I’d been spoiled in the Capital, because I hadn’t felt pain. I’d felt pain in the military base, and I’d felt pain when the rite knife had slipped into my flesh, but for the most part, everyone else had been more than willing to be hurt in my stead. When the wires turned on, and … Read moreA Throne for Crows (Part 48)
Boss punched the Crow in the face. It exploded, sending confused birds across the floor. They landed hard, and Boss swept through them before they could reform. The rest turned their rifles on her, and she leaned forward, blind, but protected entirely by her armor, and barreled forward. She struck things she couldn’t see, and … Read moreA Throne for Crows (Part 47)
Electrodes dappled against my skin, kissing them like lovers. I’d never had one, I realized. Not one that mattered. Nobody had ever been waiting for me to come home, and nobody had tangled limbs with me, had whispered sweet nothings into my ear, had been in the image of my mind’s eye for more than … Read moreA Throne for Crows (Part 46)
Deep below the city, The Regent opened her eyes and looked down upon the skeletons in her closets. They stared back at her with their empty sockets, the dead demanding voices that she couldn’t give. She stepped between their bones and made her way to the memorial stone. It sat with names that had been … Read moreA Throne For Crows (Part 45)
Dean has destroyed many things in his life. He’d rallied against shackles and constraints, had desperately tried to remain as free as he could, terrified of being trapped. He’d wanted freedom, and he’d wanted safety, and he’d wanted life above all things. But now, staring at the ruined mess that had once been the tower, … Read moreA Throne For Crows (Part 44)
Teri and Tane couldn’t know it, but halfway through the last hallway, the last bastion of independent resistance was either scattered, possessed, or so thoroughly squanched that they couldn’t be called a distraction. That left three, and then two groups left. One carried the Warden, and the other was scything through the tower, a flock … Read moreA Throne For Crows (Part 43)
Things had changed. Thorn hadn’t. He stood tall, proud, and walked around her like a wild beast expecting a fight. Another time, another year, it might’ve worked on her. Things had changed. Small was no longer the runt of the pack. It’d been a cruel joke at first, and then a name she had refused … Read moreA Throne for Boss (Part 42)
Teri was alone. This wasn’t unfamiliar, not to her, especially not after the last two months of her life, where she had found herself not only alone, but trapped in a building full of murderous bug people. The last time, she’d been stuffed in a bag by a giant wolf who had been intent on … Read moreA Throne For Crows (Part 41)
The secondary command post exploded when they were less than a hundred meters from it. Hot toxic fluids splattered the trees, sending a corona of flesh flame across their burning tops. If the Seared Oak wasn’t hundreds of meters from the treeline, I’d’ve thought it would’ve gone up next. But the fact of the matter … Read moreA Throne For Crows (Part 40)
Petty bullets did nothing to the beast in front of her. Nor did the retorts of small arms, or even the typewriter noises of the fully automatic rifle they’d salvaged. Admittedly, they did pulp the fey lowerlings tossed out like refuse, but soon enough Teri’s gun clicked empty, and she gestured through the OMOI link … Read moreA Throne For Crows (Part 39)