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

cattle that weren’t doing well. She hadn’t cared at all. Instead, Camilla had found peace in the way he flicked the ends of his f’s and the intricate curl at the end of his h’s.

My dear Camilla,

I hope this letter finds you well, although I’ve heard more than enough concerning details about the Beastkin community. I have only recently returned from Bymere, but thought I needed to see you.

I understand much has changed and that most of the Beastkin have no interest in seeing me.

And yet… I needed to hear it from you.

There is a light in the forest beyond your window. A light that only your owl eyes should be able to see. Please, find me.

Yours,

H.

Gods, she couldn’t look at Najib now. He’d know something was wrong. Tears boiled at the edges of her vision, too hot to think.

“Camilla?”

She burst free from her human form and allowed feathers to take over her body. The change was swift and painless. Immediately, she threw herself from the room, out the window, into the darkness beyond her tower.

Najib called out for her, but she refused to turn back. The man who had raised her was out there, somewhere, and another Beastkin could find him before her.

What would they do to the king if they found him here without any kind of protection? Hallmar was foolish to think they wouldn’t drag him back to the keep and kill him. He was the reason why they felt as though they’d been imprisoned their entire lives. Him and all the other royals who had used them like objects or toys for children to take out when they wanted them.

It didn’t make sense that she would be so protective of him. Camilla considered herself among those who hadn’t liked her life in that gilded cage. She’d wanted to be seen as something more than just an animal. As a woman with thoughts and dreams of her own that didn’t include staying inside yet another stuffy building.

Of course, now that she had her freedom, she was still trapped inside stone walls. Even her own people wanted to keep her trapped.

Now, she understood why Sigrid had fled so easily.

The wind whistled under her wings as she zipped through the darkness and searched for the small pinprick of light which would lead her to the king.

There. Far beyond the keep and beyond where many of the Beastkin would think to look. A light in the darkness between the trees, likely only by a simple torch held aloft by a foolish man who seemed to think he was invincible.

She flew to the torch, dropped from the sky, and landed on her hands and knees in front of him.

Hallmar flinched back, his hand dropping to the hilt of the blade at his waist. “Camilla, that better be you.”

“Don’t say my name so loudly, Earthen King.” She slowly stood and wiped the dirt off her hands. The clothing on her body felt a little too tight, like she wanted to immediately turn back into an owl just with him looking at her.

And look he did. Hallmar’s eyes searched her from head to toe, in a different way than Najib had just done. One Beastkin looked at her as if he wanted to devour her whole. The king looked at her as if he was expecting to see more scars, more bruises than what his eyes found.

Finally, he locked gazes with her, and Camilla almost had to look away. The sadness and grief in his eyes made her heart ache.

“Is it true?” he asked, his voice cracking. “I need to hear it from you.”

She wanted to tell him that it wasn’t. Sigrid wasn’t so easily killed. She was something stronger than any of them could understand. A dragon didn’t let something like an arrow end her life.

But that wasn’t what Sigrid wanted. She had specifically said anyone, and Hallmar was included in that.

Words catching in her throat, Camilla nodded. “It’s true.”

She expected him to swear or break down like most men would. Perhaps he would strike a tree with his fist.

Instead, Hallmar lunged forward and caught her against his chest. He pressed his free hand against the back of her head and held her as close as he possibly could. A great shudder ran through his body. “I’m so sorry, Camilla. This was never what I wanted for either of you.”

Tears burned the backs of her eyes. She hadn’t wanted this for them either. She’d wanted to stay free as the animals in the forest, with no one who could tell her what to do or where to be. But that wasn’t a future any of them could ever have.

The world didn’t want the Beastkin to be free. There would always be another cage. From the physical walls of the keep to the invisible chains of society. They would never be the animals in the forest, because they weren’t animals.

How had Sigrid realized this so quickly? How did she know there wasn’t an inch of this world that would allow them the freedom they wanted?

Perhaps because she, herself, was a little more human than the rest of them. She knew how they thought, where their minds wandered, and she always made certain to know how they thought.

Know your enemy, she used to say. Even if it means becoming them.

Camilla pulled out of Hallmar’s arms, dashing her eyes so he wouldn’t see how badly she was crying. He didn’t need to have any added pressure. Not now when so much was happening and so many people were…

A thought shattered through her mind like a stone thrown through stained glass. “What did the Bymerian Sultan say?”

Hallmar shook his head. “It’s not good, Camilla.”

“That’s… that’s why you came,” she whispered. “You were coming here to ask for help weren’t you?”

“He has no interest in ending this war. He wants to continue it, simply because there’s no way to stop the tsunami he’s created.” Hallmar paused and swore under his breath. “I thought if I could speak