Chapter 18 #2
My stomach churned. Alfrigg’s army was here in Klod?sch, and the princess was just downstairs.
Plucking my rumpled clothes off the floor, I hurriedly shoved them on over my still-damp skin. I grabbed my weapons belt and headed after Kaden, buckling it as I went.
Downstairs, the brothel was in chaos. A couple of patrons who’d been ogling the performer earlier were pushing a huge piece of furniture across the room, barricading the door. The females were donning trousers and jackets over their sparkling scraps of lace, tying up their long, perfumed locks.
The plump madam whom Adriel had paid stood behind the bar, pulling short swords and daggers from beneath the floorboards. The workers passed the weapons around, and the female who’d flirted with Kaden earlier sheathed a dagger at her thigh.
I stared. Clearly, this wasn’t the first time the villagers had needed to defend themselves.
Heart pounding, I cast around for my friends and found Adriel shoving Sorsha toward the back exit.
“I will not flee like a thief in the night,” she growled, her golden braid slapping him across the face. “These are my people. Alfrigg has no right —”
“I counted five dozen soldiers out there,” Adriel snapped. “They aren’t here on patrol. If they find you —” Adriel broke off, his face paler than I’d ever seen it.
“I will cut down any soldier who raises a blade against my people.”
“Do you know what Alfrigg does to enemies of the crown?” he shouted. “You’d be lucky if he granted you a swift death.”
Sorsha jerked her arm from his grip with an exasperated snarl, barging through the back door and letting in a gust of frigid air that tasted like smoke.
Adriel rounded on Kaden, whose own blades were already drawn. “Talk to your sister.”
“You think she listens to me?”
Outside, I heard the smash of glass, followed by a volley of screams.
Glancing outside, I saw a soldier throw a lit torch through a broken window as another beat a fae in the snow. Males in red swarmed the streets, dragging villagers from their homes and setting fire to buildings.
“We must leave,” said Adriel, gripping Kaden by the arm.
But the prince’s eyes were no longer that familiar stormy gray. His irises had gone dark, and blackness seeped into the whites, blotting out everything else.
“No,” he growled, shoving past Adriel and striding out the back door.
I followed, the cold air a shock to my lungs as I drew my own weapons. The scent of blood and smoke was heavy on the air, and snow was falling in wet flakes.
A few paces away, a soldier was dragging a female by her hair as a youngling trailed after them, tears streaming down his face.
I didn’t think. Pinching my dagger by the tip, I flung it straight at the soldier’s chest, where it landed with a thud.
The soldier’s face contorted in pain, and he released the female as he stumbled. Blood poured from the wound, but I was distracted by the sight of Kaden unfurling his wings.
They were so large that they spanned nearly the entire width of the street. I’d seen them before, of course, but never like this.
Kaden was not the male I’d come to know, with his dark wit and gentle touch.
This was the Dark Prince, Taker of Souls.
His wings seemed to glow with an otherworldly light, backlit by the blazing structure behind him. The flickering flames gilded the tip of each sharp talon, and when he moved, he was more shadow than male.
Ribbons of darkness billowed around him as he appeared in front of a soldier who was beating an older fae. A sick feeling churned through me as he decapitated the soldier with one flick of his sword, sending the male’s head tumbling into the dirty snow.
But Kaden was already moving again, his blade cutting through the night in flashes of silver. Grunts and cries sounded from the shadows as he slashed and stabbed his way through Alfrigg’s forces.
Younglings screamed. Mothers grabbed their young ones and ran as Kaden met the sea of red with a torrent of rage and steel.
Spotting a soldier setting fire to a ramshackle home tucked along a side street, I jumped into the fray, glimpsing Sorsha as I sent another one of my daggers sailing.
The princess’s golden braid was now tipped with blood as she fought her own merciless campaign. She moved like a female possessed as she followed in her brother’s wake, her swords slashing with ruthless precision.
I was vaguely aware of Adriel fighting a few paces away, his head moving this way and that as he struggled to keep both royals in sight.
As I drew my blade across the throat of a soldier I’d pulled off a young female, I felt a pang of sympathy for Adriel. The prince and princess made his job as royal guard extremely difficult.
But I had less than a heartbeat to dwell on that fact, for at that moment, two more soldiers rounded the corner. They took one look at their comrade bleeding out at my feet and charged toward me with their weapons raised.
Drawing my swords, I brought my weapons up just in time to counter the first attack, relishing the jolt of the impact down my arm and the harsh ring of steel in my ears.
The second soldier came at me from behind, and I twisted to block his strike. My muscles burned as I worked my twin blades in unison, successfully parrying each of their attacks but never gaining any ground.
One of my slashes nearly sliced through the first soldier’s neck, but then his companion brought his blade down in a deadly chop, and I was forced to block.
Fire and steel raged around me as I fought them in a frantic rhythm. Then my boot found an errant patch of ice, and I slipped before regaining my balance.
The fumble cost me.
A searing pain erupted in my side, and I twisted just in time to prevent the soldier from landing what would’ve been a fatal blow. Panic thrummed in my veins as hot blood gushed from the wound, my palms slick with sweat despite the cold.
The attack had put me on my heels, stealing whatever ground I had gained. The two males had me trapped with my back against a wall.
There was nowhere for me to run.
But then I heard a low growl that made the hairs along the back of my neck stand on end. One of the soldiers turned his head, and the light abruptly left his eyes.
A sickening crack echoed in the dark alley, and I realized the soldier hadn’t turned at all.
He collapsed in a heap, revealing the furious male standing behind him who’d snapped his neck.
Black fire raged in Kaden’s eyes as he calmly ran my other attacker through with his sword.
The soldier’s face went slack with shock as blood pumped from the wound. Kaden twisted the blade with a sickening squish, and the soldier let out a gurgle as he collapsed.
I lifted my gaze to meet Kaden’s, and fear punched through me when I realized I could no longer see the male I knew. His eyes were that solid, shimmering black, his expression cold and vacant.
Breathing hard, I edged along the side of the building to give myself room to flee. Kaden had defended me, yes, but he was not himself.
A furious scream drew my attention, and I turned just in time to see Sorsha collapse on her back. One of Alfrigg’s soldiers had her pinned in the snow, their blades locked between them.
Sorsha’s arm shook as she fought to keep the sword from her throat. The princess was strong, but this male was stronger.
My feet began to move before I realized that I would not reach her in time. The male’s blade was a hair’s breadth from her neck. Her face reddened with fury and effort as she pushed with all her might, but she didn’t have the strength to stop it from slashing her throat.
A scream caught in my lungs as the realization clanged through me. But then the male was yanked backward, and a long blade sliced through his abdomen.
My gaze shifted to the royal guard looming over the fallen princess, his face peppered with droplets of blood and gore. His eyes blazed with a fury that shook me to my core, and his mouth was a thin slash of violence.
For several heartbeats, he and Sorsha just stared at one another, the princess’s weapon quivering in her hand as she looked up into Adriel’s face.
A distant shout drew my attention, and flashes of red charged by in my periphery.
Alfrigg’s forces were retreating.
The roar of the fires blazing in shops and homes joined the whoosh of wings, and I realized the villagers were no longer fighting.
Some were sobbing. Others were heaving their last breaths in the snow. Still more ran by with buckets of water, attempting to douse the flames.
My knees wobbled as the stench of waste mixed with the sharp tang of blood and burned flesh.
We’d driven out Alfrigg’s troops, but at what cost?
This hadn’t been a routine patrol. They’d come to destroy the village as they’d destroyed Korkis. To murder Alfrigg’s own people — the Drathen fae who’d been forced from their homes after the Uprising.
An uncontrollable rage bubbled up in my gut, threatening to scorch my insides. This was not a village of warriors. They were blacksmiths, butchers, tailors, and innkeepers. Mothers and fathers and younglings.
“Tell me why.” Adriel’s voice was a low rumble in the dark, and I whipped my head back around.
Sorsha still lay in the frozen mud, propped up on one elbow. Adriel hadn’t extended a hand — hadn’t made any move to help her to her feet. His eyes glittered with a fiery rage, and I tensed when he turned to a fallen villager and pulled a sword from the dead male’s grip.
Adriel raised the sword as he turned, holding the tip to Sorsha’s throat.
The princess froze, but she didn’t drop her gaze. Her eyes were like two chips of ice as they narrowed on Adriel, the rapid rise and fall of her chest the only sign of her dismay.
“Tell me why these villagers are all armed with Drathen steel,” he demanded.
“They are Drathen fae,” Sorsha replied coldly.
Adriel held her gaze for a moment longer, a muscle feathering in his jaw. For one wild instant I thought he might cut her throat, and even Sorsha flinched as the weapon wavered in his grip.