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She seized the walnut thug’s arm as he doubled up, flipping him over the railing and into the sea.
Dayum
Mia noticed one of his eyes moved slightly before the other, like a child leading a slow cousin by the hand.
LOL
The sound was like wet sticks snapping, too loud to be drowned by Mia’s scream.
Jay wtf is up with you and killing animals on the page! :'(
‘… he ate a sparing meal, watched the ones who insulted him between mouthfuls, and followed them home when they left …’ ‘Did he kill them?’ ‘… pissed in their water barrel …’
LOL
The girl sighed grey, crushed her cigarillo out with her boot heel. Spat into the wind. And just like that, young Tric was in love.
Aww
Mia offered her hand. ‘Well met, sister. My—’ Jessamine slapped the hand away, eyes flashing. ‘You’re no sister to me, bitch.’
Oh dear
‘They said he was a traitor.’ A shrug. ‘A traitor’s just a patriot on the wrong side of winning.’
He looked about seven thousand four hundred and fifty-two years old.
Give or take
‘Well, I’ll be off then. Too many books. Too few centuries.’
So true
You can imagine Mia’s surprise then, when Floodcaller was discovered lying in the shadow of Niah’s statue the next morning. A pool of blood cooling among the names on the carven stone about him. Throat cut ear to ear.
Woah
Solis’s eyes widened as Mia struck; a whistling blow aimed right at his throat. He parried, knocking her right hand aside and sending her knife spinning across the room. But with speed a dragonmoth would envy, the girl pirouetted, hair flying, striking out with her left hand and taking a tiny nick out of the Shahiid’s cheek.
Yaassss
And bringing it down like thunder from the heavens, Mia screaming all the while, he struck once twice three times and hacked the girl’s arm off at the elbow.
I'M SORRY WHAT?!
‘Sod off,’ Tric scowled. ‘He hurt you.’ ‘The Revered Mother said he does it all the time. Sets the tone in his classes on the first smart-arse stupid enough to raise her head.’ ‘Enter Mia Corvere, stage left,’ Tric grinned.
When they were gone, a boy stepped from the shadows behind them. Pale skin. Black leather. Most would’ve called him handsome, though beautiful was probably a better word. He had high cheekbones and the most piercing blue eyes you’ve ever seen. A boy named Hush. He was holding a knife. Watching Mia and Ashlinn slip away into the dark, and running one slender fingertip over the razored edge. And he was smiling.
Bollocks
‘As my ex-wife used to say,’ smiled Shahiid Mouser. ‘It’s all in the fingers.’
Lol classy
How better to maintain a cadre of anonymous assassins than by reshaping their faces whenever the need struck? How better to seduce a mark or blend into a crowd or be met and instantly forgotten than by crafting a face suited to the task? How better to make us forget who we were, and shape us into what they want us to be?
‘The Kingmaker’s sprog,’ came the scarred man’s voice behind her. ‘Bounce my bollocks on the boardwalk, is that not a treat, Brother Micheletto?’
LOL
Iron or glass? they’d asked. Mia clenched her jaw. Shook her head. She was neither. She was steel.
A beautiful boy stepped from the dark, following their path with bright blue eyes. As always, he breathed not a word.
That MF creeps me out
Mia herself chose a daring gown of crushed velvet in a deep wine red, propping a tricorn of the same fabric atop her head.
A tricorn with a gown?
It was odd, but with the boy’s face covered, Mia could see only his eyes. Staring up into those big pools of sparkling hazel and realizing they were fixated entirely on her. All the pearls and jewels, the silk and glitter, the opulence on display. These pretty dons and donas all dipped in gold. And still, he only looked at her.
Aw
‘Enjoy yourselves, my dears. Laugh. Love. Remember what it is to live, and forget, if only for a moment, what it is to serve.’ ‘Invitations, please.’
Of cours it was a trap, you idiots
‘They’re going to take it away,’ he said. ‘… I don’t understand.’
His tattoos, dumby
Jessamine was advancing, Mia scrabbling back across the stone now, puke bubbling in her throat.
Projectile vomit in her face
Mia was furiously scribbling notes when Ash whispered in her ear. ‘So. Question.’ ‘It’s not the one about where babes come from, is it?’ Mia muttered. ‘Because I don’t think our friendship is ready for that.’
Lmao
Tric curled his hands into fists. Veins taut beneath his skin, etched in the muscle. He was trembling, Mia realised. Grief or rage, she didn’t know.
He's breaking my heart
But for the first time since for ever, the nightmares never arrived. The girl was not afraid. And there in the empty dark, the not-cat tilted its head. Narrowed its not-eyes. And it was not pleased.
Don't tell me he's going to turn on her
‘How did she die?’ Tric asked. ‘She didn’t die,’ Ash spat. ‘She was killed.’
I'm sure it's Hush
The girl shook her head. Snarled. ‘This stops when he does.’ And curling her fingers into trembling fists, she disappeared.
OMG she's the one that fucked with the senate but they think it was the Red Church
And the questions in Tric’s eyes died.
If it was a trap from the other biatch!!
‘There are thirteen of us, Shahiid,’ Marcellus said. ‘How will you work the odd number?’ ‘Only twelve of you will compete. Acolyte Diamo has opted out of the trial.’
Uh? What's their play
‘Maw’s teeth, Oz, are you going to spit it out, or make me play guess-a-game?’ ‘Word has it Diamo solved Spiderkiller’s formula this morn.’
Fuck they did it while Mia was with Tric. I'm sure of it. I fucking knew it. Shit shit shit
He’d no idea the girl had other plans. Plans formulated with Naev in the hours before every mornmeal. Their blades whistling in the dark as they sparred, back and forth. The aches and pains. The weeks and months of feigning weakness in Solis’s classes, letting herself get cut, stabbed, constantly thrashed by Jessamine, Diamo, Pip, Petrus, all of them. All to build up the illusion of weakness. A viper playing possum. A scabdog, bleeding in the dust.
Fucking genius
Jessamine glanced to Diamo on the benches. He was watching her closely, still smiling, his eyes bright and wide. He wiped at his upper lip, damp with sweat. Then he blew Mia a kiss.
My loathing for these knows no bounds
‘I wondered if either of you would be fool enough. I really thought I might have oversold it yesterturn at mornmeal. But you’ve never been the sharpest blades in the bunch. The note you sent from Tric was a nice touch, though. Nothing like the promise of a strapping Dweymeri boy to lure a girl out of her room, neh?’
Oh the relief
Mia looked up at Tric’s pain-filled stare. Eyes locked with his. Smiling. ‘Koffi,’ she whispered.
Tell me she's doing that to anger him even more
‘I yield,’ she said again, flopping back onto the stone. Tric’s chest was heaving. Grip quavering. Eyes locked on Mia’s. The girl smiled with bloody lips. And she winked.
Phew
‘We were fools to let it get this far. You hear me, Mia?’ Tric pointed to her. To himself. ‘You and me? Never. Again.’
Liar
The huge double doors closed silently behind him. Mia’s hand went to the stiletto in her sleeve. ‘Hello, Hush,’ she said.
Finally
Hush paused at that. A faint frown marring that perfect brow. i’ve been watching you don’t belong here
after the scourging you were the only one to ask if i was all right no one else cared
‘That’s Carlotta’s notebook,’ she breathed. The boy nodded. ‘Where did you get it?’ The boy tilted his head. told you i’ve been watching
But did he kill her? Out of some sort of twisted logic? I NEED ANSWERS
‘Kill this boy,’ the old woman said.
I'm sorry?
Tric blinked at the dagger in Ash’s hand. The blade gleaming red and dripping. He looked down at the stain spreading across his shirt as she buried the knife in his chest again. And again. And again. He gasped, reached out towards her throat, eyes wide. But quick as lies, she shoved him hard and sent him backwards over the railing. Tumbling down, down into the everblack wastes below. Without a sound. Without a whimper. Gone.
Wot
‘Jumping Cassius like a pair of alley thugs was a stupid plan, I told you that at the time. Floodcaller getting in the way was a blessing. We’ve had months to prepare this. Poisoning the feast will net us the whole bag of vipers with one stroke. The acolyte who crafted the toxin for me is dead. And the only acolyte who had a chance of sniffing us out is dead. Stop your fucking whining and just be ready.’
Damn I was so trusting
‘Are they ready?’ ‘No doubt. Our noble justicus has his First and Second Centuries on standby. Two hundred men hit the Porkery at sevenbells. You just make sure Adonai is motivated.’
Noooooooooo
Next, she headed to the Hall of Songs, stopping to softly murder two more Luminatii she found stationed in the Hall of Eulogies.
Softly
She put her arms around his neck. Kissed his cheek. ‘Hello, Bastard,’ she said.
OMG such a Brego moment
A thin smile curled Cassius’s lips. ‘Your final trial awaits downstairs, little sister.’ ‘… Sister?’
Wot
Ash took a deep breath. Sighed. And reaching into her britches, she drew out a handful of burning flame, spinning at the end of a golden chain. The Trinity.
That fucking cu-
