Read Online Taliesin Ascendant (The Children and the Blood) by Skye Malone, Megan Joel Peterson - Free Book Online

simply nodded again. He motioned for the others to precede them, and then looked back at her as Elias and Katherine walked away.
    “After you,” he said.
    “What’s going on?”
    “A presentation in your honor,” he replied, stiff propriety settled firmly back in his tone.
    Her eyebrows rose. “What?”
    “You will see,” he said, gesturing to the hall. “It is nothing to be concerned over.”
    When she didn’t move, the barest hint of insistence entered his voice. “They are waiting, your majesty.”
    “Don’t call me that,” she snapped, letting anger cover the fact the words made her skin crawl.
    “It is your title.”
    “No, Ashe is my title. It’s my name. And as for the rest…” she made an impatient motion, “I don’t care. I’m going to talk to the council and I’m going to make them understand the Blood are real, because whatever you say, I know Carter wasn’t crazy.” She paused. “And I know what I saw.”
    Aggravation touched his gaze, though the rest of his face remained still. “As you wish,” he said with tight neutrality. He motioned to the hallway again. “Now, if you will please…?”
    Eyeing him cautiously, she started down the hall. Her brow lowered as she rounded the corner, a sense of something wrong hitting her. Resisting the urge to look back, she continued through the corridor and out onto the walkway.
    Her feet came to a stop.
    The factory floor was empty. Cots and curtain frames still stood where they’d been, but not a single person remained. The silence was deafening in the cavernous room, and as Cornelius strode up behind her, his quiet voice carried in the stillness.
    “This way,” he said.
    Slipping around her, he took to the stairs, leaving her to follow. Swallowing nervously, she gripped the metal rail as the steps clunked beneath her feet. The vast space stretched before her as she reached the concrete floor, seeming even larger than yesterday for the lack of occupants. In the distance, she could hear voices, strangely loud and yet indistinguishable. Biting her lip, she continued after him across the room. At the far side, he turned, swiftly climbing a narrow stairway to a metal door set high in the wall. He waited till she joined him, and then bowed his head.
    “Remember,” he said. “No reactions.”
    Her brow drew down, but before she could speak, he took her arm, opened the door, and then pulled her outside.
    They were on the roof of one of the lower parts of the factory. Up ahead, the council formed a line, their backs to her as they looked out on the parking lot several stories below. In the center, Darius was speaking, his hands on a microphone attached to an impromptu podium.
    “…I give you Her Royal Highness, Ashley Rebecca Carrington, Queen of Merlin,” he announced.
    Darius turned, extending his hand to her, and Cornelius’ arm carried her forward even as confusion chased itself around her face.
    And then the expression melted as the hundreds of wizards filling the parking lot came into view.
    For a heartbeat, their eyes locked on her.
    The rooftop shook from their cheers.
    Her legs were like water and she wanted to fall through the floor. To hide. To grab her gun and run like the wind to escape the hordes of people suddenly convinced she was something she could not possibly be.
    Queen. Royalty. And her father had been a freelancer. A researcher. The others were farmhands. They’d been wizards, and they’d died because of the war, but this was insane.
    Absolutely insane.
    “Breathe…” Cornelius murmured, his voice barely audible above the roar.
    Air forced itself into her lungs in response to the command, and nausea followed on its heels. In a blur of words, Darius concluded his speech, and below her, the crowd poured into the building like a flood breaking through a levee. Gripping her arm, Cornelius nodded to the council as they flowed past and returned to the door.
    “The guards will protect you,” Cornelius told her quietly.