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

intact. I know that doesn’t help your problems.” She shrugged. “Of course, I’m worried. But it won’t be the first time my world’s been rewritten, don’t forget. We’ll figure out what’s happened, and we’ll deal with it. Like we always do.”

“Ah, the words of the optimist. How charmingly naïve.” He leaned his head back again. She had insisted he take his shirt off. Not just because she enjoyed the view of the sea of black ink that ran over his body, but because it honestly did make plucking the glass out of his chest and arm that much easier.

Someone knocked on the door of the library. “Come in,” she called.

The door swung open, and in strolled Navaa, Aon’s second in command, elder, and regent. The tall, dark-skinned man with the half-mask fashioned into the shape of a skull smirked sardonically at her. “How’s the patient?”

“Conscious and irritated, Navaa,” Aon replied through a growl. “Mind yourself.”

Navaa bowed his head. “Apologies, my king. It was meant to be candor with Lydia, not as an insult to you.”

“I am aware. You two do like your sarcastic banter.” Aon sighed. “To answer your question, I am as I said—conscious and irritated. What have you to report?”

“The estate is in…well, pieces. We’re working quickly to repair it all, but we are owners of a great deal of glass.” Navaa shrugged up a shoulder. “It seems that some of our magic is still functioning as usual. But we have no means of getting or receiving word from the other royals.”

“I told you we should have launched satellites,” Lydia mumbled. “Cellphones would have solved this.”

“Except for the fact that if our world has shifted as I suspected, it would have rendered such trinkets useless.” Aon was back to tapping his clawed metal fingers on the back of the sofa. “Fetch me a compass, Navaa.”

“A compass?” The elder raised his eyebrow. A long, silent, and deadly masked stare from Aon was enough to send Navaa to a stutter. “Yes, sir. Immediately. Should we send a rider to Yej?”

“No need. I have sent our fastest scout.”

“You mean spy,” Lydia interjected. She plucked another piece of glass from Aon’s chest. She only had a few more to go. “You sent your spymaster, didn’t you?”

“It’s amazing how good spies are at scouting. It’s almost as though they are exactly the same thing only at two distinct levels of difficulty.” Aon chuckled. “And yes. I sent Maeve.”

“Hopefully, she brings back more than a severed head this time.” Navaa walked toward the exit, shaking his head. “I’ll be back in a moment.”

Lydia groaned. “Great. It took me an hour to convince her the severed head couldn’t talk if she didn’t let the guy heal. I hope we get back useful information.”

“I trust her. Which, for a spymaster, is an uncommon thing. She is worth the occasional psychotic episode.”

“If you say so. I could fly there just as fast as she can jump through shadows. I can still change shape.”

“But you are a bit more conspicuous as a giant, ghostly, glowing winged snake, my dear. If something has gone wrong, better we be discreet.”

“Why do you think this is a bad thing?”

Silence.

“Yeah, okay, you’re right. Nothing good comes out of shit like this in Under.” She plucked the last piece of glass out of his chest. “There you go.”

“Thank you, dear.” He sat up and, with a flick of his clawed hand, he was fully dressed once more. He placed the plate of bits of glass on the coffee table and combed his fingers through her hair. “I appreciate the help.”

“Anytime.” She kissed the cheek of his mask again.

“Pah. You know you leave lip marks when you do that.” He pulled a handkerchief from his vest pocket and began to wipe at the metal.

“You think it’s not on purpose?” She grinned and leaned in close. “Gotta mark my territory on the regular, or someone’ll get ideas.”

“Oh, yes. Because the ladies are veritably breaking down my door to steal me away from you.” He wound an arm around her waist and pulled her against him. “Methinks if you have not had a challenger yet, you’re unlikely to in the future.”

“Who says I haven’t just killed them all? Dropped them into the Pool of the Ancients?”

“Why, how wonderfully devious and wicked a thing for you to do. And here I thought I could not possibly love you more.”

The door clicked open. “Should I come back later?” It was Navaa.

Lydia laughed and lowered her head. “No, no. Something’s very important about this compass.”

“I had to go dig it out of your laboratory.” Navaa crossed the room and held out the small brass compass on a chain to Aon. “I’m sorry to say it’s…uh…a mess.”

“I did not feel the need to bolt down my house as if we lived on a ship… forgive me for my lack of foresight.” Aon took the compass and flipped the lid open. He watched it for a second, grunted, and shut the lid once more. Standing, he strolled to his fireplace. The glass and furniture of the house had suffered in the sudden drop, but the bones of the estate were fine. He snapped his fingers, and the wood that the servants had restacked burst into flames.

“Uh-oh. He’s gone full fireplace. That’s never a good sign,” she muttered to Navaa under her breath. The Elder of Shadows had to turn away and cover his face to hide his grin just in case Aon turned around, but the warlock seemed lost in his thoughts already.

“Are you going to tell the rest of us?” Lydia got up from the lounge and walked up behind the King of Shadows. Aon had his clawed hand folded at his back, and his other, flesh-and-blood hand resting on the mantel.

Aon let out a quiet hum, but otherwise stayed silent. It meant the gears were turning too quickly for him to voice his thoughts. It would take a second or two. Lydia sat down in the chair by the