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But battle waged at the foot of his bed.
“Skadi!” I screamed her name as the woman spun on her heel, aiming a knife at Jonas’s middle.
Blackened eyes, flushed skin, Jonas was locked in a delirious sort of rage. He cut his sword at Skadi. She held a palm over her head. The spray of dark mist surrounded Jonas’s blade. It was stolen from his hands, only to land five paces to the side in a clatter across the room.
Skadi fumbled. The flicker of starlight in her eyes darkened. She was breathless. Jonas lunged for his blade, reeling back against her, cursing her, cursing for his fallen brother. He thought Sander was gone, and the pain was carved into every line of his face.
Aleksi had dropped his sword and kept stepping toward Skadi, hands out, doubtless to summon her to him.
She hissed, and every time he came too near, she waved a hand, and Aleksi would fade into darkness. My cousin emerged, much like Jonas’s sword, mere paces away, gasping and groaning from the blow.
The princess panted, but lifted her knife, letting the blade hang weakly at her side. She looked to Jonas, whose fatigue was settling swiftly.
“Skadi, stop!”
Her eyes, empty, lost, found mine. “They can’t have him.”
“Who?” I looked to the sleeping man. “Who is he?”
“All that’s left.”
Tait rushed into the room, flustered, his watch in his palm. “Something’s coming. We must get to the ship.”
“Not without this one,” Jonas seethed, taking a step for Skadi. “She needs to pay.”
“Livia,” Tait said, eyes wide. “I think it’s Erik.”
My heart bottomed out.
Another glance at his watch, and Tait’s eyes burned as bright as fiery embers. Panicked, he looked over my shoulder and ran for me. Only then did I notice the heat at my back, the new glow in the room.
Arion stepped from a fiery sheen, damp and bloodied from the shore, the bright red of his hair stuck to mud and sweat on his brow. He took in the room. In truth, he appeared taken aback at the sight of us in the chamber.
“You can’t touch him!” This time, Skadi screamed at Arion. A first burst of any sort of emotion, aimed at her fellow elven.
Arion’s lip curled. “I am finished with games. Natthaven is mine, and you will comply and give me what I want.”
He didn’t make a move for Aleksi. Not me, not Tait. Arion sprinted for the bed and the sleeping man. Skadi, face like stone, spun away from Jonas’s approaching blade. She cried out when she fell onto the bed, her palms flattened. Mists wrapped around theman, ready to pull it away with her tricky magic, but Arion leveled a sword over the man’s throat.
He would slaughter the unknown elven before Skadi could muster the strength of her mist.
A voice, smooth as the finest cream, came from behind. Sweet as the tune was, it brought violence, not peace. Floorboards snapped and splintered under Arion’s boots. He cursed when he sunk to his knees, jagged wood slicing his shins and thighs.
From the walls, tapestries split at the seams, the threads coiling like woven snakes. The writhing threads curled around Arion’s throat, choking his breath as he struggled to break free.
I whirled around. Narza, eyes fiery as a sunrise after a storm, filled the chamber. Her hair was down and wild. Each movement drew out a strange wind, like an underwater attack. Power bled from her skin. Anger, hurt, fear, all of it emerged through her spells attacking Arion.
Skin on his face burned to a sickly sort of blue as the threads tightened. Arion’s eyes spun wildly. He cast a frantic, hateful look at Skadi who was on the brink of collapse. A simple, spitting word fell over his lips. “Mine.”
Before the serpentine tapestries finished him, Arion gathered his fiery light.
Aleksi cried out, wanting blood as much as the sea witch, but not even the Bloodsummoner was swift enough before Arion faded into the brilliance of his magic and was gone.
Skadi whimpered in exhaustion. She reached for her knife on the edge of the bed, but Jonas swatted it away. His palms trapped her skull from behind, and Skadi screamed. Jonas lowered to the ground with her as she wailed and fought against the waking nightmares he pulsed into her head.
Narza hurried to his side, one hand on his shoulder, and waved her palm over the elven’s face until Skadi went limp and silent.
“Jonas.” I braced his back when he sat back, breathless. “Sander, he’s still here. He’s with Daj. Go to him. He needs you.”
