Mask of Poison (Fall of Under Book 1) by Kathryn Kingsley (great novels to read txt) 📕

presence of the others, even from long distances. They were all bound together by the Ancients who lived not as separate creatures but as seven—or perhaps now eight—with a single mind.

And Rxa was still a king.

But of what?

“Isn’t that lovely.” Rxa walked on wavering feet toward him before pausing a few feet away. He turned that grotesque mask up to look at Lyon. “Were you always this tall?”

“Yes.”

“Ah. Huh. Weird. You look taller. My adopted baby boy’s all grown up.” He rubbed his palm over his chest, smearing blood across the stained fabric. “Please get out of my way. I think I would like to leave now. Oh, little dove! Come along, dear. We’re going to go find more hospitable arrangements.” He turned his head to glance over his shoulder. “Dove?”

“I’m afraid I cannot let you go.” Lyon stood firm and readied himself for a fight. He did not know what to expect from a thing that looked as though it could barely stand, but he had not lived as long as he had from a lack of caution. “Nor will you touch the girl.”

Rxa tilted his head to one side by a few degrees. “Oh. Is that so?”

“You’re clearly injured. Let me help you.” King versus king would likely end in a draw. But in his condition, Rxa would not stand a chance. Or so Lyon hoped.

“Help me? Help me?” Rxa howled in laughter. “You bleeding-hearted fool. I want nothing to do with you or your brand of help. Get out of my way.”

“No.”

“Well. It appears we’re at a standoff, aren’t we?” Rxa reached up and scratched a bloody, bony hand through his matted hair. “I wonder what I can do about that…Oh! I know!” He reached his other hand out and snapped his fingers.

The sound of shuffling sent a shiver through Lyon. He took his eyes from Rxa for a brief second.

There were more than twenty dead in the room. He could confirm that now. He could confirm that many more were corpses—because they were all standing up. They walked toward them, slow and uneven in their movements. They poured from the hallways and climbed from the wreckage of the pews.

Rxa laughed—that sharp-edged, malicious cackle that sent a shiver rolling down Lyon’s spine once more. He bared his teeth at the other king, revealing his fangs.

“Yes, yes, you’re so frightening, Lyon…come, old friend. Let’s find out who truly out-matches whom!”

The battle began to the sound of that maddening laughter.

Ember watched the brawl for a second, caught in awe, before a chair that whipped past her head reminded her she was very outmatched in a room with two demigods duking it out.

With one of those demigods now in command of an army of drengil.

She ducked behind the stone column, wincing and throwing her arms up over her head in reflex as a pew shattered against the stone. She could hear the sound of metal on stone and the madman’s maniacal laughter.

The few times she dared peek around the corner, she could barely make sense of the battle. It was all happening so fast. She would think she had been knocked senseless and had a concussion if it weren’t for the drengil who moved at a normal speed, reaching and clawing at Lyon, attempting to catch the blood-drinker to tear him to pieces.

But Lyon was not interested in such an end. Golden claws tore through dead flesh and rid the corpses of their restlessness.

Rxa attacked with a kind of reckless abandon. He flew at Lyon with nothing but his bare hands, trying to kill the King of Blood by sheer force of will alone. Every blow that Lyon landed on Rxa seemed to have no effect on him.

He never slowed.

He never stopped.

Until Lyon snatched Rxa by one of his exposed ribs and tore it from his body with a wet crack. It sounded like a branch snapping under water.

The bloody and bandaged madman screamed in agony. The scream turned into a broken, pained sob.

Ember shut her eyes and threw her hands over her mouth, trying not to be sick.

In that split second, her world upended. Someone snatched her and whirled her about. Inertia hit her, as though she had been shot out of a cannon. It felt like an iron bar was around her waist, pinning her arms to her side.

When her head stopped spinning, she was standing back at the altar of the sanctuary. A hand was around her throat, pressing her head back against a bony shoulder. She could see Rxa’s fractured mask out of the corner of her eye.

She struggled. But she was stuck in a vise.

“Sssh,” Rxa whispered to her. “Do me a solid, will you? Pretend you’re terrified.”

The points of his nails were digging into her skin, and moving her jaw might slit her veins open. All she could do was make frightened whimpers.

“Ooh, I’m impressed.” He chuckled quietly into her ear. “Are you an actress, little dove?”

“Let her go,” Lyon demanded angrily.

“I don’t wanna.”

“She hasn’t done anything to you, Rxa. She isn’t to blame for any of this.”

“What’s that have to do with a damn thing?” Rxa sighed. “Come, now, use your imagination, will you? You were always so very tedious, weren’t you?”

Something wet and warm was seeping through her clothes at her back. She knew it was Rxa’s blood. Ash would be so disappointed with how badly she was shaking. But Ash never had to deal with anything like this!

“Stand down, Rxa. This is your last warning.”

“Mmhm.” Rxa rested the cheek of his mask against her jawline. She could feel the cracks in the plaster. “I told you. Tedious. Well, my dear old friend, you have a bit of a conundrum ahead of you. You can either stop me…or you can try to save your beloved world.”

“What?”

“Do you think the people in this room were the only ones I ate?” Rxa laughed. “I’m afraid I’ve killed all our precious vampire children. Well…every single one I came across, anyway. I’m sure a