Reign of Beasts Read Online Free PDF

empty.
    â€˜Where were you?’ said a voice behind her. Delphine stood in the doorway, her hand loosely held in Macready’s.
    â€˜Tierce,’ said Velody, telling the truth without thinking. ‘What month is it?’ It seemed ridiculous that she had to ask.
    â€˜Bestialis,’ said Macready. ‘The day after the Ides. Though most of the day is gone now, so it is.’ He looked Velody over as if she were the shade of her ancestors. ‘What do you mean, you were in Tierce?’
    Velody sat at the familiar old kitchen table facing them both, her hands flat against its comforting surface. It was such a difficult question, so complicated, and she was expected to answer without even a cup of tea inside her?
    Tea was a distant memory. She had consumed nothing since she’d thrown herself into the sky, except for that dried cake she had found among the ashes in the temple back in Tierce … and that brought back memories of Garnet’s body hot inside hers, which was the last thing she needed.
    Where was he now? She had last seen Garnet and Ashiol fighting in the lake, years of stored-up anger spilling out as they pummelled each other. Then they were gone, both of them, and she had no idea what Garnet might do next. Have I let a monster loose in the city?
    â€˜Tierce is gone,’ said Delphine. ‘You told us that.’
    It had been true at the time. It felt like a million years since Velody had told Rhian and Delphine about the city of their birth, which they had all forgotten since it was swallowed by the sky in one of many battles, invisible to daylight folk.
    Velody nodded. ‘It’s really gone now. For a while it was … in a place between here and the other side of the sky. But it crumbled underneath us, we only just managed to escape.’
    Oh yes, she sounded insane. But Delphine had taken far more on trust this year.
    â€˜And by “we” you mean Garnet,’ said Macready. There was a studied lack of accusation in his voice.
    â€˜Yes,’ said Velody.
    â€˜As you say,’ he said, and let go of Delphine’s hand so he could busy himself with lighting the stove.
    Velody could feel the distance he was putting between them. Many possible excuses ran through her head — he’s changed, he’s different, you don’t know — but she couldn’t say any of that to Macready. He and the other sentinels had suffered so greatly at Garnet’s hands, when he was Power and Majesty. Besides, Garnet had left her swiftly enough, as soon as they got back to Aufleur. There was no reason to trust him.
    Where is he?
    â€˜Where’s Rhian?’ she asked instead.
    Macready and Delphine exchanged a glance.
    â€˜I’ve been looking for her all day, so I have,’ said Macready. ‘She didn’t come home after the Vittorina Royale.’
    Velody’s throat tightened. ‘She was there? When the ceiling came down?’ What had Rhian been doing in a theatre? Was she so much better that she could go out in public like that instead of hiding within the walls of their home? ‘Mac, a lot of people were hurt —’
    â€˜You think I don’t know that?’ he snapped. ‘She’s not dead. The Proctor’s men were all over the place today, carting bodies out of the theatre. She was not among them.’
    â€˜She’ll come home,’ Delphine said softly. ‘She has nowhere else to go.’
    â€˜Lot of good that will do her if she …’ Macready trailed off, looking uneasily at Velody. ‘Tea?’
    â€˜What aren’t you telling me?’ she demanded. ‘I’m not a child to be coddled.’
    â€˜No one’s saying that, lass. But no one wants to pile it all onto you at once.’
    â€˜Rhian’s the Seer,’ Delphine said in a clipped voice. ‘I’ll have tea, please. Lots of it. With sugar.’
    Velody stared at her. First Delphine was a sentinel, and