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Clutching my face gently, she looked me straight in the eyes, revealing tears of blood on her cheeks. “And so he is yours. Now let him do his duty, sweetness. Let him die for you as you come to safety with me.”
“No!” I jerked my chin free of her hold and backed away slowly. “No. I’m not leaving this world without him.”
“Quilla.” She stomped her foot, and her voice hardened with authority. “Dammit. I will not be disobeyed.”
No longer the eight-year-old child she could order around, I shook my head, and wiped my eyes, knowing this was most likely the last time I’d ever see her. “He’s my true love, Melaina.”
“He is a stranger to you,” she argued. “So what if he’s supposed to end up as your soulmate? You can defy that destiny. You can come away with me right now and be safe. Chasing after him would be a death sentence. You don’t have to accept him as your mate.”
I edged another step back. “Except I already have.”
She shook her head, eyes filling with panic. “Quilla.” She started toward me, lifting her hand. “Baby. Please don’t leave me. You’ll die. You’ll die.” More blood dripped down her cheeks.
I lifted my own palms, warding her off as I backed away. “Maybe I won’t. Maybe I’ll save him, and we can join you again. Tell Taiki I love her, and I hope to see you guys soon.”
Then I whirled around and took off, streaking through the forest.
“Quilla!” she called after me.
But I kept going.
I’m not even sure where I was going. Or what I was going to do when I got there. I just followed my heart. And it led me toward Indigo.
When pain flamed through my arm, burning into my mark and telling me I’d triggered another magical perimeter breach, I knew I was going in the right direction. He’d be this way, right in the thick of things and surrounded by the enemy.
My jog turned into a sprint.
When a uniformed guard, heavily weighed down by armor and sporting High Cliff colors, stepped out from behind a tree and directly into my path to face off with me, I didn’t even slow down. If anything, I bowed my head like a bull and charged forward even harder. He lifted a sword above his head, slow and clunky. I whipped out my daggers, one held in each hand.
We met. He swung. I dipped low, sliding past him in the dirt, and ended up behind him, where I sprang back to my feet and whirled to stab him in the back of the neck before he could follow me around.
Hitting him right in the open space between the bottom of his helmet and top of his chest plate, I listened to his death moan echo from the inside of his hood before he slumped to his knees, then fell forward, lifeless.
And thus, I became a Graykey murderess.
“Here!” A shout came from nearby, alerting me to another soldier. “We got one over here.”
Blinking away the daze of what I’d just done, I spun to find two more men rushing into the tiny clearing. These two weren’t covered in metal, leaving me way more targets to hit. So I threw the knife at one, thinking Indigo would be so proud that I finally aimed for the body this time when it struck true, hitting the man in the heart.
The other man was too close for me to throw my second dagger at.
He brandished a battle-ax and swung it freely, going for my neck. But I ducked, swiping toward his torso with my blade as I went.
He was too quick and leaped back, bowing his body out to avoid a cut.
Dammit.
He stepped forward, his boot landing on the hem of my dress. We both paused and looked down at the ripping sound that followed as his move split the material straight up my leg, revealing a naked thigh. Then we looked up at each other together, both our eyes wide over the strangeness of how he’d managed to ruin my skirt like that by merely stomping on it. But then I used my new freedom of movement to jerk my knee up, hitting him right between the legs.
Eyes crossing, he grunted out a breath, clutched himself, and tipped over sideways. I punched him in the side of the head as he went down, to knock him out for good measure.
I messed up, though; I spent too long blinking at his mammoth, crumpled form, still in awe over the fact that I’d been able to best such a huge beast. By the time I sensed a presence behind me, it was too late. A solid bulk slammed into the center of my back, stealing my breath and knocking me to my knees.
With the wind punched from my lungs and my vision spinning with dizziness, I wavered upright for a second before pitching face-forward and landing slumped over the man I’d just knocked unconscious.
Pain paralyzed me, exploding freshly in my mouth and cutting open my lip as my face slammed into the earth, while the throbbing line across my spine seemed to immobilize my arms. Skirts tangled around my legs, trapping me further. I couldn’t even struggle as a rough arm grabbed my shoulder and spun me around onto my back so I was able to look up into the face of my attacker.
The stranger snarled down at me, saying, “Hello, black eyes,” before he straightened and lifted a club over his head.
