Chapter 33
Chapter thirty-three
Merrick
One moment, Esmeray stood beside him, taunting ten highly trained gargoyle warriors.
Merrick had been calculating the launch behind–down the waterfall.
Questioning why she didn’t just grab him and wane back to Sparrow’s.
The next moment, she struck as fast as a snake, launching a wave of golden light at their opponents.
Three went down immediately as it blasted them apart limb by limb.
While his mind had been focused on fleeing, the Queen was certainly not having that same thought.
She waned to Adara’s warriors in the blink of an eye.
Merrick caught another flash of gold as her staff appeared in her hand.
With deadly accuracy, she whipped the staff towards two more soldiers, and they died where they stood.
Her tattooed hand–ending in those deadly nails–slashed across the throat of the next male, his choking cut short as she blasted a hole through his face.
Merrick stared, dumbfounded, by the lethal fluidity Esmeray fought with, and was almost caught off guard by two soldiers using the ensuing pandemonium to corner him with his back to the waterfall.
The closest one died first–with Merrick’s dagger through his eye. The dying soldier lashed out, kicking at Merrick’s shin, causing him to stumble back a step. The second gargoyle used the opportunity to slash his sword. Merrick dodged, parrying with his remaining dagger.
Fuck, why didn’t he bring his sword with him?
Merrick’s stance slipped, and he instantly realized how close to falling off the waterfall he was.
But as he blocked the soldier’s sword again, his foot landed on the “X” Esmeray had made in the moss.
With a snarl, he realized exactly what Esmeray had been doing while he’d been perfecting waterfall jumping.
Bolstered with rage and wild abandon, Merrick allowed his opponent to push him closer to the edge, and Merrick fell–down, down, the spray of water now a familiar friend as he twisted, swept his wings up and around and launched skyward–perfectly straight.
The warrior didn’t even have time to process his impending death as Merrick drove the full length of his dagger into the gargoyle’s skull.