Dawn of Cobalt Shadows (Burning Empire Book 2) by Emma Hamm (free novels to read TXT) 📗

“I don’t like it.” There was something hidden in Camilla’s gaze, something that spoke of an age old heartbreak and a vast desire to fix something that would forever be broken. “I don’t think you have to run from these people, Sigrid. I think you could stay and we could fix this. Together.”

“We both know that’s not true.” She touched a finger to Camilla’s chin. “I don’t expect to be gone forever, just enough to find out where we came from. Who we are. If I don’t find these things out soon I feel as though I’m going to burst.”

“You can’t be a real Beastkin until you know the answers to these questions, can you?” Camilla’s voice was quiet, a whisper on the wind as silent as an owl’s wings. “I’m afraid for you.”

“You should be afraid for yourself,” Sigrid said, her lips quirking in a smile. “I want you to take over for me. Let them know that you are my successor. That you are the only one I would choose to be Matriarch after me.”

“Brynhild is bigger and stronger.”

“But no one has a mind like yours. No one understands the Beastkin so thoroughly, with so much kindness and the ability to see what others do not. I want you to lead these people out of the darkness and into your own version of light.” Sigrid tapped her chin for good measure. “That’s final, Camilla. You’ll do better than you think.”

A ragged sound of frustration and sadness tore out of her friend’s chest. “I don't want to do any of this without you, Sigrid.”

“We don’t often get what we want,” Sigrid replied.

She stared down at the kingdom she’d created and marveled at how much could change so quickly. She wanted to help them, but in that desire came her own need for freedom. She’d traded cages for cages her entire life. Just once, she wanted to be selfish.

She wanted to be free.

---

They all gathered in the square of the keep. Perhaps they were waiting for her, perhaps they weren’t. Sigrid wasn’t really sure if Jabbar would start his speech without her.

She thought he would. He’d never liked sharing the spotlight when it didn’t suit his means, and he wanted them to disregard anything she had to say. Sigrid was a thorn in his side, because she didn’t think the Beastkin could be so ready to break away from the humans. A shame he didn’t see the world the way she did.

Sigrid spread her leathery wings wide and circled the courtyard one more time before making her way to the spot where she would, effectively die. She thought in this moment she would be a little uncomfortable. Who wouldn’t be?

Instead, she had complete trust in Camilla’s ability to do everything exactly as she was supposed to. There wasn’t a bone in her sister’s body that would let her make a mistake in this moment.

Her only regret was that Raheem wasn’t here. He’d gone off to investigate the rest of the kingdom for her, and now he was going to return only to hear about her death. The messenger pigeon had returned empty-handed, but that wasn’t like Raheem. He would have sent her a message as well, one that would have yelled at her for making foolish decisions. That she was too much like Nadir.

It was too late to stop now.

She landed on the stone ledge where she’d made so many difficult choices. Settling down comfortably, she folded her wings at her sides and shook herself. The change shuddered through her being until she was a woman once again, plain gown hugging her curves with a golden mask in her hand.

This would be the last time she saw the metal apparel. It needed to stay here with her sisters, so they would have something to remember her by when the world felt as though it was falling down around their ears. It wouldn’t be an easy loss for them. Sigrid had always been something like the glue that kept them all together. The others were so much more prone to arguing with each other, fighting, throwing tantrums….

She couldn’t worry about them anymore. She’d already made this choice, and it was the right one. It had to be.

Jabbar’s voice reached her at the cliff edge where he’d already begun without her. In some ways, she was correct. The man didn’t want anything to do with her, because he thought she was going to mess with him.

Sadly, she was right about his speech as well.

“We cannot allow humans anywhere near our homelands!” he shouted, his voice carrying with it an air of crazed madness. “They want to take everything we have fought for. What reason have they to let us have these lands without a fight? They will make sure we regret every instance of our rebellion, and that all starts with the first human to take foot in our lands without permission! It is already starting, brothers and sisters! And it has only just begun.”

His insanity ran deep inside his being. Why hadn’t Sigrid seen that from the first moment she met him? Even in their home country of Bymere, he’d been a radical. There was a violent streak of hate in him that he couldn’t see past, and that was going to drown him.

She cupped her hands around her mouth and let out a whooping call. It echoed through the air, striking down upon the Beastkin crowd like arrows hailing from the sky.

They all paused in their movements, then looked up at her where she stood on the cliff edge.

They wouldn’t be able to see her face, so she would need to make things a little easier for them. Sigrid wasn’t one to speak of her emotions often. It felt wrong to give them voice when she already hated them so much. But it was important now that they not misunderstand her. They needed to get every inch of her knowledge before she tore their world away from them.

“Brothers and