War of the Princes 03: Monarch Read Online Free Page B

prickling in my chest. “So you'll use my people as hostages for bargain?”
    “ Hostages? No. You misinterpret my intention. I do not desire to harm your Lodestones. I never have.”
    “ I find that hard to believe,” I cut in. “One of my countrymen was strapped to your Monarch, drained of all life, all color– withered as a raisin. You killed him, I know you did, so you can save your pacifistic monologue for someone stupid enough to believe you.”
    If I was testing his patience, he didn't show it. Yet.
    “I am at war. I have resources to manage, lives to preserve. More confrontation means more death. I wish to leave your Lodestones to their own lives. I even wish to spare those fools who follow my brother. They are my people by rights as much as his. I do not wish to see them to a violent death by Monarch. I've brought you here to offer you this chance at peace. Helping me will benefit us both and save countless lives.”
    I didn't believe a word of it. I couldn't. There was something about the way he said things that was a little too perfect. He was manipulating me. I knew he was. “Actions speak louder than words, Prince.”
    “ My, but you're a bold one.” He sounded amused. “Everything that I've done, using Lodestones to power the Monarch included, has been out of necessity. I do not take pleasure from repurposing lives.”
    The three-headed warhorse began to graze on shadowy grass, and a pair of shadow chasers wriggled into the stream. This place, the Shadows within Shadows, was a thriving ecosystem as tranquil as the Prince's voice. But it wasn't natural, and neither was he.
    A dark laugh slipped from me. “Did you really just use the word ‘repurposing’? You kill people!”
    “If you wish to speak in crude terms . My brother must be brought to justice, no matter the cost. It is my responsibility to see that it is done and I will use any measure necessary. This war will not end until he is cleansed from the face of Lastland.” His hand cut through the map and it vanished.
    “ Does that justify your being a murderer?”
    He looked sharply down at me and I could feel anger pour off of him even if I couldn't see it on his face. The strange sky churned behind him. His voice took on a gritt y tone, and he made his statement slowly, so I could feel the weight of each word. “I am only what I must be.”
    Way to go, Kat, you've successfully poked a n immortal bear with a stick. Genius move.
    I knew I was in for it, I just didn't expect the particular consequences that followed.

 
    Chapter 6: What We Want
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Everything went black. Not just the silhouettes, or the stream, or the mist. The entire sky. The glowing shadow chasers. Every point of light was extinguished. Reflexively, I pulled my arms close to my body and held my breath.
    Prince Raserion's voice was all that seemed to exist.
    “Once, the entire world had been rich with life, teeming with culture and industry, and technology that far surpassed even my own imaginings.”
    The hazy blue light of the horizon returned like watercolor paint seeping over paper. I could see again. The world of shadow chasers and warhorses had vanished. All that remained was a flat, dark expanse and the wispy black shadows that curled around my ankles. All at once, the shadows leapt around me, shooting up into the empty sky. They took the shape of pillars with the girth of twenty houses, and they stretched, and stretched, and stretched. So tall.
    They were all around me. Some seemed to have a thousand windows. Some were crowned with flags or rooftop gardens. As structures grew to their varying heights, puffs of darkness trumpeted from the ground to shape the visages of people. Crowds of them.
    I stumbled, nearly tripping over myself as they burst to life, bustling past me, trailing black smoke behind them.
    “ Much like my subjects, some were born with a single Ability, others were mere carriers of the recessive gene that granted Abilities, but