Dawn of Cobalt Shadows (Burning Empire Book 2) by Emma Hamm (best e ink reader for manga .txt) 📕

his body until he was nothing more than an angered beast trying to find someone he could blame.

Long tables lined the great hall. Another thing he didn’t recognize. He didn’t really care what they did with the decor when they had been incapable of protecting the one person who mattered.

At least to him.

There were two people at the end of the hall, both hunched together and talking quietly. Raheem barreled toward them. Whatever conversation they were having could wait. Nothing was more important in this moment.

One of the people lifted their head. Dark eyes widened, her face like shadows, and Raheem immediately focused on her, as she was the only one who would likely give him a straight answer.

“Camilla!” he thundered.

She flinched. “Raheem, you’re back early.”

“No earlier than expected. And I return to hear the news that our queen is dead?” Rage heated his cheeks, his heart pounding in his chest.

How dare they? How could they let someone like her die? They had spent so much time getting her to this point where they were. She was the one who had managed to bond them together. She was the one who had created a kingdom with her words alone.

What had they done?

He lifted a hand and viciously jabbed a finger at Camilla. “This is your fault.”

“Raheem—”

“No, don’t speak. Not right now. There’s something I have to say, and I’m going to get it out without you interrupting.”

“You’re going to regret any words you say in anger, so I have to ask you to stop.” She hesitated for a moment, then stepped up to him and lifted her own hand. Carefully, she closed his fingers into a fist and held it within her own. “We’re all angry right now, Raheem. I understand how you’re feeling.”

His breath caught in his chest. Even though she’d lost someone important, she still stood strong. How was that possible?

Looking at her, he saw the strength of all women wrapped up inside her being. She was handling the loss of her sister, her best friend, just like any minor grief. Her eyes reflected a deep sadness that made him want to weep, and yet she stood in front of him strong and capable.

Would he ever understand how women were capable of that? He only knew that she was something out of the storybooks already. She handled herself with such grace and poise she might have been a goddess if he looked hard enough.

Anger crumbling along with his resolve, Raheem’s shoulders curved forward. “You’re right in that. I shouldn’t speak in anger.”

The person standing beside Camilla cleared his throat. Immediately, Raheem stiffened again. He hadn’t realized it was Jabbar who stood with them, and that made him all the more uncomfortable.

He didn’t trust the albino Beastkin with even a second of his time. Let alone the feelings Raheem usually hid from all the people that he possibly could. Something about the Beastkin made him nervous, and it wasn’t his looks or the fact that he could change into a thunderbird at will.

There was something deep inside Jabbar that was wrong. A broken piece that wanted to see people and creatures bleeding on the ground before him. Raheem had seen such emotions in soldiers before, but only after a long war. Men had a way of becoming addicted to violence and pain.

Raheem had never seen it in a Beastkin before. Usually, they were a kind folk who simply wanted to live on their own without humans making decisions for them.

But Jabbar? This man wanted to feel human bones crunching under his feet.

Jabbar cleared his throat again. “Raheem. We weren’t expecting you back any time soon.”

“My travels took me far.” He narrowed his gaze. “Too far, it seems.”

“There was nothing you could have done to save her. She was far from all our sights, and a rogue assassin from Bymere killed her with an arrow.”

The scene flashed in front of Raheem’s eyes and he clenched his jaw. An arrow? That was a hard way to go, and one that he wouldn’t wish on his worst enemy. Hesitantly, he asked Camilla quietly, “Was it quick?”

“Almost instant,” she replied.

He blew out a breath. “Then at least she didn’t suffer.”

If he had been a different man, he might not have noticed the way her eyes darted to the side when he said the words. Raheem had spent much of his life on the battlefield and in conferences among nobles. He knew the ways people tried to hide secrets when they thought no one could see into their minds.

There were tricks to reading a person. Watch their eyes for the truth, their hands for lies, and Camilla was easier to read than a book.

Weren’t all the Beastkin though? They wore their emotions on their sleeves other than Sigrid. She was impossible to even guess at what was going on behind those icy eyes.

Raheem schooled his features into a smooth lake of nothingness. “Jabbar, I would like to mourn my friend with those who appreciated her being here.”

“You don’t want to investigate who killed her?” The other man asked, his voice incredulous. “I find that hard to believe, Protector of the Sultana.”

The title was as ancient as the Beastkin themselves. It had come from a history long forgotten in the Bymerian lines, although he wasn’t surprised the Beastkin man knew about it. Once, the Sultana always had a single guard who was with her from the moment she became a royal. He protected her against all odds, tasted her food before she ate, stood at her side in front of a crowd who might grow angry. The Protector would give his life before any weapon would ever touch her skin.

It was a dig at him, and one that was effective. Raheem sucked in a sharp breath so he didn’t flinch back in horror.

A Protector never failed to keep his charge alive. Those that didn’t were brutally killed in front of their own people. Drawn and quartered was a favorite of the crowd, and he’d heard