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An entirely new advantage.
Despite this extraordinary gift, I had no idea how to control.
Time suddenly leapt back to normal, forcing me to dodge the new onslaught, twisting and gripping a female that I swiftly yanked flush against me and tore out her throat. I caught the next male rushing me by surprise as I willed my blade to return. The whites of his eyes stretched wide with shock as he impaled himself in his attempt to swing his own blade in a downward arch that left his diaphragm wide open for me.
Time pulsed in and out of normalcy, and I began to shift in a swift rhythm guided solely by instinct through each of the bandits until I was quite literally drenched in blood.
My eyes caught on an arrow sailing towards Pomona mid-leap and drew it out of thin air just before it sunk into her exposed throat.
Time leapt again and even as I continued to fly through the motions of nullifying those attacking us, my mind became distant. Everyone was distracted…
Escape,an unfamiliar voice whispered in my mind.
Perhaps I didn’t have to kill Nakoa to do so…
Don’t throw it away again,the voice urged me.
With surprisingly little effort, my claws pierced the chest of a remarkably large fae male, and I found my hand grasping his still-beating heart. Time slowed again as I brought it to my mouth. Its beat, nearly as loud as mine, echoed in time with that voice in my mind.
Go.
Go.
Go.
I’d already proven to myselfand Nakoathat I wouldn’t be able to kill him. But what were my options? Even outside of my selfish desperation to be free of him, if I were to stay, we would be chased by Zurie and her army to the ends of Atratus.Nakoawould be hunted. And fleeing Atratus for one of the other continents Hades, Ishra, or Maimyo mo Qì… Well, that promised all sorts of life-threatening danger.
I could return to Bastrina and tell Zurie that his body had been reduced to ash during our battle, trapped in a burning building… Or perhaps taken away by a river… Sure, they all sounded a little far-fetched, but… She couldn’t read minds. And clearly Miroslav didn’t want him dead for some reason. Perhaps he would be willing to corroborate my story.
Guilt stabbed my chest as surely as Nakoa’s blade had pierced the male before him.
This creature that paced restlessly inside me roared in protest as my logical mind tried to run through potential scenarios.
Zurie would be relentless in her pursuit of him if she thought that he was still alive. He was the leader of The Uprising, after all. Which is why I imagined she wanted him dead in the first place. And when she found out thatIwas with him, her efforts would double in her and her army’s merciless hunt for us.
And Malekai…
Gods, Malekai…
It would surely be him she sent until she found someone to replace me as her Irae. And as ruthless as Malekai was… I knew his loyalty would be to me. Not only would Zurie be after Nakoaandme… Malekai would become her target as well.
I knew I would have to face Zurie’s wrath returning to her without his body. Still, perhaps Miroslav would corroborate my story if I told her his body had been lost to a fire… If not… At least The Uprising wouldn’t lose its leader, and Malekai would remain in Zurie’s good graces. They would both live.
My eyes caught on Nakoa battling his way through the other side of the camp. He moved with an awe-inspiring, lethal grace that I’d only ever witnessed when I’d seen Malekai working his way across a battlefield.
There were very few bandits left. Nakoa and hisolana kah’heiwould undoubtedly come out victorious. And almost entirely unscathed.
I would not shut this window of opportunity on myself again.
Power electrified my veins as I sped through the forest,willingaway the blood coating my body lest I leave any more of a scent trail for Nakoa to follow than I already would with my natural scent.
Bitterness clawed at the tattered remains of my heart as the realization hit me.
I had found mysoulbound,a rare gift fromAkash. For as long as my soul had silently yearned for such a thing, it was only fair that we were fated to be enemies. I had committed far too many sins to deserve such happiness. Destroyed too many families to find such priceless unity.
But how could my life have gone any differently?
Should I have remained in the streets?
