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The guard started wailing, alerting the entire kingdom of Silbath where we were.
“Go!” I shouted.
She ran, taking a turn I wouldn’t have, but she knew where she was going, and I had to trust that as the sound of stomping and shouting guards grew louder behind us.
“Guards!” she yelled back at me, seconds before she was captured by another.
I whipped a dagger into the small space between his armor, and he fell to his knees but still held Paesha by the hair.
“Go get our girl, Deyanira,” she said. “I’ll be right behind you.”
“Let me?—”
“Enough fighting, just save Quill!” she yelled as another guard ran for us.
I couldn’t take the time to argue, nor could I save them both. And she knew it. She made her choice. But Quill never got one. Running past the painting of the prior king, eyes flicking to the brown horse, I slammed my entire body into the door, every bit of my skin crawling with adrenaline as I prepared for whatever I’d find.
It swung open on impact, revealing tiny Quill clutching her legs to her chest, face stained with tears, and three armed guards, swords out, standing vigil.
“Quilly, I know you’re scared,” I said, allowing a dangerous calm to settle over me. “Close your eyes and cover your ears. Sing Orin’s favorite song as loud as you can.”
Chapter 24
Quill’s sweet, shaking voice filled the room as time stopped. I wasn’t here for Death. I would not kill these guards. But the way all three took a collective step toward me raised the hair on my body. I wasn’t sure I would have a choice by the end of this fight.
I gripped the perfectly shaped handle of Thea’s whip, letting the metal teeth glimmer in the lamplight as I snapped it once, inviting anyone who wanted to try me to step forward.
They moved at once, and I launched into action, serenaded by the voice of an innocent as I ripped into Icharius Fern’s guards. Strategically, I aimed for weak spots in the armor, loosening the buckles and unfastening the straps, shifting left and right as they lunged and missed, none of them properly trained. One grabbed me around the waist and hauled me sideways. I used the momentum to bring a leg out and kick the helmet from another before planting a knife into the armpit of the man holding me.
He yelped, and I fell to the floor in a crouch. Whipping the chain across another’s armor, sparks flew in a warning.
“You get to decide for yourself today. You live or die by your next moves. That little girl and I are leaving this room. Are you?”
Each guard paused, the static in the air thickening. The one with a gash in his pit darted for the door. Two remained. They surged as one, both blades flying for me. I leaped from the ground, soaring over the one with no helmet and coiling the whip around his neck as I came down. The blood spatter was silent, even as I loosened the whip with a flick of my wrist just in time to keep his head on his shoulders. He fell to his knees regardless, grasping at his wound as he crawled on the door.
The final guard was a beast. His sword nicked my arm, and he’d plowed a shoulder into my stomach, and had I not dodged, in the next drive, he’d have been on top of me. But Paesha’s desperate scream from the hallway and the way Quill’s back went rigid was enough to make the decision I’d been trying to avoid. We needed to get out of the castle, or we were never going back.
“Forgive me,” I whispered to the guard, causing him to still.
He knew. And I knew.
And it was over in the next move. Three throwing knives. Three beautifully crafted weapons of art had found their home with less effort than it took to keep him alive. Quill’s final note of her beautiful song ended the second I snatched her from the corner and ran like hell.
I couldn’t save Paesha while carrying Quill. It was far too dangerous. Every second that passed, the worse it would become for the Huntress at the end of the hall. An overwhelming sense of dread flooded me as I contemplated my own escape. My own free will.
“Keep your eyes closed, do you hear me? Cover your ears and don’t look,” I told Quill, setting her down behind a pillar. “I promise I will come back for you.”
“Okay,” she whispered, her face full of terror.
Paesha was putting up a valiant fight, but there was only a slim chance we were walking out of this castle. I cracked the whip, drawing attention to distract the two guards, giving her a window to back away and join my side.
“I know you hate me, but if we don’t do this together, we won’t do it at all.”
She slid a hand over a brow. “Agreed.”
The men rushed forward. She held her blade steady, bending slightly in the knees.
“I don’t want to kill them.”
