Tornado of Nightmares (Book 2)

nine

❅ Royal ❅

DILYNN WALKS IN FRONT OF US, HER CHIN LIFTED HIGH AND HER FINGERS CURLED INTO FISTS AT HER SIDE. Clementine walks beside Irina, the latter holds her hand steadily and offers warm smiles. I don't know how she does it. How she acts like everything is okay. How she's not holding the hand of a Blood-Bound little girl who can raise the dead and summons armies from the sea to protect her.

I'm not exactly sure why no one else is freaking out about it.

Well, supposedly we'll get answers on our way to Dilynn's brother's estate. She told us how her brother's girlfriend knows a bit about Blood-Bounds. I'm expecting someone incredibly old. And yet when Dilynn leads us into the sitting room of her brother's house I'm greeted with someone not old at all. She's our age. And she's yelling.

"We're going," she says sternly, "she's on a suicide mission! You read the note she left for us, right? You saw what she was going to do? This revenge of hers is too deep, it's too tortured and this is the only way she thinks she can fix it. And she took—" she cuts off on a yelp when she realizes that she has an audience.

Dilynn's brother waves at all of us but does not stand up. He seems like a douche.

Dilynn doesn't say a word to him, but she walks over to the girl. The girl beams at Dilynn. I realize she's quite attractive. Not in a very obvious way, but her smile is amazing to look at. Her grey-blue eyes twinkle with excitement when Dilynn throws her arms around her neck. They both laugh as they embrace each other. It feels like we're intruding.

But then they pull away and I think there are tears in Dilynn's eyes.

"It's so good to see you, Jill." Dilynn gushes. "What were you two arguing about?"

The girl—Jill—frowns. She whirls around and points a finger at Dilynn's brother. "He doesn't want to go after Honour—"

He stands up abruptly at that. "I never said that! I said it's not safe considering where she is. She's an assassin, Jilly, she'll be fine—"

The Bastards step forward. "You mean Honour Abrelle?" Eden demands.

Jill looks wary of all of us. She glances at Dilynn, who nods, giving her the okay to tell us whatever she's about to tell us. I don't know who Honour Abrelle is, but I gather she is someone of importance if every Bastard seems on edge at the mere mention of her name.

"Yes, she's our friend—"

Shann swivels his head at Dilynn. "You know Honour Abrelle?"

She nods. "I met her the same day I met Jill."

Kamolinn steps into the room and Dilynn's brother stands up. His nostrils flare and anger runs through him. So does Kamolinn. "Warren Vinwarrow." Says the High-King of Llyria.

Dilynn's brother looks over the king with distaste. Oh lords, he's one sorry fool.

"Kamolinn," he drawls, "long time."

"Indeed."

At Kamolinn's reply, all of us stand up straighter. His clear distrust for Warren is unnerving and quite uncomfortable. And I've been through my fair share of uncomfortable situations, but this one makes me want to leap out of the room.

"Hi," says Jill, getting rid of the awkward silence. I think I see everyone breathe a sigh of relief. I already like her. She extends a hand to Kamolinn. "I'm Jill, it's nice to meet you." She offers the king a genuine smile.

Some shitty part of me wants him to be an asshole to her and completely ignore Jill. It'd be so much easier if the High-King of Llyria was a piece of shit. It'd give me a plausible reason to hate him for being mates with Ember—