Chapter 66
Chapter
Sixty-Six
EVIE
I had a split second to decide how to react.
I was alone in a room with a man who would not wake–and one who was creeping up on me.
I flicked my switchblade open soundlessly and turned, not bothering to hide my tear-soaked face. I let my snot run and my lower lip tremble. “Nylen?”
Nylen, dressed in his guard armor but lacking the sharp helmet, stopped in his tracks. His hands fell quickly to his sides.
Too quickly.
“You’re alive,” he whispered and he sounded relieved. “Gods above, they told me you were on death’s door. I couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t rest until I came to see it for myself–” His dark eyes jumped to Zandyr’s body. “Is the prince–”
“Oh, Nylen.” I flung myself in his arms, sniffling and voice close to hysterical. “I was so scared. Thank the gods you’re here.”
My body collided with his large one, throwing him off balance, away from the bed and Zandyr. I hid my face in his chest, palms sliding up toward his neck even as his arms began to circle around me.
Even in the dim lights, a blade shined in one of them.
“Of course,” he said, tone so soothing, someone might have actually believed him. “I wouldn’t have missed this–”
As his right hand rose behind me, I pressed the tip of my switchblade right into his jugular.
Nylen froze.
“Drop it, you son of a bitch,” I said in a deadly whisper. “Or you’ll bleed right here at my feet.”
He worked his jaw, even as his lips opened and closed, trying to decide if he should play ignorant once more.
“I said drop it.” I pressed my weapon harder into his skin. A drop of blood flowed down the blade. He didn’t turn into dust like the assassins.
Good.
That meant he was good and ready to be interrogated by Adara.
Nylen huffed, face changing with a menacing grin. His dark eyes glimmered dangerously. The dagger he’d been trying so very hard to conceal clanked on the floor behind me.
He leaned his head back, neck taut, trying to get away from the blade.
I didn’t let him.
“How did you know?” he asked. Even his voice sounded different, rough and stern.
“You mean besides you following us to Frostfall Reach and coming into my room?” Out of all the guards to send here, Banu and Valuta had chosen him . The newcomer. “The guards might be brutes, but they do train. On the day you grabbed the cart from me, I felt your fingers, and they’re smoother than mine. Either you need to tell me your beauty secrets or you’ve never trained as a true guard.”
I still blamed myself for not seeing it sooner. Owyn was an anomaly among the guards. What were the odds two of them didn’t hate the ground I stood on?
“And here I was thinking you figured it out when I showed the slightest interest in you .”
Pompous idiot. “Who are you really?”
“An interested party.”
“I wouldn’t be so nonchalant with a knife at my throat.” I pressed harder. He gulped. I had to be careful. He was twice my size and he surely had some skills if the advisors had chosen him to do whatever he planned on doing to me. Probably murder. “Why did Banu and Valuta sicc you on me?”
“You know, we could have avoided all of this if you had just run away with me back in the Capital.”
I bared my teeth. “They sent you to manipulate me?”
“To seduce and persuade . Their words, not mine.” He flashed his teeth in a grin. “Crying and jilted, you should have been an easy target. I’m curious–why be faithful to a man who made a fool out of you on your wedding day?”
He was still trying to manipulate me, the louse.
“What would have happened if I had run away?” I asked.
He shrugged one shoulder. Too fast, too carelessly. If I wasn’t very much mistaken, a shadow of fear passed his gaze. “I’m not one to ask too many questions.”
He knew something. Something he was willing to risk his life for.
“No worries. Adara loves asking questions.” He jerked my chin at him. “Kneel.”
“I thought you’d never–”
I barely had time to register his words before he grabbed my shoulders and flung me toward the fireplace with all his force. I managed to right myself before my head hit the edge of the stone just as Nylen grabbed his dagger and rushed toward Zandyr.
NO! Stop him!
My power, depleted as it was after dissolving the assassins and trying to reach Zandyr, burst out. Tendrils coiled around his ankles and yanked him back.
Nylen fell unceremoniously on the floor.
But he kicked the blue tendrils away. How the–
I struggled to grab him again, but my power kept sputtering.
It was enough to force Nylen in the other direction. He gripped the dagger tightly and he had the stance of someone who’d been in deadly fights before–and had won them.
“Adara!” I roared, closing in on him.
“Don’t bother, nobody will hear. This place has more runes than you have traps in that deadly garden of yours.” Nylen tossed the dagger in his other hand, catching it deftly.
Hidden runes would have explained a lot of the madness in Frostfall Reach. “Then I guess it’s just you and your dagger against me, my weapon, and my powers.”
His grin turned jagged and cruel. “We both know your powers aren’t shit right now.”
“Try me,” I said with a courage I didn’t feel. My entire body was running on pure adrenaline and dread right now.
“Why would I when I can take you down so much easier?” He kicked himself away from the floor, jumping onto the table, dagger aimed straight at Zandyr’s throat.
Terror seared through me as my blue tendrils shot out and struck the weapon out of his hand. The blade embedded itself in the wall just above The Dragon’s head.
Nylen hissed between clenched teeth and took out a dozen flat, star-shaped projectiles from his sleeve. Those were definitely not Phoenix Peak sanctioned.
“You came prepared,” I said.
“You squirm your way out of too many situations for me to not be. But you’re not as smart as they warned me.” He threw the first sharp star at me. My power wheezed out pathetically, though it still managed to knock it away. “I was half-expecting you’d discover the trick on that first night.”
“That’s why you were stationed at the gates,” I hissed, mind reeling.
“You didn’t think the advisors would have gone through all that trouble just to kill Owyn, did you? It was a trap designed for you, and it worked…for a while.” Nylen sent another one of those pointy stars my way. I dodged it this time, the metal embedding itself in the floor right near my foot. “But you’re so stubborn.”
“That’s what you get when you mess with a Vegheara.”
“ Please . Most of your unruly family will be exterminated by the time this is all done.”
“Go to Xamor.”
Three more metal stars rushed toward me. My tendrils shot out, spent and flickering, but merely managed to slow them down. Not enough, though.
I jumped out of their way–only for Nylen to leap through the blue haze, foot extended.
He kicked me straight in the chest, knocking the air out of me and sending me flying. My back hit the wall with a sickening thump.
The impact forced my head back against the stone.
Dark spots danced in front of my eyes. Through them, I saw Nylen rushing at me.
My power spit at him, but couldn’t do anything else.
“Guess you can meet Xamor first,” he said.
My eyes flickered to Zandyr. If Nylen killed me, the prince would follow me in death, that was certain.
The Blood Brotherhood would fall.
Rise , I incanted frantically, as what was left of my tendrils snaked toward the bed. Save them.
Nylen followed my line of sight with a saccharine grin. “You can’t protect him. And he can’t protect you anymore.”
He fisted my hair and dragged me up to eye-level with him, my scalp stinging.
With the last of my strength, I kicked and swung at him. My limbs and switchblade met only the hard shell of his armor. Nylen didn’t even flinch, he was bigger and had the energy to stand perfectly still against my desperate flailing.
He gripped my neck and forced my chin to the side, the strength behind it terrifying.
He was going to break my neck.
He didn’t want to spill my blood, either.
Nylen bared his clenched teeth. Gone were the easy smiles and the pretend warmth in his eyes. His features contorted with the brutality that finally shined through from his miserable soul. “Let’s see you squirm your way out of this one.”
I thrashed with the last of my energy, clawing at his face like a cat. If I died, maybe I could take one of his eyes with me.
Nylen squeezed and pressed my head to the side. I felt the ligaments strain to the limits, the bones in my spine creaking.
After everything, I wouldn’t be taken out of this life by fucking Nylen–not without one last drop of vengeance.
“Curse you.” I barely moved my lips, no sound coming out. Nylen’s violent hold on me froze for a moment. “May the gods give you what your heart deserves.”
The pressure on my neck increased tenfold.
“Words won’t save you now, queen ,” he spit out.
A metal flash swallowed whatever else he was about to spew.
No sooner had the words hissed out of his pitiful mouth that Nylen’s entire body stilled. A splatter of blood splashed onto my cheeks.
The brutal twist of his features would be frozen on his face forever, as Nylen’s head slid off his neck, a perfect line cut right through the middle.
Nylen’s body collapsed, releasing me.
Zandyr stood behind him in all his glory, sword still dripping blood.
“Menace,” he breathed out, leaning his free hand against the table. His grin grew. “This is your second pretend paramore I had to kill. Let’s not make it three, shall we? I’m starting to get jealous–”
I flung myself in his arms, not caring that what was left of Nylen lay at our feet, blood still spilling from his neck.
“You’re alive.” I choked out as my arms circled around his neck. “Gods, you’re alive.”