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Her struggles slowed, growing sluggish.
Three.
Pain tore through his chest as his arms were forced apart. She fell to her hands and knees, a pair of iridescent reptilian wings sweeping around her. They ripped through her robe and his suit, leaving deep gouges across his chest.
She stood and lunged at him, swiping at him with her claws.
Rune leapt back narrowly avoiding her swing. “Calm yourself, harpy.”
His words didn’t reach the woman. She kept going.
He reached for Sadi’s mind.I need your assistance. Wrap yourself in a sight shield.
Rune felt Sadi phase into Hell a moment later.What are you doing?
Distracting her. Can you slip beneath her shields and knock her unconscious?Rune recalled the candle holder and tossed it to the minx. “Care for another swing?”
She caught it and bared her teeth running toward him. Rune dodged her blows as she struck the gray stone wall. Black swirling mist exploded, raining dust and pebbles over her.
Rune’s mouth went slack at the decent-sized hole she left in his wall, one she seemingly didn’t notice. Perhaps returning her toy was a poor decision. He phased, avoiding her next swing.
I can’t get past her shields.Sadi’s panicked voice called through his mind.
Before he decided his next move the harpy swayed on her feet. Her wings darkened until they became swirling black mist holding the shape of her wings. It thinned and dissipated, fading from sight. Rune narrowed his eyes at her transformation and lurched forward to catch her as she fell.
Revulsion etched over her dainty features as she glared up at him. A snake coiled ready to strike. “What did you do to me?”
What did he do to her?A bitter grin spread over his lips.She poached him with her lover and played offended.Rune lifted her into his arms and phased to the room adjoining his. The spiteful creature in his arms clawed to consciousness, returning his gaze with her own seething glare. “I did nothing to you.”
Her lids slid closed even as she demanded in a hushed whisper, “Kill me.”
Rune cradled her to his chest as her breaths became deep and even. It maddened him that he found touching her pleasant. He even had an errant urge to brush the hair from her face and tuck her under the blankets. Rune exhaled. This wasn’t fate. This was a spell. One geared to cause him to feel affection to the very thing that would kill him. This was a brilliant spell, he decided.
He brushed his mind against hers, determined to break the tie binding them and be done with her. Rune cursed in High Tongue. The same damned mental shielding barricaded her mind— As she slept. He gently lowered her to the bed, hating he pulled the blankets over her before he’d made a conscious decision to do so.
Thinning his lips, Rune forcibly dragged himself from his captive.
“You’re injured.” Sadi splayed her hands over his chest.
Heat spread over the wound tingling as his flesh knit together. When his court was whole, Sadi served as their healer seeing to their wounds and injuries after wars and skirmishes.
“I am well.” Rune remained still as Sadi moved her hands lower, mending one arm then the other.
“She attacked you.” Not a question. Sadi fingered the tattered remains of his suit. A fierceness crossing her features, a glimmering promise of violence reflected in her midnight eyes.
Rune shrugged, “She believes I killed her lover.”
“I’m going to kill her lover in front of her,” Sadi said, turning toward the bed and stopping short. After a moment she approached the sleeping minx, leaning in close and poking her cheek. Rune canted his head as she inhaled deeply over the minx’s mouth.
Sadi straightened, turned to Rune, and asked, “Why does she have my face?”
By the sound of it, she was deeply offended she and the minx could be twins. “I do not know.” Rune kept the laughter from his voice lest he invite Familiar steel between his ribs. “I am unable to breach her mental defenses. Is it Familiar magic?”
Sadi moved to the peasant’s bedside and pushed her hair to one side, before turning to Rune. “You won’t win her by letting her believe you killed her lover.”
“I have no want for a female that toys with men for sport.”
“Rune she’s yours,” she said.
