Two words.
Calm and unhurried. Like he’s been waiting years to say them. Like he’s been holding them in his mouth, warm and ready, for exactly this moment.
The sound of weapons lowering is a blow to my stomach.
Not all of them. But enough.
Enough for me to know what this is.
I look at the faces of men and women who won’t meet my eye. Fae who swore an oath on their knees in front of me.
But that’s not the worst of it. My gaze lands on Bloom, just a few feet away from me, her weapon lowered…
So, this is the moment I’ve been dreading.
Bloom…one with an easy smile, always ready to banter and tease. One who I thought was on my side, maybe even becoming a friend…
Maybe I shouldn’t be surprised. She was one of those who stood behind Nightingale that night back at the Ezkai Academy when Kata tried to drown me.
Fern, at Bloom’s side, looks even more shocked at her close friend’s betrayal than I feel.
In that moment, I don’t think.
I’m blinded with the ache of betrayal as I move.
My dagger finds the side of her throat before Bloom can take a step away from me. Her eyes widen a fraction, lips parting. I drive it in and drag it forward.
I step back as she drops. The rain swallows the sound of her hitting the ground.
Sneering, I look up at the men and women around me. “Fucking traitors.”
For one second nothing happens.
Then everything happens all at once.
The yard explodes. Steel on steel, bodies crashing into each other, shouts swallowed by rain and chaos.
My remaining loyal Ezkai crash into the turned ones. I can’t always tell which is which, and that alone makes my stomach turn.
Despite it, I fight.
I move through the yard, both daggers drawn, fast and low, targeting anyone who raises a weapon against my own.
A Caligos wearing my Ezkai’s leathers lunges at me from the left. I sidestep him, and drive my elbow into the back of his skull.
I keep moving.
My eyes are looking for Reizei in the chaos.
But he’s gone.
Of course he’s fucking gone.
A scream cuts through the noise. Not one of pain, but of warning. I spin in time to see Ezkai Cassandra surrounded by three Caligos loyalists.
She’s fast, she’s trained, she’s better than all of them individually.
Not all of them at once, though.
