Page 59 of A Court of Darkness and Dragons

He lunged, sword arcing toward my ribs. I barely twisted out of the way, boots skidding over gravel as the shock traveled up my weakened limbs. My body screamed in protest, muscles still half-raw from battle and magic drain. Jax had been right; I needed rest.

Kaelith! I shouted in my mind, my voice frayed with urgency as I scrambled back from the next strike.

Her answering roar shook the air, but it was distant. She and Hein were on the Dragon Isle.

Perin came at me again, his sword flashing in a vicious arc. My legs didn’t move fast enough; my heel caught on the edge of the garden path, and I staggered.

The tip of his blade sliced the air where my ribs had been a breath ago. I could feel the pull of it, the inevitable truth—he was about to run me through.

Kaelith… I’m sorry. The words were a raw whisper in my mind, shame tightening my throat.

But instead of the killing blow, Perin screamed, a sound that was equal parts fury and pain. His eyes went wide, his stance faltering as if the ground had vanished beneath him.

What is happening? I demanded.

Kaelith’s voice was steady and cold. Coldrath has cut his bond.

The truth struck like a hammer blow. Without his dragon, without that soul-deep magic, Perin’s power bled out of him in an instant.

His gaze snapped to me, wild. “I don’t need him to kill you!” He charged, rage replacing magic, and steel met steel in a furious flurry.

I tried to keep pace, but he still had brute strength, and his blade caught my arm, hot blood sliding down to my palm. I gasped, stumbling back, the earth coming up fast as I fell.

A shadow peeled itself from behind a stone column.

“How about you try me on, Rider?” Solei said, stepping into the moonlight with her twin daggers glinting in her hands.

“He is no longer a rider,” I rasped, pushing myself up with one arm.

Perin’s jaw clenched, fury and disbelief flashing in his eyes. “Coldrath will take me back once I explain everything to him.”

Solei smiled, slow, dangerous, and almost pitying. “I don’t think you’ll get the chance.”

Perin snarled and lunged, his blade flashing toward Solei’s midsection, but she wasn’t there. She moved like smoke, slipping around his strike with the ease of someone who’d been killing men longer than he’d been holding a sword.

Steel clashed as she parried, letting him overextend before she danced back, her daggers glinting in the garden’s muted light. Her movements were precise, almost lazy—like she was cataloging his weaknesses one by one, savoring the fight.

“You’re slow,” she said flatly, deflecting another strike and twisting away before his blade could bite.

He gritted his teeth and came at her harder, but every attack left him more unbalanced. She sidestepped, ducked, and when his frustration finally made him sloppy, she stepped into his guard.

Her right dagger came up under his chin, forcing his head back. The left drove cleanly into his chest, straight through his heart. His eyes went wide, the breath leaving him in a shocked gasp.

“Nobody touches my sister,” she said, her voice cold enough to freeze the air between them.

She shoved him back, letting him crumple lifeless onto the garden path. Blood still warm and slick coated her fingers as she turned to me, holding her hand out.

I took it without hesitation, her grip steady as she pulled me to my feet.

Chapter

Twenty-Two

Riven’s hand shook my shoulder just hard enough to rattle me out of the warm haze of sleep. My body ached in places I hadn’t known could ache, but my mind snapped back to the night before—the gleam of Perin’s sword, Solei’s daggers flashing, the cold finality in her voice.

I remembered the way Jax’s expression had turned from white-hot fury to relief when I’d told him what happened, his arms wrapping around Solei in a fierce embrace. She’d stood stiff at first, then allowed it, though her eyes gave nothing away. Ferrula had gotten the warrior’s handshake, a firm clasp forearm-to-forearm, before Solei had turned to me. She’d accepted the appreciation from my friends like one might accept an honor earned, but she didn’t linger. She’d told me to rest, her gaze lingering on me for a fraction longer than anyone else, then she’d melted into the shadows as easily as she’d appeared.

I’d been barely able to stand by then, my legs threatening to give out, so Riven had taken over. She’d helped me clean the dirt and blood from my skin, muttering about stubborn idiots who thought they were invincible, and Naia had been the one to pull the covers over me. I’d been asleep before they’d even left my bedside.