Chapter 57
JO
We’re all distracted by the sight that we don’t realize we’re being ambushed until we’re surrounded from all sides.
Acker whips the sword in his hand as he would a blade, the weapon rotating in a wide arc, slicing across the faces and necks of the soldiers in front of us in one fell swoop.
All but one drop to their demise. The one remaining is enraged, eyes bulging, nose sliced clean off as he storms toward us.
But as soon as the sword swings back into Acker’s hand, he steadies it, takes a step forward, and plunges it through the man’s chest. The sound of metal cutting through bone and tissue meets my ears at the exact moment Acker jerks the blade free.
Zion is contending with two soldiers, but their weapons catch my attention. Black.
“Hearthstone,” Acker whispers.
There’s no telling how many of the lethal weapons are within the hands of our enemy.
But it’s the Alaha soldier Fredrich is grappling with mid-fight that makes my heart stop.
The only way to surpass Fredrich’s shield is by getting within reach of it without attacking.
Once inside, it’s very possible to inflict injury, precisely as I had when he threw me over his shoulder and kidnapped me.
And it seems Lawson has managed to figure that out, sword discarded at his feet, arms locked tight around Fredrich’s throat to cut off his air supply.
Acker pulls a blade from the strap across his chest.
“Wait!” I yell, hand outstretched toward Fredrich, toward my friend from Alaha. “Lawson, wait.”
Fredrich gives me a look as if to ask me what the hell I’m doing, especially as his face is turning a scary shade of red.
I call him by name. “Lawson. Please. Let him go.”
There’s a flash of recognition behind his eyes when he looks at me before they harden further, taking a step back toward the ledge of the roof. “You traitor,” he spits, anger unlike anything I remember seeing on his face. “You became one of them. The same fucking land dwellers that imprisoned us.”
Acker doesn’t look at me as he speaks. “There’s not a scenario where they both live, Jovie. All you’re doing is prolonging his death.”
I can save him.
“You can’t. His mind has been tampered with. Whether by influence or indoctrination, he will never see you as anything other than the enemy.”
I step away from Acker, away from his unwanted voice. Holding Lawson’s stare, I plead with him. “I cannot stop them from killing you if you don’t let him go.” His eyes flit to Acker, then to me, but he’s missing Zion as he encroaches on Lawson’s back. “Just let him go, Lawson,” I beg.
Maybe he sees the sincerity in my eyes, or he senses the danger in Acker’s slow advance, but he releases Fredrich with a heavy push before leaping to the rooftop on the other side of us. Zion moves toward him, but Acker issues a call for him to halt.
“We stay together,” Acker repeats.
His friend isn’t happy with the release of the man who threatened Fredrich’s life, and he directs that anger toward me in a heated gaze that I refuse to back down from.
The building we’re standing on shudders, sending us all to our hands and knees.
Eyes the size of windsails stare over the lip of the roof at us, the black abyss of its pupils encircled in a murky green that seems fitting for his smell.
Meaty fingers close over the side, crumbling the brick and stucco.
“Run,” Acker yells.
And we all stumble to our feet, doing just that as the troll swipes a hand over the top of the building.
It stirs enough wind to catapult us onto the next roof, the same path Lawson had taken, as I realize it wasn’t us he was running from but the giant he knew was descending upon us.
The troll bellows his displeasure, and the stench of its breath makes me gag.
The giant takes off after us, hands pounding into the roof as he tries to grab us, each strike nearly knocking us off our feet.
On our next attempt, Acker spins, launching his sword at the troll’s eye.
It hits the target perfectly, the ball exploding with a loud pop, sending a spray of mucus-like substance over the lot of us and the soldiers on the ground below.
The scream the creature emanates has all of us covering our ears.
“We need to move,” Zion yells.
But it’s too late as the other troll slams his hand down on top of us.
Fredrich grunts as the force of his shield is tested underneath the giant’s strength, the palm overhead making the air around us tremble as the shield struggles to hold.
We collectively take our swords and stab the hand above us, and it only serves to make the troll angrier, bringing his fist down instead.
It sends Fredrich to his knees. “Run,” he squeezes out between clenched teeth.
Acker shoves me out from under the weight of the troll’s hand, and I slide to the other side of the roof when the first troll begins to help his friend reach the men trapped beneath his palm, fingers swiping at the invisible barrier blocking them.
“Hey,” I yell, jumping to get their attention. “Over here!”
They turn their heads in my direction, and my eyes widen as they both abandon their mission, horrid faces and bodies moving toward me instead.
Acker yells for me to run, and I do, turning toward the metal ladder on the other side of the roof.
I swing myself over the edge, missing the first few steps before I’m able to catch myself on a rung.
A stroke of luck, as the troll’s hand strikes the top of the ladder, crushing the metal under his fist. It sends me sprawling to the ground, hands grasping at nothing as I land on my back, a burst of air punching from my lungs.
I struggle to breathe, turning on my side in a bid to get my lungs to work, then to my hands and knees before the organs in my chest finally allow me to take a breath.
I take in the fighting all around me. Bodies crammed between alleyways, swords and fists swinging too fast to keep up with, blood scoring the snow underneath me.
Someone falls over my back, a Kenta soldier, I realize and I watch the man’s horrified expression as an Alaha guard stabs a blade through his chest. I look up at the same moment the guard’s eyes fall on me and I fucking can’t believe it as I come face to face with Lawson once again.
I scramble onto my feet. “Lawson,” I say on a wheeze.
He yanks the sword free from the soldier’s lifeless body, eyes unwavering as he advances on me.
I hold my hands up in a show of surrender. “You know me,” I say, keeping my eyes steady on his. “We trained together and snuck away for midnight swims and laughed together when Messer got caught cheating at cards–”
“You mean the other traitor?” he snarls.
He swings his blade in an upward strike that I have to dodge, shoulder hitting the brick of the wall beside me.
I catch sight of Acker at the end of the alley through the throng of people.
His gaze is lethal as he downs men in his fight to get to me.
Stabbing a man in the neck, steps steady as he flicks a blade to the next soldier, then the next, and the next.
All the while, his gaze returns to me, to Lawson’s back.
“Lawson, listen to me,” I say in one last plea. “The man you fight for is not who you think he is.”
His reply is to swipe the sword at my neck, blade hitting the brick as I duck, spinning away to gain distance.
My eyes land on Acker, his position impossibly close since my last glance.
And his intention is very clear, the words unspoken as his stare meets mine, recalling a bloody dagger to his hand.
He will not spare Lawson’s life again.
“Are you willing to die for the man who was willing to subject you to a life without a Match on Urchin Row?”
That nearly gets him. I see the momentary waver behind his eyes before he steels himself against it. “Things are different on land,” he disputes.
“You haven’t known peace on land,” I counter. “Come to Maile. I’ll show you—” I don’t get to finish my offer before I’m forced to leap from the tip of the jab of his sword.
“I don’t need anything from you,” he snarls. “Not after you left us.”
My eyes move to Acker over his shoulder and the trail of bodies in his wake. Still, impossibly closer.
“Kai knew. He wanted me to kill the king,” I say in a rush.
Acker is within throwing distance, and I know he could end Lawson’s life with little more than a flick of his wrist, but he’s giving me just enough time to bargain for a few moments longer.
“And look what you did with that freedom,” Lawson says, upper lip curled in disdain. “Squandered it for a mediocre cock and a crown on your head.”
And I know in an instant that it’s not Lawson I’m speaking to … but Wren as his hateful eyes bore holes through me. My eyes flick to the windows of the buildings beside me, to the rooftops, but come up empty.
“That’s enough,” Acker says, blade poised at Lawson’s neck.
If I had any doubts of Wren’s control, they dissipate at the lack of fear in Lawson’s honeyed eyes. “Do it,” he says, a smile pulling at his mouth.
I shake my head, knowing Wren will only enjoy the fact I watched my Match kill my friend. “Wren’s controlling him,” I say low for only the three of us to hear. “He’s in the city. Somewhere close.”
Acker’s anger wavers, mouth tightening before he releases the blade. Maintaining the weapon midair, he slams the hilt of his sword into the back of Lawson’s skull with a loud crack, knocking him unconscious.
Acker’s unhappy expression is aimed at me. “The list of men you have prevented me from killing is almost as long as the list of men I’ve actually killed.”
“Don’t be dramatic,” I say, reaching for Lawson’s abandoned sword.
It’s then I notice Fredrich and Zion at either end of the alley, further protecting us from incoming threats. The vibration of the trolls’ steps increase in severity as they get closer. Yells ring out across the city blocks and the smell of burning flesh fills my nose.
“We need to retreat.” I meet Acker’s eyes.
Acker takes in the bloodied alleyway and the overrun street beyond. He doesn’t like the idea, but he also can’t refute the need. “We can make a run for it,” he says. “To the isles south of the continent. You and me.”
And I smile at his love for me, that he’s willing to abandon everyone and everything if it meant my safety. Because he’d fight in this battle to the end if it wasn’t for me. He’s not scared of death any more than he’s scared of living.
I say, “I have a plan. Make the call.”
Having already expected my answer, he shakes his head. Not in genuine protest, but in frustration. “We’ll get slaughtered in the valley.”
“It won’t be pretty,” I agree. It’s our last resort for a reason, but … “I just need you to trust me.”
Sighing, he looks down at Lawson’s body. “Let me guess. You want me to bring this asshole with us.”
I can’t stop my grin.