Page 174 of A Thief Among Fae

“I’ll kill you for this!” Desmond hollers, his voice hoarse from overuse and seething with rage. Chains rustle, and Desmond yells a string of swears. The scent of blood taints the air.

Rune shoves the door open. “Got another prisoner with me. A spy,” he calls out.

The guard isn’t listening. He’s raising an axe over Finnian’s wrist as it’s pinned in place on a chopping block by iron shackles. Finnian trembles, fingers smeared with grime and blood, and tears roll down his face.

My gaze catches on his other wrist, a stub of flesh and blood that’s rapidly bleeding out.

The severed hand lies still on the block.

And Min’s dark growl is devoid of any mercy.

Chapter 51

The guard swings at Finnian’s wrist. A whip of my magic jerks the axe sideways. The blade strikes the chopping block, and the guard stumbles, off-balance. I pull on his clothing. He falls, landing hip-first onto the cobblestones stained with Finnian’s blood. The guard rolls onto his back, draws in a breath as he swivels to glare at us⁠—

Min’s body elongates, her upper canines protruding and claws extending to razor-sharp points.

The guard has no time to scream.

The violence is too transfixing to look away as Min ruthlessly rakes her claws into the guard’s throat. Blood flies amid strained gurgling. Flesh tears open, exposing the pink muscle underneath. Her jaws snap around the guard’s hand, severing it with a yank. She spits it out across the room and roars in the guard’s face.

Then she shifts out of her feline body. Her black hair hangs like a silken curtain as she stares down at the guard with a blank gaze devoid of mercy.

“Die,” she says.

And she buries her dagger in his chest.

“What in the gods’ names?” another guard cries out as he rushes into the central chamber. A female guard follows him, and both draw their swords.

I finally snap out of my stupor as they rush Rune and me.

Forget the handcuffs. Forget the games. I untether a dagger from my sheath and fling it. The guard gasps as the dagger strikes her shoulder. With a thrust of magic, I unlock my cuffs and throw them at her head. Her eyes roll back as she topples, unconscious.

Rune parries blades with the other guard, then sidesteps and sinks his sword into the guard’s gut. “You’ll pay for this!” the guard rasps.

“Believe me, I hoped we could get through the night without any murder on my hands,” Rune says. He twists the blade with a grimace. “This will be quite the stain on my reputation.” He pulls back as the guard collapses.

The guard’s eyelids flutter, then fall still.

Rune approaches the unconscious female guard, sighs, and thrusts his sword tip through her throat.

“Rune!” I gasp.

He sheathes his sword, dusts his hands off, and turns to me. “Did you want to chance her awakening and sounding an alarm? I would’ve preferred it if you dealt the final blow, but we can’t tarry. I’ll find Aurielle if you free the prince.”

I nod, too nauseous to speak. My stomach reels from the stench of blood and the three bodies, one of them only ribbons of flesh and bone from Min’s merciless assault. This is not what I had in mind when I planned to rescue the fae. I thought we could steal them away like the map in the Snow-Shod manor without leaving a trail of death behind. I was willing to pay any price to fix my mistake, but this?

As I approach Finnian and Min, any guilt I felt withers. Those guards were torturing my friends.

Min finds the keys on the guard’s blood-splattered belt and unlocks Finnian’s remaining hand. Tears stream from his brown eyes as he looks up at her in adoration.

“You once freed me, and now it is my turn to free you,” she says. “Cyn, please give me the medkit.” She kneels beside him as I reach into my pack for the supplies Maeve prepared.

“Just like the day we met, huh?” Finnian says through forced blitheness. His quivering bottom lip and sharp breath betray how much pain he’s in.

“I do not believe the circumstances are that similar,” Min says as she trades me the keys for the medkit. She prepares a tourniquet with a leather strap, then gently reaches for his severed wrist. “This will hurt. A lot.”

I turn away, wincing as Finnian screams.