56. Clash of Stone and Steel
Clash of Stone and Steel
Talyn
Talyn kicked the backs of Lord Bressen’s knees to send him crashing to the floor in front of her, then pressed the sword she’d taken from him to his throat.
Before her, Magdalene, Sandrian, and Aidan all stood staring at her in shock. Aidan drew his sword, but no one moved to attack her.
Talyn took a moment to gauge where she was. They were in the great hall of a stone castle or fortress, but one that didn’t look like it had been used in a while. The tapestries on the walls were dusty and moth-eaten, and a few hung askew, no one having bothered to set them aright.
Windows lined both long walls, providing ample daylight for now, but torches in sconces stood ready to be lit later in the evening.
There was no furniture in the room, save for a large chair that was set up on what appeared to be a small makeshift dais made of several large stone blocks pushed together.
A ‘throne’ of sorts.
Sandrian was the first to recover and address Talyn.
“Raptor?” he said. He furrowed his brow as he looked from her to Bressen, who’d gone very still the moment her blade touched his neck.
“I wasn’t expecting you to return with us,” he said, sounding cautiously intrigued, “nor was I expecting you to…bring a guest?”
“A prisoner,” she clarified. “As a show of good faith to prove this is where I want to be.”
She spoke carefully, still assuming Magdalene had truth seer powers.
Sandrian raised a brow at her declaration. “I was under the impression you’d abandoned your contract with me and switched sides.”
“So were they,” Talyn said coolly, “but believe me when I tell you they’ll kill me on sight if I try to go back now.”
Something clenched in Talyn’s gut. Samhail would kill her if she tried to go back. She’d destroyed anything there might’ve been between them by taking his friend.
Sandrian’s eyes fell to Bressen at her feet and the caronium cuff he now wore. “Indeed,” he said. “But why should we believe you? How do I know you’re not still helping him, and this is all some elaborate ruse?”
“This man tried to kill me,” Talyn bit out, reangling her sword at Bressen’s neck. She didn’t have to feign the bitterness in her voice. “When he found out who I was, he peeled my mind open like an orange and almost willed me to die. Cyra is the only reason I’m alive.”
Talyn remembered the pain of having the lord in her head. She needed to draw on that memory to sell her story.
Bressen still hadn’t moved, but she felt the rage and hatred radiating off him. Getting him to help her now would be nearly impossible. What had she been thinking?
“Look at him,” Talyn said, indicating Bressen at her feet. “He wants to tear me apart.”
Bressen’s all-too-real growl of fury was oddly welcome.
Talyn looked at Magdalene. “Tell me, lady, is anything I said untrue?”
Magdalene cocked her head to consider Talyn. Then she shook it. “No, everything you’ve said so far is the truth.”
“You forget that I saw you with them,” Aidan sneered. “You and Samhail seemed rather close.”
Talyn forced herself not to port right to him and slit his throat. She had to be sure it was him this time. She couldn’t live with the doubt.
She shrugged. “The gargoyle was a decent enough fuck. I didn’t mind using him while I had him, but there’s nothing between us.”
Magdalene chuckled, drawing Talyn’s gaze back.
“That’s the closest thing you’ve said to a lie so far,” the lady said with a knowing grin.
Talyn huffed a mirthless laugh. “Fine. He was a fantastic fuck.”
At her feet, Bressen growled again.
Magdalene laughed. “Now you’re being honest,” she said. “But why did you work with our enemies to begin with?”
“I didn’t have a choice,” Talyn said. “They put me in a holding cell, and I escaped, but Samhail caught up to me hours later. I tried to fight him, but you can guess how that went. He put a caronium cuff on me, and he was going to bring me back. After they tortured me for information, they would’ve thrown me in Revenmyer, so I did what I had to do. I made a deal.”
She looked at Magdalene who weighed her words, then nodded once.
Sandrian had been looking to the woman for confirmation, and Talyn saw his shoulders relax at her nod.
“So you betrayed us to save yourself,” Aidan sneered.
“I did what I had to do to save myself,” Talyn said. “I have no loyalty to you and your cause, and I don’t delude myself into thinking you would’ve come rescue me if they’d thrown me in Revenmyer.”
She looked pointedly at Sandrian, and he gave a brief nod to concede her assumption.
“I work for you because I’m being paid to,” Talyn went on.
“If you want loyalty, get a dog. Otherwise, the only thing you can expect from me is my best effort to do what I can to fulfill my end of the contract. I may have failed to kill Lord Bressen and Lady Cyra as you asked, but I bring you Lord Bressen now.”
Magdalene’s head snapped to Sandrian. “What? You ordered her to kill Cyra?”
Sandrian looked surprised at the anger in her tone. “Yes. About a week ago,” he confirmed, disgruntled.
“You idiot!” Magdalene thundered as Sandrian frowned. “I told you I need Cyra alive. How dare you try to have her killed?”
Sandrian’s expression changed from one of confusion to anger. “The woman is too powerful to keep alive,” he argued. He gestured to Bressen. “They both are. The Raptor was in a position to eliminate our most dangerous enemies, and I made a decision.” He glared at Talyn. “For all the good it did me.”
“That wasn’t your decision to make!” Magdalene spat at him. “You’re using my money to pay this assassin, so you both answer to me!”
Talyn blinked in surprise. She’d always wondered where Sandrian got the money to pay her, considering he’d just left Revenmyer after twenty-five years. But what was Magdalene’s stake in all this?
Sandrian opened his mouth to snap back at Magdalene, but he gasped and clutched at his chest as frost suddenly radiated out over the front of his shirt.
He managed to lift a hand, and a small bolt of lightning shot from his palm to hit Magdalene.
She cried out and staggered backward, but then she threw out her hand, and her forcefield sent Sandrian sliding back across the floor.
Talyn felt Bressen twitch, as if he might try to fight his way out of this in the chaos, but she pressed the sword tighter to his throat.
“Don’t do anything stupid,” she hissed at him, “and I’ll make sure you get out of this alive.”
He huffed in disbelief but remained still.
In front of them, Aidan stepped toward Magdalene, who’d subdued Sandrian with her ice again where he lay on the floor writhing in pain.
“You bitch!” Aidan roared at her as he raised his sword to strike.
Talyn’s body was coiled and ready to move, but a small flicker of hope lit in her chest that maybe the three of them would destroy each other without her having to do anything.
That hope died a second later when Aidan clutched his throat and began to gasp as if his breath was cut off.
“Enough!” Magdalene thundered at the two men, and they went still. “You both need to remember who’s in charge here, and if I have to remind you again, that reminder will leave much more permanent marks.”
Sandrian groaned on the floor where he lay, and Aidan looked at Magdalene with loathing as he gasped for air. Finally, he took in a deep breath as Magdalene released him.
“I’ll only say this once more,” Magdalene said. “No one is to harm Cyra. I need her alive. Kill anyone else you want, but leave her to me. From now on, you’ll obey me or face the consequences.”
“You forget yourself, Lady Magdalene,” Sandrian said, trying to rise. “I’m the king here.”
“You’re nothing at the moment,” she snapped back at him. “You’re a man without a country hiding in an abandoned castle. If you regain your throne, it will be because I put you there. Now shut up and let me do what I can to make that happen.”
Sandrian got to his feet. He glared at Magdalene but didn’t speak.
“If we can kill everyone else, then I’m starting with him,” Aidan snarled, and he took a step toward Bressen.
“No!” Talyn shouted. She moved her sword from Bressen’s neck to hold it out toward Aidan.
Aidan raised a brow. “Protecting your new lord?” he asked with a cruel smirk. “I thought you didn’t care about Bressen. If you don’t care about him, prove it. Slit his throat.”
Talyn looked calmly at Magdalene. “Are they always this stupid?”
Magdalene quirked a brow, but her look said, ‘You have no idea.’
“Aidan would have me kill your only leverage,” Talyn said to her. “If you want Cyra, you just need to dangle Lord Bressen as bait. She’ll come to you to get him back.”
Magdalene looked at her appreciatively and nodded.
“Under other circumstances, I’d hold your botched attempt to kill the lord and lady against you,” she said to Talyn, “but your failure was fortunate, given that I need Cyra alive. And since you seem to have more sense than these two put together, I’m inclined to give you a second chance. ”
Talyn relaxed until the woman spoke again.
“After you let me read your mind.”
Talyn went rigid. Her masquing ability could usually hide her true intentions from a normal mind wraith, but Magdalene was a syphon. Bressen had already proved that a powerful enough mind reader could see through her, and she wasn’t sure she could keep her plans for Aidan a secret from the woman.
Magdalene stepped forward, and Talyn swallowed, but the lady turned her attention to Bressen instead.
She put a hand on his head, and he grunted in pain as she seemed to explore his mind.
His grunt soon intensified into a loud, drawn-out scream as whatever she did to him turned excruciating, and Talyn couldn’t help feel a little satisfaction that he was getting a taste of his own medicine.
Her body twitched as Bressen’s scream went on, though. She needed the lord, and she’d told him she’d protect him, but she didn’t want to seem too eager to stop his pain.
“My lady, what are you doing?” Talyn asked. “We need him.”