The Assassin and the Underworld Read Free Page A

arrived?
    Celaena ground her teeth. So that nonsense where he’d made her wait while he finished his work …
    She clenched her hands into fists and was about to whirl and stomp back down the stairs to tell Arobynn that she was leaving and that he no longer owned her, when someone stepped into the elegantly appointed hall.
    Celaena froze as she saw Sam Cortland.
    Sam’s brown eyes were wide, his body rigid. As if it took some effort on his part, he shut the door to the hall washroom and strode toward her, past the teal velvet curtains hanging on the floor-to-ceiling windows, past the framed artwork on the walls, closer and closer. She remained still, taking in every inch of him before he stopped a few feet away.
    No missing limbs, no limp, no indication of anything haunting him. His chestnut hair had gotten a little longer, but it suited him. And he was tan—gloriously tan, as if he’d spent the whole summer basking in the sun. Hadn’t Arobynn punished him at all?
    â€œYou’re back,” Sam said, as if he couldn’t quite believe that she stood before him.
    She lifted her chin, stuffing her hands in her pockets. “Obviously.”
    He tilted his head slightly to the side. “How was the desert?”
    There wasn’t a scratch on him. Of course, her face had healed, too, but … “Hot,” she said. Sam let out a breathy chuckle.
    It wasn’t that she was
mad
at him for being uninjured. She was so relieved she could have vomited, actually. She just never imagined that seeing him today would feel so … strange. And after what had happened with Ansel, could she honestly say that she trusted him?
    In the drawing room a few doors down, a woman let out a shrill giggle. How was it possible that she could have so many questions and yet so little to say?
    Sam’s eyes slipped from her face to her neck, his brows drawing together for a heartbeat as he saw the thin new scar. “What happened?”
    â€œSomeone held a sword to my throat.”
    His eyes darkened, but she didn’t want to explain the long, miserable story. She didn’t want to talk about Ansel, and she certainly didn’t want to talk about what had happened with Arobynn that night they’d returned from Skull’s Bay.
    â€œAre you hurt?” Sam asked quietly, taking another step closer.
    It took her a moment to realize that his imagination had probably taken him to a far, far worse place when she said someone had held a blade to her throat.
    â€œNo,” she said. “No, not like that.”
    â€œThen like what?” He was now looking more closely at her, at the almost invisible white line along her cheek—another gift from Ansel—at her hands, at everything. His lean, muscled body tensed. His chest had gotten broader, too.
    â€œLike none of your business, that’s what,” she retorted.
    â€œTell me what happened,” he gritted out.
    She gave him one of those simpering little smiles that she knew he hated. Things hadn’t been bad between them since Skull’s Bay, but after so many years of treating him awfully, she didn’t know how to slide back into that newfound respect and camaraderie they’d discovered for each other. “Why should I tell you anything?”
    â€œBecause,” he hissed, taking another step, “the last time I saw you, Celaena, you were unconscious on Arobynn’s carpet and so bloodied up that I couldn’t see your damn face.”
    He was close enough that she could touch him now. Rain continued beating against the hall windows, a distant reminder that there was still a world around them. “Tell me,” he said.
    I’ll kill you
! Sam had screamed it at Arobynn as the King of the Assassins beat her. He’d roared it. In those horrible minutes, whatever bond had sprung up between her and Sam hadn’t broken. He’d switched loyalties—he’d chosen to stand by her, fight for
her
.