Page 76 of The Hood and his Thief

“Rhosyn.”

Ansel had said her name many times before. To get her attention. In frustration when she challenged him. At the peak of his pleasure.

But this was different. This was both a prayer and a plea. Full of love and a promise that Rhosyn didn’t want: that he wouldn’t hurt her even to save himself.

It struck something within her, the blow forming cracks in the stone grasp around her mind. She squirmed physically, her muscles twitching in response to her commands, although not yet fully responding.

“End this,” the groom growled.

His orders pulled at her muscles, but Rhosyn knew now she could break free. She had to.

An image flew to her mind unbidden. The last assassin’s eyes clearing of their odd haze as the chandelier knocked him squarely in the forehead. A blow to the head had freed him of the grip of the groom’s Talent.

If Rhosyn knew how to do anything, it was take a hit.

With an almighty roar, she lunged forward, ripping her sleeve free and leaping at Ansel. The groom still compelled her to fight him, but she used the foothold of control she had to lead with her head.

Her forehead connected with Ansel’s with a resounding crack. They both stumbled back, Rhosyn hitting the wall behind her and sliding to the ground. The groom screamed at her to get up. To kill Ansel.

But Rhosyn didn’t move.

Her mind was free.

Her vision swam and her limbs flailed uncoordinatedly as she tried to recover from the blow to her head. Her vision cleared and she looked up, only for her heart to stutter once again.

The groom had drawn a pistol from his coat, and she now stared down the barrel of it.

“I’ll have to do this the hard way then,” he growled.

Rhosyn stiffened as a bang split the air, but no pain bloomed in her chest. Instead, the groom’s face smoothed in shock. He wavered where he stood, crimson blooming across his chest.

He looked down at the spreading stain, but no horror crossed his expression. Instead, his eyes filled with something like relief.

“It’s over then.”

That was all he said before he toppled sideways, dead before he hit the ground. Behind him sat Ansel, back propped against the wall as he held a small pistol in a shaking hand. Rhosyn met his gaze over a bloody and already horrendously purple nose.

The gun fell from his hand, and Rhosyn was on him before it clattered to the ground. Blood dripped over his lips, streaming from a crooked nose, clearly broken by Rhosyn’s inelegant attack. But his eyes were full of life, and his arms were warm and solid as he wrapped her in them.

She sat there in his embrace, and she wasn’t sure if the shaking in her limbs was from the rumbling of the train or the trembling relief running through her body.

“You saved me,” she murmured into his chest.

He nuzzled into her hair, smearing blood all over it, but she didn’t care. “You did that yourself. You fought tooth and nail, like you always do. And you won.”

They inhaled each other’s presence in silence for a moment, only for it to be broken by the creak of a door sliding open.

Rhosyn raised her head to find Contessa, standing in the doorway, a look of utmost relief on her face. If Contessa’s Talent told her it was safe to come out, then the fight must be over.

Contessa nodded at the question in Rhosyn’s eyes. “We’re safe now.”

Chapter sixteen

Rhosyn stared down the line of her friends and family, pride blooming in her chest. To her right stood Contessa, resplendent in silver silk, although when she looked closely, she could see it wasn’t nipped in as close at the waist as usual. Nate hovered off her shoulder, unable to look away from his wife, even as King Byron stood before his throne, thanking them for serving King and Country.

Rhosyn snuck a glance to her left, looking past Ansel to Scarlett and Benedict. She nearly chuckled at the pair they made, Benedict’s charming smile a perfect contrast to Scarlett’s perpetual scowling at all the pomp, made even fiercer by the knot of scar tissue on the side of her head where one of her ears should be.

Ansel’s shoulder bumped against hers, and he shot her an amused glance as if saying to her, “You only get inducted into the Royal Order once.”