AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Give me the Crimson guards, and I’ll let you all go.”
“A woman?” The man sounded surprised. “I think you’ll tell me how you crossed the barrier. Then I’ll kill you quickly.”
“Give them to me, now.” Adrenaline pumped so fast through me that my body trembled. When they laughed, my darkness whispered into my mind to kill them. It had hoped they wanted to fight.
“Drop the bow on the ground.”
I allowed the bow to hit the ground, a plan quickly forming in my mind.
“Grab her,” the man demanded.
“It’s just a woman. She isn’t a threat so why are we wasting our time?” someone argued. The man shot him a hard look that silenced him.
A man about my height and slightly bigger than me approached. When he reached for me, I lunged, kicking the back of his knees and pulling his dagger out of the sheath on his hip. I pressed the blade hard into his throat.
“I’ll kill him,” I threatened. “Last chance to give me the men.”
The man in charge looked at me and then the man in front of me before laughing hysterically. His blue eyes found mine.
“Then kill him. You will still have five others to overtake.”
Smiling, I slid the blade through the man's throat and shoved him to the ground. The men gasped in surprise. It only took a moment before they recovered their wits, and the second one charged with his sword, but I had anticipated it. Grabbing the dead man’s sword, I blocked the high attack and kicked the man backward. The next man came and grabbed me from behind.
I used my body weight as leverage and pushed backward, making us both tumble to the ground. His body cushioned my fall. Rolling off him, I stabbed him with the sword. I heard the next man coming and grabbing my bow and arrow. When I turned, he had thrown a dagger, and it sank deep into my thigh. Adrenaline pumped through me so hard that I didn’t feel the wound at first. I let my string go and my arrow buried itself into the eye of the dagger thrower. Three down and three to go.
I watched to see who would be next. The tall man stood back and watched me with curious eyes. The next man was more cautious as I lifted my bow. Only he wasn’t my intended target for this one.
Shifting my bow at the last second, I shot at the man in charge. He moved out of the way, but the arrow had lodged itself in his arm. One of the men tackled me to the ground. My bow snapped in half as it fell from my hands. He punched me several times in the face before grabbing the dagger in my thigh and twisting it. A loud painful scream ripped through my throat.
It was the pain that brought forth my fire magic without permission. Focusing on the man holding me down I focused on his chest. He stopped immediately and tried breathing, but my fire had already started burning him from the inside out. I smiled as he gazed at me. Pushing him off me with little effort, I stood.
“Your magic works inside the barrier?” The tall man's body tensed at the realization.
Glaring at him, I took a step forward. My vision pulsed with a red haze as my magic hummed through me. I lifted my hands and saw small black flames moving across my skin. He smiled back at me before glancing at the men tied up. Looking back at me he gave me a satisfied smug smile.
“Why would a woman who is not a member of the king’s guard show up here to fight?” He paced slowly back and forth in thought. “Perhaps one of the prisoners is important to you?”
I made sure not to look at Cassius and kept my face as emotionless as possible. When I didn’t give anything away, he chuckled.
“Which one are you here for?”
My flames burned higher in my hands and the man watched me like I was the most impressive thing he had ever seen.
“Answer me or I’ll kill them all with one look.”
I wondered if the man had the ability to kill them all before I could protect them. My eyes glanced at Cassius who was staring at me with something I couldn’t read. He was struggling against his ropes, but it wasn’t helping him be freed.
“Ah, the Captain then?”
The man turned his focus to Cassius, who immediately began screaming. His muffled yells were all I needed to shoot fire in the man’s direction. He dodged it easily, but it was only a distraction to shield Cassius. My darkness surged forward as it searched around me for magic I could pull from. It pulsed violently telling me to take and kill. I had only done this a few times. I could feel the barrier magic and pulled it into me focusing on Cassius. The shield I had made surrounded him and the other guards sitting next to him on the ground, but no one else would know what I had done.
“All this trouble for the King’s Captain. He must be good in the sack, huh?”
He was trying to get a rise out of me, but it wouldn’t work. There was nothing more that could make me feel angrier or more possessive of Cassius. He glanced at him, readying to launch his next unseen attack.
Only this time nothing happened, and he looked around, bewildered. My lips formed a sneer when he finally turned his attention back to me.
“How did you do that?”
