“I knew it,” Lerek said, his voice quivering as he lifted the torch and backed away. “Gods, I knew I shouldn’t have trusted you.”
“It was inevitable,” Xoran said as he swung again. Lerek lifted the torched, crying out when Xoran’s strike easily disarmed him.
Lerek continued to step back, one hand on the wall as he extended the other before him. He wasn’t sure why he thought it might stop the captain.
“Why?”
Xoran prowled closer, his face impassive. “I made a vow to her. Long ago. And this is what she demanded of me.”
Lerek exhaled, his eyes darting over Xoran’s face as he fought to understand. “Who? Serephina? You and her?—”
“You should’ve stayed dead.”
Lerek glanced behind Xoran, seeing Gabriol hack at another one of their assailants before snapping his gaze back to the advancing captain. He raised his arm, fear gripping his heart tightly and cried out as the man swung his sword in what was sure to be the last thing Lerek would ever see.
It never came.
Xoran stared blankly at him, the sword protruding from his belly confusing him when he glanced down. He looked back upat Lerek, and his expression eased into acceptance as he dropped to the flagstones.
In the sudden silence of the room, Lerek blinked away the sight of the dead captain and looked up to see the strange, redheaded mercenary who traveled with Terena glaring down at him. Gabriol came up behind him, clapping the warrior on his shoulder.
“Rydon?” Lerek asked, his voice shaking.
The man’s scowl deepened. He bent forward and thrust out his hand to help Lerek up. Rings bit into Lerek’s fingers and he grimaced against the pain of the man’s iron grip.
The mercenary stood eye to eye with Lerek, but his expression turned quizzical.
Before Lerek could ask again, the man spoke in a deep, gravelly voice.
“Where’s Croak?”
Chapter 47
METILAI
As soon as Terena realized Orry was the entertainment Solon promised his guests, all the light from the room vanished, blanketing them in deepest black.
Guests screamed and rushed about like headless chickens. Terena shoved her way toward the dais as the darkness disappeared. The sudden brightness made others around her cry out, and Terena ripped off her helm. Throwing it across the room in her rage, she snarled as Christos and Solon gaped at her.
She stood alone in the center of the ballroom, the guests huddled together trying to get even further away. Her eyes searched for Vassori, but the tracker was nowhere to be found. Her eyes returned to the dais.
To Solon.
“Get her, you fool!”the emperor screeched at an Imperial Guard closest to him, and the man rushed forward.
Terena snapped out her hands and the Twins formed in them, the short swords flashing red, crackling with the power of fiery lightning.
Before the guard raised his arm, she stepped forward, bringing her arms in and slashed out. His head flew up in the air before following his body down to the ground.
Screams and cries renewed as the guests fought to get further away from her.
“You know,” Terena said, glaring at the terrified emperor, a red haze at the edge of her vision. “I was going to let you live. For Lerek’s sake. I was going to make a scene and leave once I had my brother back.” She scoffed. “But you couldn’t leave well enough alone, could you? You didn’t heed my warning all those months ago. You did not learn from what I did to Duke Ravos’s men. No, Emperor. Instead, you took my brother. You took my friend and… you tortured him?” Terena swallowed. “He’s done nothing to you! Bringing Orry before these… these sycophants, for what? To harm me? Is this how you rule? Picking on the weak? He’s a fucking cleric! He doesn’t?—”
“Ren!” Orry shouted, his face a mess of multicolored bruises, the right side of his jaw swollen so badly he lisped. “He has it! I’m sorry! I’m so sorry, I couldn’t?—”
High Cleric Christos grabbed Orry’s hair and yanked his head back. Terena lurched forward as Christos screamed something unintelligible and swiped a blade across Orry’s throat.
Terena’s breath caught, watching in horrified denial as Orry grabbed at his neck, blood all over his fingers and down his wrists as he fell, his body twitching.
