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“You first,” a low, gravelly voice said from behind me. I looked up at my attacker and saw the blade of a small knife shimmering right where his left eye had been. His mouth opened wide as his sword fell across my chest, then he collapsed onto my stomach and legs like a lifeless sack of flour. The stench of rotten eggs and feces made me gag. I was trying to kick and crawl out from under him when the second of the two collapsed, lifeless, on top of the first. The weight of the two men pushed all air out of my lungs. I’d never known how heavy dead bodies could be. I pushed against them with all the strength I had. My arms and legs trembled from the effort, but the two corpses didn’t move more than a few inches.
Suddenly, the first corpse was pulled off me and tossed aside like a used rag. The second followed shortly.
I sucked fresh air into my lungs and looked up at the man who was behind my sudden rescue. Even in the darkness, I instantly recognized the massive bulk of the man who grabbed my arm, placed a hand around my back, and lifted me to my feet.
“Rune,” I whispered under a shocked breath.
“Wait here,” he ordered as he released me from his grip and raised his sword.
I watched as he slowly walked toward the group of men storming toward him.
Wait, he’d said. Notrun.
He grabbed the first attacker’s head as his sword pierced through the second. He smashed the first man’s skull against the wall of the tunnel. I turned in disgust but didn’t get to cover my ears before the cracking sound reached me. A few pitiful screams followed shortly after, confirming that the rest of the attackers were now dead as well. A sudden silence was followed shortly by Rune’s steps as he made his way back to me. I straightened my spine, trying to look composed and strong when I turned to look at the man who had killed more easily than any other man I had ever seen or heard of.
Rune was dressed as a soldier—thick leather pants and a shirt, both covered with metal plates. The sword he was putting back in his metal scabbard dripped with blood. Over the past few months, I had seen men get killed—and was more than once almost killed myself—but this...
I wanted to say something, but when I saw all the blood covering parts of his face, I was lost for words.
All those rumors about him. Were they true?
“Monster,” Rune said in an ice-cold tone.
“W-what?”
My eyes found his. Even in the dark, they were as blue as the ocean.
“Now you know why they call me that.”
I was taken aback by his statement, though I sadly had to agree. But out of a thousand things that could now pop into my mind, the one that struck me first was: Night Queen.
The name they all had called me my whole life—and many probably still did. I was not so different from Rune.
“Night Queen,” I mumbled to myself, remembering what it was like when the whole world hated me.
Rune narrowed his eyes at me. “What was that?”
I shook my head and relaxed my tense muscles. This man had saved my life. Did it matter if he was a monster? The only reason I was still breathing was him.
“Thank you.” I stepped forward, closing the gap between us to only a few feet, proving to both him and myself that I wasn’t afraid.
A flicker of confusion lit up in his eyes. Then anger. “What were you thinking coming here with only three men to chase after those useless rebels?”
“Dieter!”
It struck me like lightning. I jumped over the corpses and thundered down the dark hallway toward the small orange light of the torch in the distance. When I arrived at the scene, I found my two guards motionless in a pile of blood and Dieter—who was surrounded by several of the dead attackers. I fell to my knees beside him.
“Dieter.” Gently, I shook his shoulders. My hands ran over the cold metal of his armor but felt no wound. Placing a palm under his skull, I carefully lifted his head. I felt wet warmth against my fingers. Blood. His blood.
“A strong blow to his head,” Rune concluded, standing behind me. He leaned forward and placed two fingers on Dieter’s neck. After a few seconds, he held the same two fingers under his nose. “There is a pulse and steady air. He will live.”
For the first time since the attack, I felt as if I could breathe.
“You still haven’t answered me.” Rune straightened. “What in the name of the gods were you thinking?”
He sounded like a scolding father.
I cocked a brow. “I think you are forgetting yourself.”
