The Mind Slayer kept its protruding, onyx eyes on her as they leveled. They flashed white as Sol glared. “Answer me.”
“The memory hit quite a sore spot, I see.”
Sawyer leaned closer, embers crackling around her wrists. “The
Princess asked you a question.”
Impatience hazed her vision. “I’m growing tired of this.”
The sounds of chaos continued all around them, as well as the scraping of metal as what Sol guessed were guards rushed their way. She remained focused on the Mind Slayer as it repeated, “I will never reveal my master’s location.”
“Then you’re no use to me.”
There was an overwhelming thirst for vengeance as she stretched her arm to Sawyer. “Your sword.” Wordlessly, her cousin obliged.
Cas tightened his grip around her bicep. “Sol??—”
“Although I didn’t have a chance to taste her myself,” the Mind Slayer taunted as it leaned closer, its rancid breath inches away from her face. The blade trembled in her grasp. “I heard your mother’s blood was some of the most delicious Lorkin ever tasted.”
Sol let out a roar of fury as she stood and used her entire weight to impale the creature in its skull. As the sound of death crackled, Sol saw her mother, fighting to buy her time that night seven years ago. As she brought the sword back up and tears flowed down her face, she saw her mother’s pain as the thing named Lorkin suspended her in the air.
As she brought the sword down again and again until the creature’s head rolled to the ground beside her. She saw her mother’s beating heart devoured by a creature who had wanted her instead.
“Sol, it’s dead.”
She shouldn’t have run. She shouldn’t have bothered to knock and just torn the door down instead.
Sol trembled as hands wrapped around her own, suspending the blade above the creature’s tattered body. She could no longer see through the tears but vaguely felt the hands remove the blade from her grasp.
“It’s okay.” Hands remained around her own as a different set of arms gently encircled her waist and pulled her down to sit on the ground. “You’re okay, Sol.”
She sobbed harder. She was engulfed in a strong, careful hug from behind as she slumped back against Cas’s chest. Though his heart was as erratic as her own, his steady breathing began to lull her, and willed her to match it. She leaned her head to rest on him as she continued to silently cry.
Cas laid his head on her own. “It’s okay, Sol,” he said softly. “You’re safe.”
Fifty Four
SAMARA
SAMARA NEVER GOTusedto it. Granted, she didn’t use Dark Magic often, but every time she did she felt equipped enough to handle it.
She never was.
That familiar ache skirted through her bones, making her skin sensitive and sore as she leaned against the wall of the main courtyard. The castle broke into a frenzy as soon as the Jinn signature spread, sending the nobility into a panic.
Idiots.
Samara had been on her way to the kitchens for a glass of ale when she felt it, that cold embrace of Loumallet’s children.
She watched the Yarrow Princess butcher it through the simple Enchantment, one that hid her in place beside the gardens. The Princess bringing her sword down again and again, even after the creature was nothing but mush, was mesmerizing. It took her whole Court to stop her.
Taking a drag from the Kerproot cigar, Samara shook her head.
“One down, I guess.”
“Each one counts.” Gaven took the cigar from her fingers, leaning on a wall beside her. He stayed behind and in the shadows of the courtyard arches as he didn’t have the cover of Void Magic to shield him. “Especially Lorkin’s Mind Slayers.”
Samara shrugged. “I figured her mother would have at least told her about seeking aid with Mavka. Leave her without magic orknowledge of her best allies?” She motioned for the cigar. “Sol was set up for failure.”
