AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I tightened my grip on the short blade in my hand and raced toward the ruins.
With more confidence than me, Elise commanded the North forward. Herja and Gunnar took to the walls with the archers. Thick husk ropes with barbed hooks on the ends were tossed across the crumbling walls, catching the edge.
Once they reached the outer walls, Bard crouched and lined a trap with Niklas’s tricky elixirs. Those without the herbs sewn in their skin would be attacked with boil-causing powders when they tripped the twine wire.
Raum and Tova kept pace at my flanks.
“Someone’s coming!” Raum shouted as we entered the bridge. Shredded skydguard marred the ground. Their faces were clawed, necks bitten, and choppy wounds fountained blood from their armor. Evidence of Valen’s feral axe swings and thirst for blood.
No mercy. No thought. These guards were killed through brutal slaughter.
I forced my gaze away from the death littering the ground in time to see the flicker of white sprinting through the shadows.
“Dag!” Raum said before any of us could clearly see.
The nearer she came, the more rage bubbled in my veins. She’d been beaten, clearly. She was half naked and coated in blood and dirt.
Dagny let out a broken sob and fell into Raum’s arms. “They’re in there,” she said, breathless. “The library. They’re in the library.”
“How’d you get out?”
“Kase.” She lifted her head. “Where’s Luc?”
“Somewhere in this mess.” Raum said. “Keep going East, and you’ll find—”
“I am not running,” she snapped. “I came out here to find a damn sword. Now arm me, and I will fight beside my family.”
Raum was wise enough not to argue, and with a shrug, he handed her a silver dagger from his leg. “Send them to the hells, Dag.”
The inner courtyard was soaked in flames. I coughed against the smoke and followed a clear path to the left corridor. All around us, warriors and Falkyns battled with skydguard and fae.
More of the winged sluagh screeched and hissed as swords chopped at their knobby limbs and wings. Fae with goat eyes, some with antlers, others looked like trolls, sliced their blades at our folk.
Most of the Southern fae reminded me of Eryka. Sleek and mystic with pointed ears and silky hair. But they seemed on edge when Sofia stepped into the center of a dozen skydguard. All menacing, all looking to race to be the first to run her through.
Sofia had strengthened with square meals. Her pale skin was vibrant as starlight, her hair like freshly bundled straw. But for a moment, her eyes went black. She let one sleeve of her loose tunic slip off her shoulder, and the skyds were lost.
A thick, wet warmth clouded the space around Sofia for fifty paces either way. Iron clanged against the stone floor, echoing deep into the corridors, as the whole unit of skyds dropped their blades.
Sofia’s eyes returned to a bright moss green, and the guards fell to their knees. Some rushed for her, utterly transfixed by the woman. They begged and pleaded for her to have them, for her to go to their beds. Vulgar descriptions of her legs, of her breasts were splattered about in slurred words.
They did not stand a chance.
My insides swirled with a bit of dark thrill when shadows seeped from the far side of the courtyard.
The coils of dark went unnoticed by the skyds, and in the next breath the shadows pierced through every chest until gaping holes opened each heart.
Kase stepped out from between two pillars. His eyes locked on me. He gave Sofia a nod of credit for her role in seducing the skydguard, but in three more strides he had his grip tightened around my wrist.
“Where’s Valen?” I asked, positioning myself close to his side.
“Tor and Halvar are trying to lead him off. Get to the lib—”
“Library, yes, Dag is with us.”
Kase nodded, then kissed me. Desperation lived in the short, rough kiss. “Get the littles, stay clear of the king, and I will meet you outside.”
“Where are you going?”
