Total pages in book: 141
Estimated words: 136009 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 680(@200wpm)___ 544(@250wpm)___ 453(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 136009 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 680(@200wpm)___ 544(@250wpm)___ 453(@300wpm)
“I hate myself,” he whispered.
“You did exactly what we planned.”
“It was easy.”
“I know,” she whispered, threading their fingers together.
“I hope we both can regain our souls by the end of this.” He brought her hand up to his lips, placing a kiss on her knuckles. “My queen.”
They turned down the next long corridor. The lamps burned low as they traipsed in. Fordham opened his mouth to say something else when a dagger flew through the air. The rasp of the blade being drawn alerted them, and at the last second, he threw up a shield to block the movement. It hit the magic an inch away from his heart before falling harmlessly to the ground.
Kerrigan reached for her own shield, unsure where the knife had come from or how many assailants there were. Another blade flew at her back, and she whipped around as it sliced into her shield. She yelped at the spark of pain as the blade nearly cut through her magic.
The House of Shadows had used oleander-tipped arrows in the Battle of Lethbridge, taking out more than one dragon with the poison. It seemed they were back to their old tricks. If that touched her, she didn’t think any healing could save her.
“Position,” Fordham said, his voice going low and rough.
She put her back to his. A dagger was handed over his shoulder to her. She felt better with it in her hand. She hadn’t been able to wear even a single blade under the dress she was in, but Fordham had no such restrictions in his suit. Steel was always her preference.
“Come out and face us,” Fordham yelled into the darkened corridor.
But no one answered.
The assassins, whoever they were, melted into the shadows as if they too had the Ollivier family gift. But of course they did not. She’d known assassins like this and knew how to defeat them.
Kerrigan breathed in her fire magic. It was her strongest element by far but one that she had always kept a lid on. She always played with air and earth and sometimes even water. Fire felt like the chaos of her hair. Like it would burn down the world if she took the lid off her rage. She only tapped into it when she had nothing else.
If she was going to burn down the world and start fresh, she needed to start with an ember.
Her fire magic responded like a fount, blossoming down the hall and lighting the way. One assassin, dressed in all black with their face covered, cried out as they caught fire and dropped down to roll the magic away. Another assassin sprang out from the other direction. Smoke flooded the hall in either direction, and if they weren’t careful, it would be as deadly as the flames Kerrigan had at her fingertips.
Fordham engaged the assassin as they slashed at him and his betrothed with their daggers. The element of surprise was gone, and it was clear that Fordham was by far the better swordsman. The oleander daggers would have hindered them and made them easier targets, but it was too late now.
Kerrigan jumped into the fray as another came into the hall. She used her air magic to blast the smoke into the face of this assailant as she heard another. Perhaps there were more? Or was this a test?
“Don’t kill them,” Kerrigan yelled back to Fordham as she lifted her blade to deflect the assassin’s sword.
“They’re trying to kill me,” he barked.
“I have an idea.”
Kerrigan twirled out of the way, using her superior footwork to get to the other side of the assassin. She kicked them in the backs of their knees, which crunched hard on the ground. Then she laid them out on their stomach and pushed her heel into their spine.
“Don’t move or I’ll personally sever your spine,” she snarled.
The other assassin, who she’d taken down with her flames, recovered enough to return to their feet. Kerrigan used her air to hold the first down as she engaged with the second. She didn’t need anything fancy for this. She had all four elements at the ready. And yet she wanted to prove her point.
She grasped at the shadows in the hallway and let them coat her hands. The assassin gasped at the sight, falling back in evident fear at her control. But already she was using the shadows like a whip, lassoing the assassin with darkness and reeling him into her. She punched him in the face when he got close enough and unwound him on top of his partner.
They both cried out as she mastered her air magic and tightened the grip around them with the closing of a fist.
“Who sent you?” she snarled at her incapacitated assailants.
“We’ll never say!” the first yelled.
She kicked the second. “And you?”
The assassin glared up at her with fire in their dark eyes. “They’ll beat you. We are just the first wave. You’ll never be safe.”