CHAPTER 31 #3
“You can’t break it,” Kara said, gazing at the gate. “They’ll hear–”
“I won’t break it,” he smirked. Crimson erupted across his palm. He looked like he was enjoying himself. “Remember the plan. Stay here.”
“Sebastian–”
But he was already moving towards the wall, his hands finding jagged stones for footholds.
He hauled himself upwards as if it required no effort at all.
Kara gripped the rocks in front of her, forcing herself flat.
But she was hardly able to breathe as his silhouette vanished over the battlements.
Adrenaline coursed through her. Any second, she expected shouts, alarms, arrows–
But no such sound came, only a faint scrape of an iron bolt. Slowly, quietly, the gate shifted open, and she scurried from her hiding place to the small gap Sebastian had left for her. He stood waiting in the dark, hidden behind a stone column, eyes focused and alive. He held out his hand to her.
“Your turn,” Sebastian said quietly.
She slipped past him, stepping over two guards he’d knocked out to reach the gate, and into the Fire Temple’s outer courtyard, scurrying behind the column alongside him.
Her pulse spiked as they pressed their backs against the wall, keeping to the shadows.
The place was vast. Easily two hundred paces across.
Statues lined the paths – warriors and beasts carved from pristine white marble, stark and gleaming against the dark obsidian walls.
Ahead of them, in the centre of it all, the inner temple rose on four great pillars, their surfaces covered in runes that glowed eerily in the torchlight.
It took her a moment to orientate herself.
The sight of the soldiers forced Kara back to the moment.
More, many more than she had imagined. Pairs patrolled the inner walls; another squad gathered near the heavy doors that led into the heart of the temple itself.
Her stomach sank.
There were too many.
Sebastian’s hand brushed hers, grounding her. “Stay close.” He sounded calm, unaffected, but he was scanning every movement. “We take them one group at a time. Quietly. No mistakes.”
They hugged the shadows along the obsidian wall, moving with the rhythm of the patrols.
When a pair of guards rounded too close, footsteps echoing off the stone, torchlight swinging towards their hiding place, they joined hands.
Molten gold flared from Kara’s palm. The nearest soldier’s eyes found hers in the dark.
They went wide – confused, afraid – before they glazed over.
He slipped under before he could form a sound, but quicker than Sebastian had expected.
He lunged forward as the man’s knees buckled, grabbing him by the arm and twisting to catch the other before he hit the ground.
He eased them down, hiding them in the shadows, careful to muffle the sound of armour on the stone.
Sebastian looked up at Kara; she could practically hear him thinking how he could have used her on previous missions.
See? Told you I could help.
One by one, patrol by patrol, they cleared the edges, each silence heavier than the last. Without warning, Sebastian dragged Kara back against the wall, his other hand clamping over her mouth.
What–
She froze completely. Hyper aware of the warmth of his hand against her lips, his chest against her back, the stillness of him.
A patrol rounded the corner, passing where she had been stood only a second before, the pair climbing up the rampart steps.
Sebastian lowered his hand. Neither of them moved for several seconds.
His lips brushed her ear. “Too close.”
“Yeah,” she breathed. Her heart was pounding.
They waited until the pair had cleared the ramparts and they climbed the steps, silencing the Sorrel bowmen there in the same way – three men asleep, hands resting on their bows before they’d even registered movement.
Sebastian tightened his hand on Kara’s. “You know,” he whispered, “we’re really good at this.”
Too good. Terrifyingly good.
She didn’t know if that thrilled her more than it scared her.
They were moving as one like they’d been doing this for years.
Kara’s pulse was still racing, sweat beading on her palms, but the rhythm of it had become manageable now – nearly thirty men down – step, sleep, silence. Until the moment it wasn’t.
One soldier from the squad by the temple doors shifted, calling up to the bowmen he thought were still on the ramparts, “Hey, Fletch – you lot want warming up? Got mead here!”
No answer from above. The soldier frowned, and turned towards the rampart stairs, scanning the shadows. He knew something wasn’t right. It didn’t take long for him to spot them. His shout split the night.
“Over there!”
In an instant, ten men wheeled towards them, steel flashing, boots pounding towards the two sets of stone steps either side of them. There was no time for subtlety, no chance to ease them quietly into sleep.
Shit.
Sebastian wrenched his hand free, shoving her behind him.
“Stay behind me!” he ordered, raising his blade, his crimson shooting across the steel as he braced.
And then the fight was on.
Three soldiers broke from the pack, sprinting up the stairs closest to her.
Kara flung her hands forward, emerald light obeying immediately.
Two crumpled at once, armour clattering.
But the third fought through it, staggering, teeth bared as he pushed against the haze creeping over him.
Sebastian was already locked in battle on the west stairs, she could hear the steel ringing, hear his shouts of rage.
Don’t call Sebastian. Don’t be a distraction.
But the soldier was on her. One hand on her wrist, the other reaching for his nightshade cuffs.
Not again. Never again.
Something dark rose in her – the same ruthless focus that had overpowered the patrol guard.
Her emerald tendrils crushed around him like a vice.
She felt his consciousness go dark with fear as he slumped against her.
Kara staggered back breathing hard, letting him fall harder than was strictly necessary.
She turned back to Sebastian – he was still fighting – his blade a storm of crimson as he cut down one and sent another reeling.
There were already five men on the ground.
And then it was done. The last soldier fell, magic-scorched, and silence rang out.
Breathless, Kara closed the distance that had gathered between them. “Was that all of them?”
Sebastian scanned the shadows, sword still drawn and ready. “It better be,” he muttered darkly.