The Warlord (Rise of the Warlords 1)

He’d kept his word and sent his best spies to study sacrifices, loopholes, blessings and curses. He’d left Harpina to meet with other gods. He’d called in favors and chased every possible lead. He’d even requested a meeting with Chaos.

The god had yet to respond. Taliyah had gone ahead and requested a meeting, too. Because why not? She’d been ignored just as soundly.

She spent her days ravaging the palace library, determined to do her own research. She focused on the same topics as the spies, but she also added Chaos, Erebus and his twin brother, phantoms, Astra, and harpy traditions into the mix. Not that it had done any good. So far, she’d made no progress.

Still, she treated each new piece of information like a big, juicy soul and devoured. And yeah, okay, so she might be a wee bit hungry again. Nothing critical. Not yet. Just a few minor pangs. In the shower this morning, she’d almost asked Roc for a top off, but she’d quickly changed her mind.

He’d woken up with a hard-on and a major attitude. The worst so far. “I really need to kill someone today,” he’d grumbled as he dressed.

“I can give you a list of candidates,” she’d offered helpfully. She kept multiple lists drafted and at the ready. People to kill. People to torture before she killed them. People to consider torturing or killing. Just the basics, really.

“If Hades doesn’t have the number-one spot,” he’d snarled, “I don’t need to see it.”

A sweet thing to say, right? Until he’d added, “Why is having a gravita so difficult?”

Did he think he’d be better off without her?

Last night, Roc had lain on his side of the bed, and she’d lain on hers, each facing a different wall, a great divide between them. For the first time since their date, neither had reached for the other.

Did he fear they were going to fail at crunch time? She had to admit, holding on to her optimism required a Herculean effort. The struggle was compounded by her refusal to sleep. Oh, she’d caught herself drifting off a couple of times, lured by the sweet scent of Roc’s stardust and the heat emitted by his furnace of a body, but Taliyah had continued to resist the urge.

If Roc was her consort—and she dared to admit it—she might do as Blythe and abandon her dreams. Already temptation whispered, Enjoy the moment.

Choose a temporary pleasure over a future dream? Foolishness! But what if Roc was right? What if they could have everything they wanted? Roc, free of the curse. Taliyah, leading a new, modern regime as harpy General.

What if they couldn’t? No closer to a solution.

Bottom line: Taliyah and Roc had no business being together. If he spared her life, they were doomed. If he didn’t spare her life, they were doomed. If she saved herself, they were doomed. If she didn’t save herself, they were doomed. And yet...

Still she hungered for him. Desperately. Her dissatisfaction had returned with a vengeance. Even the nights Roc filled her with his fingers and loved her with his mouth, she felt empty.

With increasing desperation, she yearned to say yes to his possession. But how could she? Her people needed her more than ever.

Nissa had lied to everyone. Warriors and hard workers who deserved only candor. How many other Generals had done the same? Taliyah vowed to never lie or mislead her harpies ever. Sacrifice their happiness for her own? No. She would fight for what was right, and she would never accept a picture of defeat for them.

What other contender for General could say the same?

But.

Was denying Roc what he craved, what she craved, an admission of defeat?

With a grunt of disgust, she closed the book she was not really reading and stood. She headed to the dungeon to check on both her harpies and her phantoms.

Though it had left them exhausted, Taliyah and Roc had corralled the phantoms she’d fought. Well, the harphantoms. They now wore cuffs, as Taliyah once had, to prevent them from disembodying.

With three harphantoms per cell and new members added every day, the dungeon bustled with activity.

As Taliyah passed, old and new harphantoms did their best to fit their bound hands through the bars. Any messages had been delivered, the women able and eager to feed.

Roux stood guard near the harpies, staring her down as she approached. In front of him, she held his gaze, new hope stirring, but...no. Again, she found no sign of Blythe. Where had her sister gone?

He said nothing. Neither did she.

Taliyah pivoted, relocating the bulk of her attention to a new captive. Someone she recognized from drawings in history books. An infamous warrior named Dove who’d once fought alongside Tabitha Skyhawk, counted among the number to die by Erebus’s hand.

Another of Taliyah’s research projects: find a way to fix the harphantoms. If father had broken them, surely daughter could patch them.