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Guards were pouring from the manor, the barracks, and the surrounding grounds. Their weapons were drawn, magic out as they shouted orders for the crowd to back away and make room.
Rion stepped when she did, a constant shadow to her movements.
A charred body lay on the walkway. Blood stained the pristine stones. No one needed to check for a heartbeat to know the male was dead.
Arianna’s gaze roamed across the scene and whispers flew through the crowd.
To her right, a female sat on the ground, her hands covering her face. Blood dripped between her fingers from a wound Arianna couldn’t see. Another female whispered to her, arms wrapped around the injured one’s shoulders. The male with the flames stood before them both as if he were their protector. His angry gaze hadn’t left the charred body once.
Arianna stepped beyond the crowd and a hushed silence fell over the area.
“My Lady,” a male’s soft voice. She didn’t know him. He bowed, eyed Rion, then glanced back at the scene. “Please, let’s get you back to the manor. You don’t need to see this.” His arm reached out as if to guide her, but Rion’s growl had him backpedaling, clutching the weapon at his side.
“What happened?” Arianna asked.
The male still looked uncertain and his heart beat too fast. “We can handle—”
“What happened?” she asked with more force this time.
The male straightened. “The half-breed killed a close member of the court.” He gave her a skeptical look as if it should have been obvious, but Arianna ignored him and instead studied the male who still hadn’t looked away from the body on the ground. His fists were clenched so hard his knuckles had gone white.
“Why?”
The male shrugged. “I imagine he feels wronged for being enslaved. I knew something like this would happen if—”
“I wasn’t asking you,” Arianna interrupted. The male snapped his mouth shut. She stepped forward and he stepped back, fear rippling through him as Rion’s sand crawled across the ground, forming a perimeter around his mate.
Arianna crept closer to the half-breed. Flames still circled his body, sparking and shooting out as if he couldn’t maintain control. She finally stepped into his line of sight, breaking his trance. He focused on her face, but he wasn’t afraid.
“Why?” Arianna repeated, her voice softer.
His body shook. “You promised to protect us.” He swallowed hard and glanced toward the female in hysterics. Blood still dripped between her fingers. “He didn’t care,” the male said, voice so low Arianna strained to hear it. His head shot up and he shouted at the crowd. “None of them care.”
Arianna looked between the female still clutching her face and the male lying dead on the ground. “He did that to her?”
The dark-haired male didn’t answer at first. “She refused to go to his bed last night. He claimed that if she didn’t want to lay with him, then he’d ensure no one would ever want to look at her again.” The male gritted his teeth. “Then he beat her and—” his voice trailed off. The male didn’t bother swiping at the angry tears rolling down his face.
Arianna’s heart crumbled. She knew this pain. Knew the desperate look in his eyes.
“It’s okay now.” His jaw went slack and Arianna turned from him, shifting her attention to the female clutching her face. Arianna carefully approached and knelt before her.
Another female tried to console the injured one. Her sister, or perhaps even a cousin, if their similar features were anything to go by.
The uninjured female bowed her head, but she didn’t release the injured female’s shoulders. “My Queen.”
The one still crying didn’t look up. She didn’t appear to notice anything beyond her pain. Her thin body shook with both shock and sobs. Arianna gently pried her hands away and surprisingly the female didn’t resist. She didn’t look at Arianna at all. Her body just shook and shook and shook.
A deep gash ran from the top of her forehead, across the bridge of her nose, and down the left side of her face. Another mark almost crossed it, coming up the side of her cheek. Arianna swallowed back the bile rising in her throat at the way the skin hung from the wound. Thankfully, he’d missed her eyes.
Arianna held the female’s bloody hand in her own. “May I?” A collective breath went through the crowd, then the female’s head slowly turned in Arianna’s direction. Tears spilled down her face, mixing with the blood and she stared at Arianna, stared until recognition filled her. The female tried to bow her head, but Arianna drew her gaze back. “It might hurt a bit, but I should be able to fix the worst of it.”
Arianna wasn’t sure whether the female understood, but she nodded and Arianna placed her hand right over the female’s wound.
The female winced as the skin knit itself together. The wound was deep, as if her attacker had been determined to cut her straight to the bone. Or kill her.
Those standing closest gasped and the male with the flames stepped closer, the fire around him vanishing entirely. Rion growled at the crowd when they tried to press closer. They stopped and watched from their current positions.
Arianna closed her eyes and focused on the deepest part of the wound first. She worked the muscles, feeling one in the jaw reattach with a suddenness that had the female gasping.
