Night of Masks and Knives (The Broken Kingdoms, #4)

by L.J. Andrews

To me it didn’t matter the size of payment, what mattered was the fear and hopelessness behind it when it landed in my hands. When desperation and need were considered, this particular coin was worth more than the treasury of the Black Palace.

When he looked at me again it was as if I’d taken my sharpest knife and carved out his heart through his spine. A look I’d never forget, and one he promptly buried beneath those strange shadows.

I thought she might look away when I narrowed my own gaze. But Malin Strom merely tightened her mouth into a bloodless line, those eyes telling me I was going to pay for something.

“I will do worse before this is over.” Curse the gods. Her bleeding smile widened. “Good of you to warn me.”

My fingertips brushed over the wooden charm. The rose he’d carved for me, then told me he got to wear it to keep a piece of me with him while I kept his raven with me.

″Maybe I enjoy making you gasp.”

″Do you remember these?” he asked. Such a simple phrase, but one that ached to my bones.

How much had changed since that first deal with the Nightrender. I had feared him, hated him in some ways. Now all I could think was how badly I wanted him to crawl into me. How his touch would be the memory I’d never give up.

“Malin.” I tugged at her trousers, my fingers sliding beneath the waistline. “Everything I want is all that you are.”

Malin Strom was my beautiful downfall. And I would take any pain if it meant more of her. Ruin me. Brutalize me. Just give me her.

What I would do to get her free of this place. There were no lengths I would not go. No man I would not kill. I would burn the world to the ground to keep her breathing and in my arms.

The girl who first saw me cry, who stayed up with me if nightmares burdened my dreams. She was the first girl to tell me I was brave and strong. Malin was the first, she was the only one, to hold my heart and soul in her hands.

There are no lengths I would not go to get Kase Eriksson. He would do the same. He would not stop. Nor will we.”