He died with honor, surrounded by the bodies of his foes. The Three can have no quarrel with that.
Astrid rose to leave when a shine caught her eye. Her mentor gripped something, concealing it even as he died. Hesitantly, Astrid pried apart his fingers, curious to see what he felt necessary to hide in his final moments
It was a silver symbol of the Three.
Astrid shook her head and sighed as she removed it from his grasp. Why this of all things? Had the Three protected them when invaders came to sack their city? Had They kept the students, the Masters, Lysan alive? What disappointment he must have felt in those last moments. He deserved better.
Then and there Astrid decided he would get better; if not by the Three then by her. She rose and put the symbol in her pocket, as a reminder of a great man, and the great debt he was owed. Maybe someday she could actually figure out how to make it right.
But first, she needed to get out of here.
Home had never been a safe place for her, but it was even less so now. Whatever the invaders had come for, they were gone now; the pervading silence told her that. The closest exit was only one a corridor away. She chose speed rather than stealth and she made for the door.
An instant mistake. As soon as she made it over the threshold, someone grabbed Astrid from behind, pinning her face first against a wall. Whether due to the after effects of Rayna’s potion, or the shock of all that she’d seen since awakening, her reflexes were a beat too slow. Before she could try to counter or break free, she felt a knife at her throat.
“Who are you? What are you doing here?” a harsh male voice whispered in her ear.
Rage and defiance surged through her. So this is it? This was her end? If that was so, she had no reason to make it easier on her killer.
“Answer me!” the voice commanded. The knife pressed on her neck to accentuate the point.
Instead of answering, Astrid raised her chin, stretching the skin on her throat tighter. A sharp sting told her the blade had pierced her flesh.
“Kill me and get it over with. I have no reason to help you,” she spat. Then she waited. And waited.
“What were you doing in the Masters’ quarters?” The man asked, inquiring more than demanding. Astrid felt the knife move ever so slightly away from her throat.
“You know where we are?” she responded.
“I asked you first.”
“I was looking for someone. Anyone.”
“And?”
“They’re all dead. The students, the Masters, everyone.”
“I see.” In a heartbeat, the man spun Astrid around, levelling an arm across her shoulders and pushing her back against the wall. He did not remove the knife. “And who are you?”
His face mere inches from hers, his olive skin indicated he was one of her countrymen and not a pale foreigner; yet his white-blonde hair and bruise colored eyes marked him as distinctly other. There was a coldness to him, and she knew she would do well to answer his questions.
“And how is it that you escaped such a massacre unscathed?”
“I… I was asleep.”
“You say you’re a student here,” he pressed the dagger tight against her neck again, “and yet you expect me to believe you slept through an attack such as this?”
“I took something… a sleeping serum of some sort. I don’t know what it was; a friend gave it to me,” she sputtered. “Everything was fine then. When I woke up, I was in the kitchen. Someone had stuffed me into a cabinet.”
“A cabinet…” the man pondered. Leaning into her again he growled, “What color was this serum?”
Astrid turned her head; it made her uncomfortable to have someone so close to her, to invade her private space as this man had done. His warm breath on her cheek didn’t make things much better. She racked her brain trying to remember the color of whatever Rayna gave her.
“Blue! It was blue.”
“So it was.” The man removed himself to arm’s length, holding the knife still but giving relief to Astrid’s claustrophobia. “So Astrid, what should I do with you?”
Acknowledgements
Thank you to all of you who’ve stayed on me to complete this book. Your encouragement is astounding and I promise the next one won’t take as long.
To Jenny and Kristen M.: thank you for being a writer’s dream and helping Claire come to life. I can’t wait until we have another chance to go giggle at my fanning ineptitude.
To Kristen H.: True story: I love you to pieces. Thank you for helping me copy edit during pedicures, and for getting tipsy when we had to write the “unmentionables.” I have a feeling we’ll be doing it again soon, so let’s stock up on the wine and babysitters!
To my Ryan: thank you for making sure things make sense. My writing, me, the kids, life, all of it.
To Monkey and Penguin: you two! Yes, sometimes you drive me crazy, and I may or may not run off to write and play with my imaginary friends to escape… but I’ll always come back, usually sooner than expected. Now go to bed!
And to my critters: your snores are the music I write to; kind of irritating, but everyone needs a sidekick or three!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Emily Reese graduated from the University of North Texas with a degree in Communication Studies, which makes it a little easier to write dialog… when her characters are cooperating. She lives out in the middle of nowhere with her husband, their two daughters, two cats, and a Pug. She loves smushed faced animals, the creative power of Junior Mints, the glory of naps, baking, video games (especially BioWare,) and the sound of her girls giggling together. Her works include Second Death, Second Life, and Servant of the Three coming September 2016.
Table of Contents
PROLOGUE
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
CHAPTER THIRTY
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
EPILOGUE
Servant of the Three: Sneak Peek
Acknowledgements