AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Wendel’s laugh was scathing. He spread out his arms in a taunting gesture. “Sorry to disappoint. I’m still breathing.”
“Not for much longer, princeling, unless you come with me.”
“That’s a pathetic threat. We both know the Order prefers me alive.”
Sven sized me up. “Who’s she?”
I clenched my jaw. I knew my weaknesses, and bluffing was one of them.
Wendel’s gaze connected with mine for a second. “You know how I like my women. Beautiful and dangerous.”
Beautiful? He thought I was beautiful? My stomach fluttered. He wanted to protect me, didn’t he? It was safer to pretend I wasn’t a mercenary for the archmages.
“Say your goodbyes.” Sven unhooked handcuffs from his belt. He edged toward Wendel as if cornering a predator that might lash out at any moment.
“Hurry up.” Wendel sighed. “It’s a long way from Vienna to Constantinople.”
Sven locked the handcuffs around his wrists. “Where’s your fancy dagger? Lose it?”
“In my pocket. Don’t tell me, it’s worth more than I am.”
“Damn right.” He patted Wendel down. “Here we?—”
Wendel swung his arms over Sven’s head and lunged behind him in a stranglehold. The chain between the handcuffs choked the assassin’s neck. Sven ran backwards and slammed Wendel against the wall. Savagely, Wendel wrenched the handcuffs even tighter. Sven slammed him against the wall again, but couldn’t shake him.
Sven’s face turned red. He fumbled for his scimitar.
“Disarm him!” Wendel said.
I swung my sword at Sven. Our blades clashed in a ringing of steel. Sven drove me back with his brute strength, but I slid my sword down his scimitar and locked them at the cross guards. When I twisted hard, I knocked his scimitar clean out of his hands. His blade flew sideways and clattered on the floor.
Wendel kept choking him. “Thank you.”
Sven’s face darkened to purple. He dropped to his knees and tried to throw Wendel overhead, but he was too weak. The assassin’s eyes flickered shut. He slumped, supported only by the chain around his neck.
“He’s out cold,” I said.
But Wendel gritted his teeth and didn’t let go. Shadows darkened his eyes.
“Wendel, you can stop.”
Still, he didn’t let go.
“Wendel!”
At last, he released the assassin. He pressed his fingers to Sven’s neck as he fell. Was he checking his pulse?
But then Sven sat upright.
12
“Free me,” Wendel commanded.
Sven grabbed a key from his pocket. His eyes looked empty as he unlocked the handcuffs. Done, he stood motionless.
Wendel rubbed the welts on his wrists. “Jump off the train. Walk—crawl, I don’t care—until you can’t anymore.”
Sven climbed to his feet and shambled toward the door. Wendel shadowed the dead man down the corridor. Sven groped for the door, yanked it open, and lurched outside. He plodded to the platform before he leaned over the railing. He teetered from the moving train and fell into a ditch.
