Sky Breaker (Night Spinner Duology) Addie Thorley (best english books to read for beginners .TXT) 📖

Ivandar gags as he crawls away from me, his woven shirt now plastered to his chest with water and vomit.

“What are you doing?” I demand.

“What does it look like? Would you rather I didn’t resuscitate you?”

“Yes!”

His dripping face twists with outrage. “Are you really going to disparage me? I could have swum directly to shore and let you drown, but instead I tugged you three leagues through rough seas so you wouldn’t be found.” He gestures to the long stretch of beach surrounding us. It’s completely deserted, hemmed in with gnarled foliage that creeps up to a distant mountain peak. “What were you thinking, destroying the prison like that? You were never going to escape.”

“Maybe I wasn’t trying to escape.” I peel tentacles of seaweed off the side of my face and spit sand from my teeth. The only thing worse, the only thing more horrifying, than being betrayed by my warriors, captured by Zemyans, and dying in a sea I couldn’t freeze, is not dying and being saved by the Zemyan heir.

Of course this would be the outcome of my first prayer.

Technically, it was answered, was it not? You survived.

I close my eyes and groan. If the gods do exist, they’re clearly punishing me for having the audacity to call on them. If they don’t exist, the universe is ridiculing me for considering the possibility.

“What were you doing if you weren’t trying to escape?” Ivandar demands.

“Reclaiming my honor. If I had managed to kill you and the generál supreme, I would have died with glory. I’d be revered in Ashkar for generations to come. But thanks to your senseless heroics, I now owe a life debt to the Zemyan heir and must live in a world where I failed my king and country.”

The weight of it hits me then, pummeling me even more violently than the sea. I may be free from Kartok’s prison, but I have nowhere to go. No battalion to command. Even if my power rebuilds, I could never contend with the entire Kalima to reclaim my position. And without my position, I can’t show my face in Ashkar—especially not after my failures in the treasury. I can’t even go home; I won’t smear my parents with my disgrace—assuming they’re still alive.

Which leaves only one option: I fall back on the gritty sand, spread my arms wide, and beg the buzzards to devour me.

“You can’t just lie there and give up!” Ivandar says. “Not after I risked everything for you. You’re indebted to me. You said so yourself.”

“I didn’t ask you to save me. And I honestly can’t fathom why you did. If you’re trying to convince your mother to trust you over Kartok, cavorting with the commander of the Kalima warriors isn’t the way to go about it.”

Ivandar waves a dismissive hand, but I see the furrows between his brows, the tightness in his jaw. “She may be disappointed initially, but she’ll thank me when I uncover Kartok’s true motives. Despite his noble claims, I know he’s scheming and vying for power. Which is precisely why I saved you. You know his plans,” he adds when I stare at him dubiously.

I laugh. I can’t help it. “Did you honestly risk your life, and potentially your crown, on a little carrot of information I dangled in front of your nose? How do you know I was telling the truth? Prisoners spin all sorts of lies to save their necks.”

“I saw your face the last time I came to your cell—when you were covered in blood. You were ready to work with Hadassah.”

“Unfortunately, Hadassah doesn’t exist.”

“Maybe not in that incarnation, but she and I want the same things. I am Hadassah.”

“What you are is a fool.” I close my eyes and focus on the blazing heat of the Zemyan sun. It’s even more punishing than a suit of lamellar armor in high summer, steaming my flesh like overcooked potatoes. Sweat collects beneath my arms and runs down the sides of my face, and the worst part is, I can’t summon a single puff of cold to cool my burning skin.

The gods and universe are definitely mocking me. The circumstances are too targeted to be a coincidence—the girl forged of ice, melting into nothing.

Ivandar huffs out several long breaths before asking, “Does it make you feel powerful, being so cruel?”

“I’m not cruel. This is just who I am.”

“Or is it the armor you hide behind?”

I bristle. My fingers automatically move to tighten my ponytail, but the slashed pieces are too short to tie back. “I don’t hide behind anything,” I growl. “I framed my sister for a massacre. I sentenced my cousin to prison. I methodically removed every person who stood in the way of my promotion, as if they were a burr clinging to my cloak. Would you call any of that an act?”

“No,” Ivandar admits, “but it’s never too late. We can always change our course, set our sails to a different wind.”

“Spare me your inspirational drivel,” I groan.

That finally shuts the prince up.

For a moment.

I feel his shadow pass over me. Feel his eyes bearing down on me, as hot as the merciless sun.

This is pathetic. Get up.

“Don’t tell me what to do.” I shoot up from my back and glare at the Zemyan prince.

“What are you talking about? I didn’t say anything,” Ivandar retorts, sitting precisely where he was before—slumped and shivering in the sand like a drowned cat—but I know better than to buy into his illusions. I felt him there, looming over me.

“Don’t toy with me, Prince.”

“I haven’t said or done anything,” he insists. “The salt water has gone to your head.”

“Speaking of going … shouldn’t you be running back to Karekemish? You have quite a lot to straighten out.”

“You know I can’t return. Not until I have damning evidence against Kartok. And in order to find that, I need you to tell me what you know.”

I fold my arms, prepared to ignore him until he either leaves or perishes beside me,