Chapter 7 #4
“Leave him,” Balthazar hissed, his dark eyes casting a dismissive look over me above the shroud which covered the rest of his face.
“And what if he's telling the truth?” Drake shot at him. “You wanna explain to Egos that we turned down an opportunity to get our hands on all that treasure?”
One of the others murmured something about taking me and I thrust my hand through the bars, ignoring the sickly feel of the iron as it pressed to my skin.
Drake stared at it like it was a poisoned arrow.
“A handshake,” I explained, wondering if this ruffian had ever even had an honest one of those. “Man to man.”
Drake cocked a brow, releasing a breath of amusement as if he wasn't about to be surrounded by a hundred guards if he didn't make a decision that instant.
“Fuck it. I’ll take you with me then. Just don’t go forgetting that I can gut you on the streets the second you try to turn on me or renege on this deal.”
“I won’t,” I swore, willing him to accept my offer before we all ran out of time and were discovered.
He gripped my hand, shaking it firmly then snatched the crowbar from his friend and jammed it into the lock. His tattooed arms bunched with tension as he forced the lock and a loud bang sounded as the door broke open.
My heart lifted at the sweet sound of my freedom ringing through the air and I was sure I was already feeling the relief of escaping those iron bars even though I hadn’t moved away from them yet.
I darted out into the passage and the others observed me warily.
I straightened to my full height despite the act causing a flare of pain in the wound on my side as I refused to show weakness beneath the weight of their stares.
They were looking at me like I was a threat, and I was more than happy for them to believe it.
I wasn’t a fool, I knew what they were but right now I had no other options open to me, and I’d rather die with a blade in my back than be torn to pieces before a cheering crowd.
Drake snatched a couple of blades from his friends, tossing one to me.
I caught it and Balthazar jerked his head towards the doorway. “Go ahead. Prove yourself.”
I weighed the blade in my hand, considering my options. I was armed, but I was also outnumbered, so it was better to stick with the enemy for now.
“He's not gonna do it,” one of the men sniggered and I clutched my blade tighter.
“You underestimate what I'll do for my kingdom, arsehole,” I growled.
I gritted my teeth, muscling my way through their ranks and taking the lead into the passage beyond the door.
The sound of heavy footfalls sped our way and I ran forward to meet them.
A bunch of prison guards were no match for the royal forces.
I'd been trained since my teens to be the fiercest bodyguard the emperor could ever need, and between that and my Affinity for fighting, these men were no match for me.
I met a turn in the corridor and jammed my back to the wall, waiting.
One breath.
Two.
I am made of steel.
The first guard darted around the corner and I caught him by the neck, throwing him against the opposite wall with a loud crack that left him unconscious before he could release so much as a yelp.
Another guard came at me as two more charged towards Drake’s gang with yells of anger and clashes of steel.
I caught the man by the throat, my fingers locking and my teeth baring as I fought to choke him out. I may have been capable of bloody savagery in war, but I wasn’t going to kill unless my life was in jeopardy.
The guard swung his sword towards me but I caught his wrist with my free hand, slamming him back against the wall with my other, his head thudding from the impact and the weapon falling from his fingers with a clatter.
“Sleep,” I commanded, my fingers tightening as I worked to knock him out, knowing it was the only thing that would save his life tonight.
His other hand swung towards me on my left and the glint of a blade made me stiffen, but then Drake was there, moving like a damn shadow as he caught the man’s arm, the tip of the blade already against my side as Drake ripped it from his hand.
In the next moment, Drake slammed the hilt of the knife against the man’s temple and hot blood spilled over my hand where I still gripped his throat.
“You motherfucker,” I growled.
“You’re welcome,” Drake tossed back as I let go of the guard and he slumped to the floor.
I suspected killing a guard wasn’t worth the life sentence it held for these thieves, and I might have been a dead man walking anyway, but I was above killing for the sake of killing.
Drake threw me a wink before taking the lead and I fell in line, following him into the depths of the dungeon with my pulse beginning to settle.
No guard in the royal dungeons was clean of sin, their souls were often painted in it, the kind of work done here only whispered of on the streets.
I may have believed in justice, but what happened to the Fae imprisoned in this place was barbarity, so I wouldn’t lose sleep over these men’s fates.
“Left here,” Balthazar hissed and Drake took his instruction, darting down a corridor where the torches had been snuffed out.
I was glad they knew where they were headed because I had no clue where to turn in this dank maze of cells and dark corridors.
It was a labyrinth designed to confuse and daze, so if anyone made it beyond the bars of their cages, they’d likely be discovered before they could ever find the exit.
It seemed the thieves had an answer to that though as Balthazar darted past us, moving to a window where a rope was tied off and waiting for us.
The prison was situated high up in an imposing tower of dark stone in the sixth ring that the people of Osaria had nicknamed Death’s Door, because when the sun set behind it in the west, its silhouette resembled a large and forbidding black door.
A guard ran into sight at the end of the corridor and Balthazar moved to intercept him with a deep laugh in his throat, raising his own blade.
The guard was fast, ducking Balthazar’s first blow and slashing his sword across the thief’s side before he could deflect it.
Balthazar cursed as he stumbled back a step, his blood splattering the dark stone of the wall beside us as the guard moved forward to press his advantage with a twisted smile on his lips.
Drake charged forward to help, swinging his sword high to meet the blow the guard had been going to land on Balthazar.
The loud clash of metal on metal rang out along the stone corridors so loud that my muscles bunched in anticipation, sure that every guard in this place would arrive at any moment.
And honestly? I was fucking thrilled to be fighting again.
I was born for it. It didn’t matter if I was playing hide and seek with death right now, this was my Fae nature, my strongest Affinity, fighting a necessity to me that fed some deeply innate need in my soul.
If I died on this night, then at least it would be a damn good way to die, the kind of death I’d choose, not one forced on me while I was bound and defenceless.
So long as I was wielding a blade, then I’d go out of this world with a fucking smile on my face.
They traded blows back and forth, the small space hindering the swings of their swords before Drake delivered a savage strike, following it up with a brutal punch which caught the guard square in the face and brought him to his knees.
I darted forward, taking hold of the guard’s neck and squeezing the meaty flesh of his shoulder as hard as I could, my thumb digging in to the correct pressure point. He passed out cold and silence fell as he crashed to the ground between us.
The thieves all exchanged loaded looks while Drake grinned at me appreciatively.
“You’re teaching me that,” he insisted, but I didn’t reply, having no intention of doing any such thing.
Balthazar clutched his side as he climbed onto the window ledge. “By the damned Fallen,” he snarled, taking hold of the rope with bloody hands before dropping out of sight.
I glanced over the edge to the smooth black wall and watched him slide to the ground far below, swearing all the way down like taking a strike from a sword was the biggest pain in the arse he’d ever endured.
I had to assume it was just a flesh wound as he was still moving about rather than screaming on the floor in agony, and I had to admire his grit for just carrying on while bleeding like that.
A lot of the best trained men I knew would still have baulked at the sight of their own blood, yet he seemed to see it as little more than an irritation.
Drake went next, hopping up onto the small window ledge before grasping the rope between his hands and dropping away out of sight towards the streets below.
The two remaining gang members followed, the one with the slight build eyeing me suspiciously before he went while the beast of a man gave me a look which indicated he was seriously considering pitching me head first out of the window rather than allowing me to continue on with them.
I straightened, my muscles coiling in preparation of the fight I saw in his eyes, a fight I would damn well win.
But he didn’t attack, instead heaving his huge frame up and squeezing through the window with impressively nimble moves for such an extraordinarily large man, then dropping away out of sight after the others.
I hauled myself up into the window last, the promise of freedom on the dry night air making adrenaline course through my veins as I finally let myself believe in this turn of events.
This strange twist of fate which had saved me from the clutches of certain death and delivered me into the hands of a band of criminals.