Chapter 5 #4
“The Iron Crow won’t like this,” his companion warned. “This is not part of the plan.”
The small one curled a smile, cold malice coating his lips. “What the Iron Crow don’t know won’t hurt him. And I’m done with all his bullshit talks, anyway. This is our chance to send that cunt of a queen a real message.”
The Iron Crow?
The males drew closer, each one brandishing a small blade in their hand. For all their bravado, they didn’t seem too sure about attacking me.
I unclasped my cloak and dropped it to the ground.
“All this blabbering is making my brain bleed.” In the next breath, I lunged at them with my dagger, my blade slicing through the air and catching them off guard.
The nearest man stumbled back, just barely dodging the blade, but I pivoted, driving my knee into the second man’s gut.
He doubled over, wheezing, but the third was already moving, grabbing for my wrist, twisting hard.
I wrenched free, the pain searing, but not enough to stop me. A quick, brutal slash, and my blade caught his arm. Blood splattered against the alley wall and the asshole growled in anger.
His companion snarled, pulling another short, rusted blade from his belt.
He came at me fast, his swings wild and erratic.
I dodged the first, parried the second, but the fabric of my long skirt tangled around my legs, restricting my movement, and with the lag in my muscles due to all the mead, I stumbled.
Damn it. Another swing came at me. I barely twisted in time, the tip of his blade slicing across my ribs.
I gasped, the cut deep, burning like fire licking over my skin. I shifted my grip on the dagger and struck out, cutting a deep gash along his shoulder. He howled, stumbling back. My breath came fast, sweat and blood mingling along my spine.
The third man charged from behind, grabbing the back of my hair and yanking me down.
My head snapped back with the force, stars sparking across my vision.
I gritted my teeth and drove my elbow into his ribs, then spun, slicing the dagger across his cheek.
He reeled, cursing, but another brutal kick to my stomach sent me sprawling.
I hit the cobblestones hard, my wound screaming in agony.
Legs shaking, I forced myself up, but the second man grabbed me by the throat, slamming me against the wall. My dagger slipped from my grasp.
His fetid breath washed over me. “Stupid bitch,” he hissed, tightening his hold. “You should’ve stayed home.” Then he plunged his knife right under my ribs, twisting it for added measure.
My vision blurred as I gasped in pain, a gurgled scream erupting from my throat.
My fingers scrabbled at his grip, but my strength waned.
I kicked out, catching him in the knee. He buckled, releasing me just enough for me to gasp in air, but before I could move my limbs, something heavy crashed against the side of my head.
Pain exploded through my skull as the world lurched. My knees buckled, and I fell hard onto my back. My ears throbbed with an intense ringing, my vision darkening at the edges. Cold and warm wetness soaked my clothes, and I wondered if I was lying in piss or blood, maybe both.
Hands grabbed me, tore at my clothes, and the sound of ripping fabric made my heart race with adrenaline. Panic surged through my blood.
Gods, no…
Still trying to focus, I kicked and screamed, knowing what they planned to do to me.
A voice rasped in my ear, “Let’s see if the queen’s bitch can still squeal with a broken jaw.”
I readied myself for the blow as the temperature plummeted to an impossible low. It felt like I’d been submerged in the depths of an icy lake. My body trembled violently, but I wasn’t sure if it was from the piercing cold wrapping around my limbs or if I was bleeding out on the ground.
The hands holding me vanished.
And the screaming began.
I tried sitting up, but my skull throbbed so violently that even the effort sent fresh waves of nausea rolling through me.
My limbs felt like they were sinking into the cold, slush-covered ground, my vision slipping in and out of focus.
But through slitted eyes, I caught a glimpse of the reason my attackers were screaming.
Jack?
My head swam as I tried to make sense of what I saw.
Covered in coiling, bluish shadows that flickered around him like spectral wisps, Jack held one of my attackers up by the throat.
The air seemed to tremble around him, the frost curling from Jack’s fingertips burying itself into the man’s flesh as if the ice itself was alive, reaching, hungry.
And his eyes…they weren’t just blue. They were a storm. A churning abyss of hoarfrost and shadow, as if something ancient had stirred awake beneath his skin, some terrible thing buried deep in his unseelie bloodline that had finally been unleashed.
My head spun again, and with shallow breaths, I fell back against the ground. Obscene, bloodcurdling wails filled the alley—the kind of screams that tore through eardrums, carrying the undeniable sound of people dying brutal deaths.
My stomach clenched at the sickening noise, at the wet, ripping squelch of muscle and tendons being shredded apart with a fibrous snap, followed by the crunch and pop of splintering bone.
Darkness clawed at my consciousness, and this time, I allowed it to claim me, but not before the frost-covered severed head of the male who’d threatened to break my jaw landed next to me, his mouth agape, eyes wide, both frozen in paralyzing terror.