have you shared that thought with anyone?’
    ‘Of course not,’ he said, sounding offended. ‘You are Power and Majesty. I’m yours. You know that.’
    ‘Good,’ I said, wanting to hurt him. Wanting him to show some bloody respect instead of mouthing the words. ‘If I ever hear you questioning my authority again—in public or private—I will bite your throat out.’
    He was remarkably quiet after that. When he finally spoke, after such a careful, thoughtful pause, he said, ‘If you can’t trust me, you can’t trust anyone.’
    Exactly my thoughts.
    Things tumbled differently after that. Tierce was the first real test of how much our Creature Court believed in me as Power and Majesty. Naturally, they were found wanting. You know the rest, I’m sure. You’ll have heard all the grotesque details. How Garnet became a monster. How every day that he was in power brought a new wave of mistrust.
    How I wrapped myself up in my own misery and suspicion, clinging to the few remaining people who were loyal to me.
    Ashiol was not one of them.
    I knew he worked against me, that he thought I was unworthy to lead the Creature Court. After Tierce fell, he did not look at me the same way. None of them did. Conversations ended when I came near.
    I was the fucking Power and Majesty and they treated me like a child to be indulged lest his madness prove contagious. Every single one of them. They did not respect me as they had Ortheus. They looked to Ashiol instead—seeking his approval; his confirmation that I was not a total madman. I saw the tiny nods, the acknowledgement that he supported me, this time.
    I burned with it. The authority should be mine, not his. They trusted him more, loved him more. If I was truly to be the Power and Majesty, I would have to bring him down. Prove to them once and for all that I was the master.
    Is this what you want to hear? How I humbled him, humiliated him? That he still stood at my side after I made him bleed? Too much pride, both of us. When he would not stand down, would not let his discomfort even show in his face, I took it further.
    He became my prisoner. My toy. I hurt him and tortured him and it made sense at the time. He gave me no choice.
    Ashiol awoke in the dark room. He braced himself for the pain that always came first. The burn of the skysilver net, threading scorchlines in patterns over his skin. The deep hollowing ache of a blade in his ribs. Garnet’s fingerprints on his back or hands or feet, still glowing with light.
    There was nothing. No pain. He bent his body forward, letting the chains take his weight. They should burn too—steel wrapped in skysilver—but they did not. Ashiol licked his lips, and tasted blood that was