The sight of it made her frown. From here, it looked like they were... like they were going to urinate on him.
Or worse.
Suddenly, she knew exactly who knelt in the middle of the circle.
Dax.
Roa didn’t think about how they outnumbered her four to one. Just bit down on the steel of her scythe, keeping it securely between her teeth.
Hoisting herself over the balcony, she dropped to the earth below.
Thirty-Three
Rage thundered through Roa as she moved quickly down the garden’s dirt path toward the voices. With her hilt gripped hard in her hand again, she advanced on the men.
“If you value your lives,” she growled when they came into view, “you’ll walk away.Now.”
The men looked up, their laughter dying. The smiles falling from their faces at the sight of the scrublander queen.
Dax looked up, too, staring at his wife from where he knelt on the ground. A bruise was forming on his jaw. His curls were a mess. And his eyes were dark with betrayal as he stared at the key hanging from Roa’s throat.
“Go back inside, scrublander.” In the light of the few torches lining the garden walls, she saw it was Garnet. The scar through his lip giving him away. “You don’t want to watch this. We’ll bring him to you and Rebekah when we’re done.”
“Did you not hear what I said?” She glared at Garnet even as her heart pounded an erratic tattoo, her body coiled to spring if he challenged her again.
The other three stepped in closer, their hands going to their hilts.
Roa’s senses flared with warning.
She couldn’t fight them all. Nor could she leave Dax at their mercy.
“Drop your weapon, scrublander. Or you’ll join him.”
Roa looked to her husband, who was rising to his feet behind her. Their gazes caught and held. In a heartbeat, something swift and silent passed between them. Dax nodded—the motion so slight, it was almost imperceptible.
“I said,” Garnet growled, “drop your weapon.”
Roa threw down her sword. The tip landed near Dax’s left foot.
“Good girl.”
Before the words were even out of his mouth, Dax slammed his boot down onto the steel. The hilt of her sword bounced against the dirt path and swung upward.
Dax caught it. Roa drew her sister’s knife.
The two men directly before them stared in disbelief. Like everyone else, they’d been completely taken in by Dax’s charade of a useless swordsman.
As they hesitated, Roa and Dax lunged. With a fierce cry, her knife plunged into Garnet’s heart while Dax opened the chest of the one beside him using Roa’s scythe.
That’s for my sister,thought Roa as Garnet’s eyes widened in shock.
The smell of hot, coppery blood filled the air. Both men went down.
Roa drew Garnet’s saber. She and Dax turned to face thesecond set of Rebekah’s men, who were only now recovering from their confusion and drawing their weapons.
“Where is everyone?” she asked Dax quickly. “Why is the palace empty?”
“We knew an attack was coming,” he said, keeping his eyes on the enemy. “Safire evacuated the palace.”
