Chapter 2 #2
“Fucking Human,” I muttered. In my reflection, the golden choker around my neck almost seemed dull.
I halfheartedly tugged at it, but with no clasp, it was impossible to break off.
Just what was Shaddan trying to do with it?
Druinns had the ability to imbue enchantments into objects made of metal, but there was simply no way to know what kind of magic the choker might hold.
Laughter and chatter bubbled up through the floorboards from the party in the ballroom below.
Outside the nearby window, a few footmen brought carriages to the front of the mansion to escort the more elderly guests home before the banquet undoubtedly grew rowdier as the moon rose higher in the sky.
I considered trying to shove the window open to jump out and make a run for it, but I’d probably break at least one ankle doing so.
Nameless Asshole grimaced and pushed some hair off his forehead, sighing in exasperation.
“Look, I don’t know what he was trying to do, but I interrupted it.
I think it’s fine.” A pause, and his grimace deepened into a scowl.
He cast a glance down at the back of his wrist, though the glowing shackle had long disappeared.
“Just dig out your research on Druinnic enchantments.”
“Is that your employer?” I called. “Tell him I’m not going anywhere with you.”
He blinked, but didn’t look at me. “I’ve been a perfect gentleman, but she’s being difficult.”
“Perfect gentleman,” my ass.
A massive explosion wracked the manor, showering us with bits of dust and rubble from the ceiling.
The walls trembled and went still before another boom of power pounded through the building somewhere below us.
I leaned against the vanity to keep standing as the floor shuddered.
Human laughter morphed into screams of terror.
The stranger whirled, drawing my knife only to glare at it. “Damn it, how am I supposed to fight Druinns with this?” After a moment of consideration, he dropped it, kicking it to skitter far beneath the bed.
Someone pounded on the door.
Nameless Asshole ignored whoever was trying to get into the room, instead choosing to kick at one of the tall oaken posts at the foot of the bed frame. He snapped it free and brandished it as if it were a club.
Wood splintered and sundered as the door and wardrobe shattered into pieces. A hand ax, a dagger, and a short sword flew inside the bedroom and levitated in the air, controlled by three figures wearing masks and cowls that stepped inside.
Nameless Asshole spun his makeshift club in his hand, barking at me, “The window. Now!”
I clutched the edge of the vanity, too dumbfounded to move as the three figures raised their hands toward him, and their weapons obeyed silent orders.
He jumped out of the way of the dagger and the ax, but had to swing his makeshift cudgel to block the short sword. With it embedded in his weapon, one of the Druinns growled, apparently having a difficult time controlling it, so Nameless Asshole struck.
He sprinted across the room to that figure and, rather than beating them over the head, seized the front of their hood.
He yanked them to his other side, holding them in place with his club across their chest. The ax and dagger had recovered and flew at him with such speed, there was no regard for who might be in-between.
They struck the hooded figure Nameless Asshole held as a shield, and the figure crumpled to the ground with a moan and a splatter of blood across the floorboards.
The splash of red jerked me to my senses.
As Nameless Asshole lunged for the next hooded figure with his club, I bolted for the window like he told me to.
Screw following his orders, but the window was almost certainly my only way of escape, what with the flashing, floating weapons blocking the splintered remains of the door.
Broken ankles be damned. I’d just have to pick my favorite one and try to land harder on the other.
I shoved against the window with all my meager strength.
It didn’t move, but what I saw outside made me freeze.
Smoke. It billowed up from the rest of the manor and choked the dry nighttime air.
I could just see through the thick gray cloud enough to make out the shapes of running, screaming banquet guests.
Flames licked away at the once ornate door of the grand entrance that now lay half off its hinges, and inside it, an inferno blazed orange.
Guards shouted orders to direct the fleeing civilians, and some hurled buckets of water at the fire.
The progress they made was laughable against the hungry blaze.
Gunshots rang out. A band of ruffians sheltering behind a toppled carriage fired their flintlock pistols at the guards and civilians.
What happened?
I pressed my hand against the cool glass and swallowed thickly.
Another heavy thud behind me. Nameless Asshole had taken down another of the hooded figures, but the last one standing seemed to have struck back by chopping his club into pieces with the ax.
The stranger cursed and flung himself at his assailant, landing blow after blow that knocked the mask away from the Druinn’s face.
The Druinn struggled for a moment, reaching for his weapon, but it only flew halfway towards Nameless Asshole before the metal-wielder lost consciousness.
I coughed on the smoke that had filled the corridor outside and now slithered into the bedroom, but the Human didn’t seem fazed.
He stalked towards me, clucking his tongue.
“Couldn’t even get the damn window open?
” He shoved me aside and tried to open it, but he had just as much luck as I did with the stuck lock.
For a moment, I considered trying to run into the hallway, but the furious rage of flames crept towards the threshold. With each passing second the air grew thicker with curls of bone-dry smoke. My eyes burned. “Who even are you?” I gasped.
With only a quiet curse, he rammed his elbow into the glass, shattering it into fragments on the floor. He peered out into the darkness lit by the flames eating away at the manor and set his boot squarely on the windowsill.
It crunched on the broken glass as he turned to me. “Do you want to do this the easy way, or the ‘I’m going to make life as difficult as possible for my handsome savior’ way?”
It took every ounce of my restraint to bite my tongue and not tell him I found him in no way handsome. Fuck his pretty face and stupid soft-looking hair. And those dimples I might have liked if he didn't hold so much arrogance in his eyes.
“You are not my savior.” I bit out the word in the same manner he bit out Siren.
Still, he brightened and chuckled. “I had a feeling you were going to be a pain in my ass.” Before I could get away, he hauled me over his shoulder like a dead animal.
I tried to kick at him, but he dodged out of the way just in time. “Let me go or I’ll scream!”
“While I'd love to hear that, be good and stay quiet for me.”
He launched himself out the window with me on his shoulder, into the darkness.
I wasn't about to listen to his order to be quiet, but his landing punched his shoulder right into my gut, cutting off my scream.
While I coughed and wheezed and tried to recover, he moved like a shadow, melding with the darkened spaces between the trees and shrubs in the manor garden, out into the nearby street.
No one even threw us a second glance. The city folk around were too busy either running towards the smoking manor—curious busy bodies with too much time on their hands—or running away from it.
“Pirates in the capital!” an older man shouted above the cacophony of people and gunshots, earning cries from the enraged mob gathered outside the manor gates.
Just the word “pirate” sent a shiver down my spine.
But it was odd. We had definitely been attacked by Druinns, yet that band of Humans with flintlock pistols facing off with the guards must have been pirates.
Strange for them to be so far inland; the eastern coastline was several days away across the desert.
Was it possible the pirates were working with the Druinns?