Page 25 of Wings of Destruction

Tristan’s muscles bunch, the blade ready and eager to slice the girl’s throat, and I can’t let it happen. I open my mouth to stop him, to burn him with some of the acid pooling in my mouth, but the girl’s eyes meet mine and stop me.

Six

Kieran

Imake my decision in seconds.

Tristan’s blade sinks into the girl’s skin and leaves an angry red line behind. A single drop of blood gathers at the tip.

The girl hisses but doesn’t back away, doesn’t falter. “If you’re going to slit my throat, then do it. We don’t have all day.”

She arches her back and the movement brings her into closer contact with the blade. She’ll fight to the bitter end. The dripping blood makes me flinch and my heart freezes in my chest.

But the words that fall from my cold lips hold firm. “Oh, please,” I say with a drawl.

Tristan pauses slightly. “Excuse me? Something to say, cousin?”

The girl’s eyes flicker when she stares at me, the wound on her neck angry looking and surely sore from the bite of the dagger.

Breathless, conflicted, I force my words to do the battle for me, reacting without a plan. With the girl in my cousin’s grasp and his need for vengeance…

I can’t let her and all the kids die.

“Don’t kill her yet. She’s a pretty thing, isn’t she?” I drop my voice and start for her. “Once you get past her attitude. Her features are pleasing. We might have a use for her.”

Tristan rolls his eyes, working his jaw back and forth. “The most lethal things usually are,” he replies. “Spare me your bleeding heart. She’s dangerous.”

I move with unearthly slowness but don’t reach out. Don’t touch my cousin’s cloak and use it to strangle him on the cold cavern floor.

“Dangerous, yes. But sometimes danger has its uses.”

I’ll be the monster my father wants me to be, the monster I’m supposed to be, if it gets me what I want. It’s bad enough I hedged my bets today and allowed the men and Tristan to see this side of me I usually keep under wraps.

My mind tears through several possibilities and discards all of them. It will be so much easier to let Tristan do what he wants with the girl, and inevitably I’m painting a bigger target on myself for defending her.

Unless I play this right.

Something about the redhead and her anger lures me in.

What do I want?

“Drop the blade and let her go.”

Tristan chuckles darkly and the sound has no mirth. “You don’t know what you’re asking, cousin.”

“I do, actually. I’d like to see if she’s worth the fight she’s putting up.” I narrow my attention on the girl and she blanches, the twin dots of color on her cheeks now gone. “Secure the others. You know what to do with them.”

“No, you can’t!”

The girl jerks, arching her back, bringing her throat into full contact with the blade. The move surprises Tristan. Has he ever had someone move into his sword rather than shrinking from it?

“You leave them alone!”

The girl finds her feet in an instant and squares off with Tristan. The edge of her elbow grinds into his stomach, matching his strength, their bodies colliding. He throws her away from him with such speed I barely manage to catch her in my waiting arms.

Rather than pausing, she screeches, punching wildly at me.

The girl doesn’t need a weapon. Not with her eyes narrowed on me, her knees bent, and her steps light as she slashes her nails at my face.