Page 80 of Highland Spy

Eight more steps would close the distance between them.

The guard turned abruptly and looked up.

Her heart froze mid-beat. He was looking directly at Connor.

The guard’s chest swelled with the hearty inhale required to call out, and Ariana acted without thinking.

She jerked her dagger free of her pocket and sent it sailing through the air toward the man before he could ever even suspect he was in danger.

True to her aim, the blade sunk deep into the man’s neck. Blood spurted out, an eerie purple red in the dark of night.

He spun back toward her with a gurgling choke she knew she would never forget, and he pitched forward, rolling toward her.

She stepped backward on instinct, but the slope of the hill had not registered in her shock and she fell onto her back on the cold, wet ground.

A solid weight landed atop her and punched the air from her lungs. Something hovered over her face and wetness covered her neck, her chest, and the hands she had instinctively pushed out in front of her.

Don’t scream.

She twisted to free herself, her panicked mind firing rapid, confusing thoughts with one screaming above all others.

For the briefest of moments she was dazed, before she recognized the weight as the man, the shadow over her face as his, and the wetness as his blood.

His wide, pale eyes stared at her without seeing, hauntingly devoid of life.

The metallic odor of blood filled her nose and was salty hot where it had gotten into her mouth. Her stomach lurched and the panic, once only in her mind, pumped down to her body.

She twisted to free herself, wild with helpless abandon. She had no thought of her training, no thought of proving herself. Only freedom.

Freedom and blood.

So much blood.

Don’t scream.

The voice in the back of her mind was small, but she held the breath she’d pulled in.

She pushed hard, but her fingers only slipped beneath the weight of his body. Another gush of blood washed over her, hot and stinking.

Don’t scream.

Focus.

Ariana squeezed her eyes shut to block out the man’s face and concentrated. If she were being attacked on the ground like this, what would she do?

The coppery odor of the man’s blood lay thick in her throat, choking, but she put it from her mind and focused.

She put herself mentally in the grassy courtyard at Kindrochit with Delilah where she’d trained. The air was cool and fresh and Delilah had wrestled with her on the ground.

Ariana dug her heels into the soft, wet earth and thrust her hips up and toward the downward slope of the hill.

The man rolled off her like a limp doll, his arms, legs, and neck all flopping unnaturally until he came to a stop several feet away from her.

Her skin immediately chilled in the absence of the last of his body’s warmth. The blood on her gown was cold and wet against her flesh the way the rain had been.

Ariana gulped a lungful of sweet, fresh air and the harrowing panic quickly ebbed.

Something settled on her shoulder.