Free Twiceborn Endgame (The Proving Book 3) by Marina Finlayson Page A

with. Seven of them, actually, all thirsting for my blood. But I couldn’t see a way of getting Lachie free of Daiyu’s clutches without risking his safety unless I had someone on the inside helping me. Jason was clearly not an option, which left Kasumi. I could only work with the tools I had. And freeing Lachie was my number one priority right now. In the back of my mind a clock was ticking. How long did I have before Daiyu tired of waiting for my throne and decided to use Lachie against me?
    We were kicking around ideas for how we might actually pull off the genius plan when Steve entered, an odd look on his normally cheerful face.
    “How’s the repatriation going?” I asked.
    Steve had been overseeing the deportation of our prisoners, under Luce’s guidance.
    “About halfway there,” he said. “Only ones left are the ones who chose North America. That flight’s leaving tonight.” He hesitated. “You’re not going to believe this …”
    “What?”
    “That Ken Thomas guy is back.”
    Luce was instantly alert. “The real one? You’re sure?”
    Surely Kasumi wouldn’t try the same stunt twice.
    “We checked him with Blue’s glasses. Seems to be.”
    “Who’s his message from?”
    “Gideon Thorne, he says.”
    Ben stood. “I’ll go.”
    He strode out, trailed by Steve, and I raised an eyebrow at Luce. “What could Gideon Thorne possibly have to say to me?”
    “An offer of fealty?”
    I snorted. In my dreams. More likely a death threat.
    Turned out we were both wrong. The envelope Ben handed me didn’t contain a black dragon scale snapped in half, as I’d expected, but an innocent sheet of expensive paper, hand-lettered in a beautiful flowing script.
    “It’s an invitation.”
    Ben craned over my shoulder to read it. “To what?”
    “To the Presentation Ball. Cheeky bastard.”
    “Presentation Ball?” Garth’s grey eyes snapped with anger. He’d followed Ben in, back from organising a group of thralls to retrieve Blue’s supplies. “As in Presentation of the Candidates?”
    “Yep.” I read from the sheet. “Leandra Elizabeth is invited to present herself to the people of Oceania and her fellow candidates for the throne at a ball to be held on the twenty-fourth day of January blah blah blah. He thinks he can initiate a second proving.”
    “You can’t go,” said Ben. “It’s a trap.”
    “You think?” I reined in my temper with an effort. No point snapping at Ben. I laid an apologetic hand on his arm and said more mildly: “Of course I’m going. It’s perfect.”
    “Perfect for what? Getting yourself killed?”
    “Honey, I may be safe sitting in this compound with all my guards, but I can’t do anything. I’ve got to get out there and make things happen, or we’ll be trapped in this house until we all die of old age.”
    And that could be a bloody long time, in my case.
    He grunted in frustration and threw himself into an armchair. “What kind of things can you make happen in the middle of your enemy’s stronghold, surrounded by people who want to kill you?” He scrubbed a hand over his face and through his curly hair, leaving it even wilder than before. “I’m having trouble seeing how this can work to our advantage.”
    I sat down too, and started ticking points off on my fingers.
    “First, it’s an opportunity to get all my sisters together in one place.”
    Garth bared his teeth in a wolfish grin. “Beats hunting them down one by one.”
    I grinned back. His bloodthirstiness appealed to the dragon in me.
    “So they’re all together,” Ben said. “How are you going to kill them? There’ll be more security than bloody Guantanamo Bay.”
    I frowned at him, one finger still up in the air. “I never said I was going to kill them. Second, I’ll have access to Gideon Thorne.” I paused, contemplating the second finger with pleasure. “Him, I am going to kill.”
    And they were words I could never have said a few weeks ago. Truly I wasn’t the same woman