My Second Chance Mate is a Barbarian (Sera and Fenris) novel Chapter 111

Lyra

"Tell the girl to step into the room," he said.

"Leave her out of this," I said. My voice came out as a pathetic, raspy whisper. I cleared my throat, trying to find some spine. "She didn't do anything. It was my idea to come in here."

"Tell her to step into the room," he said, his eyes going dead, "or she doesn't leave this wing alive."

I turned my head. I didn't want to look into the dark. "Nadia. Come out."

Nadia shuffled out of the passage. She kept her chin pinned to her chest. She stood slightly behind my left shoulder, making herself as small as physically possible.

My father looked at her. He didn't dismiss her this time. He evaluated her face, his eyes narrowing slightly as he placed her. A slow, deeply condescending sigh slipped through his teeth. He rested his hands flat on the desk.

"Nadia," my father murmured. He tested the name on his tongue like it tasted faintly of dirt. "The scribe's daughter."

Nadia trembled. She gripped the back of my shirt.

"You know, Lyra," my father said, keeping his cold eyes entirely on Nadia. "I am starting to believe this girl's bloodline is cursed with a chronic inability to understand its own station. It is a tragedy, really."

I frowned, my heart hammering against my ribs. "What are you talking about?"

My father tilted his head, his expression shifting into a mask of genuine, sickening pity.

"A few weeks ago," my father recounted smoothly, "when Sera threw her little tantrum and tried to run away before the Ironmaw caravan arrived. Someone smuggled her out the servant's gate. Someone packed her a bag and lied to the perimeter guards. Do you remember that, Nadia?"

Nadia let out a wet, broken gasp. She shrank further behind my shoulder.

Of course I remembered.

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