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She retreated after placing the cheese on the floor Only when he’d eaten the food did she approach again and leave a second piece It would not do to feed hi
The same could be said for the Lord of the Black Castle
She’d atte of Elden and his father at once, driven by the knowledge that ti out at an inexorable pace Fro Aelfric’s name, it was obvious that the Blood Sorcerer’s twisted spell was even more entrenched than she’d believed Not even a crack marred the carapace that was the black armor that held hiut to lead, made the food lose all taste, but she forced herself to finish the sandwich, then a sth she had came from her own blood, and she couldn’t afford to allow that blood to grow thin and weak If her father found her
Bile, bitter and acidic, rose up in her throat
"No," she whispered "No" He wouldn’t find her She’d only discovered the location of the youngest prince because of her visions Even then, it had taken her five atte of legends The first two times that she’d failed hadn’t been so bad - she’d been able to return home before her father noticed The third ti wrong, and the fourththe Blood Sorcerer had been waiting for her
Her skin tightened as if under the lash of a razorwhip
"But I didn’t break" A fierce reht, as her back was shredded, so much meat exposed to the air while she lay naked and chained to a massive stone table carved with channels that sent her blood trickling into collection pots, she’d ed to convince the Blood Sorcerer that her spells had been fueled by a wish to find a talisman that would cure herhow ed her presence
"No er over a seeping wound " - she belongs to me" A chuckle as he stepped away to flick the whip almost desultorily over her already ruined back
Blood seeped out of her ravaged flesh, sliding down her ribs and into the channels "She’s h, deep and fro so ludicrous in his life "Then I give you leave to discover this wonderful talisman Do show it to me when you find it" A stroke of the whip over her shoulders "I think e andto crawl all over her body, their furred legs rasping over her flesh, theiron the raw meat of her back Panicked, she tried to use her sorcery to escape, but her father was stronger and the restraints held
The entire time they terrorized her, he sat where she could see him, a small smile on his face
The Guardian of the Abyss flew across the skies, his wings slicing through the night air in ht, his wings as leathery and as dark He didn’t knohere his wings hen he landed - they simply appeared when he needed theer wished theht of Liliana’s tale of a realain As if such a land could ever exist An instant later, his mind pricked at him with the other part of her story, the part about that place, the name of which he couldn’t even think about without a thunderous pain in his head, an anvil striking at his skull from within He flew harder, faster, in an effort to escape the relentless pressure
A whisper of oily evil
Having located his prey, he moved toward it with furious swiftness The round in a vain effort to escape his fate, heading toward the borders of the realm The majority of the conde cold of the Abyss, but some were able to claw theht and sent through the doorway, for he would not take the chance that they ht turn in the other direction, and seek to possess one of the villagers However, so out here were creatures who could catch even shadows, crunching theled tears of black
It was a lesson no one had ever wanted to repeat
Sweeping down on wings designed for deathly silence, he claure’s arms It thrashed, panicked that anyone could restrain it - for it was little more than smoke - but the lord of this place had always been able to hold those destined for the Abyss
After all, that was the reason for his creation
Crying, scared, a ses and erasp, he entrapped the shadow using thick black ropes infused with his blood, ensuring there’d be no h the cold, ht, impatient to capture the others and return to the Black Castle To get rid of his burden, nothing es fro could escape, he strode not to his room, but to the kitchen The lock on the door was no i in the Black Castle obeyed its lord, flesh or ether orexcept the woman fast asleep on the floor near the hot belly of the stove
Stepping closer, he stared down at her She wasn’t beautiful, this Liliana with the potent ic in her blood that he knew and yet could not name, this storyteller who told hiht theether, her hair so much black straw