A Shade of Kiev 3 Read Free

will be interrogating each and every one of you. We will get to the bottom of this, so I suggest that you admit it now rather than drawing out the pain. Because we will find you.”
    Mona’s hand clenched around her fork. Helina tensed beside me.
    I kept my breathing calm and steady as I watched Rhys.
    “Interrogations will be conducted in here. We’ll begin directly after lunch.” He turned to the right of the table and pointed to the first two vampires sitting there. “You two will be first.” He looked back at everyone else. “Make sure you’ve finished eating by two o’clock sharp. Nightly rituals will also be paused until we’ve caught this traitor.”
    Rhys sat back down and continued to glare at us.
    I swallowed back three glasses of blood and stood up. I didn’t give Helina the chance to hold me back. I melded in with a group of vampires hurrying out of the hall. I slipped out of the entrance and walked around the back of the castle, where one was less likely to bump into people.
    I needed some fresh air to clear my head.
    If I was to be suspected, it would be due to Tiarni. I needed to make sure she wouldn’t tell. Because if she did, although I wasn’t particularly worried about what would happen to me, it would affect my siblings.
    A hiss came from behind me.
    “Kiev!”
    Mona stood ten feet away from me. She wore black gloves and a cloak over her long dress. I closed the distance between us.
    Her eyes were wide. “I need to meet you back in your room. While Rhys is busy with the interrogation. Go there now. I’ll follow in five minutes.”
    She turned and walked away.
    I did as she requested and returned to my apartment.
    She knocked on the door a few minutes later.
    “Tiarni,” she breathed.
    I nodded.
    “Have her here in your room by ten o’clock tonight. I don’t have time to explain. Just do it.”
    She turned to leave. I reached out to grab her hand.
    “Leave me.”
    “What are you planning?”
    She struggled against me. “I don’t have time to—”
    “You’ll kill her too?”
    She stopped struggling and stared at me for several moments.
    Her lips parted, and I thought she was about to answer. But then she vanished into thin air.

Chapter 5: Mona
    R hys didn’t pay attention to me for most of the day. He was busy interrogating vampires and witches, and then scouring the island along with his two sisters in search of Celice.
    I spent most of my day round the back of the castle, watching the entrance to the island’s underground spell room. Efren was in there for hours and I was beginning to lose hope that he’d ever leave, but finally he emerged from the trapdoor, leaving me less than two hours to concoct the potion I needed for later that night.
    I ducked down further into the bushes, waiting with bated breath until he’d disappeared from sight. Then I crept toward the door. I fumbled around for the clasp and lifted it up. I hurried down the steps and shut the door over me. I had to hope that none of the witches would need to use the room for the next couple of hours. If someone came in and asked what I was concocting, I’d just have to make something up.
    I looked around the dim circular chamber. A rusty smell of human blood wafted into my nostrils. Shelves of potions and leather-bound books lined the walls. Also fixed to the walls were wide wooden counters, upon which lay various knives and other metal utensils. Two young women were chained in one corner, both on the floor, unconscious.
    Focus, Mona. You don’t have much time.
    Averting my eyes away from them, I approached one of the shelves. Heaving off a thick black book, I placed it down on the counter. I flipped through the fading parchment pages until I reached the recipe I needed.
    My breath hitched as I looked at the complexity of it. I looked around the ingredients shelves and prayed that we had everything.
    I approached one of the cauldrons in the center of the room and stoked a fire. I ran around the room,