“Just one more thing. Your names?” the turion asked.
“Right,” Rhyan said. “I’m Soturion Sean, Ka Kolina.”
I barely managed to keep the shock off my face. My mind had gone blank when the turion asked for a name, but Rhyan had managed to come up with one that was actually a lesser-known Ka in Korteria.
“Ka Kolina?” the turion bared his teeth. Fuck. He knew we were lying. It didn’t matter that Rhyan had given a legitimate name.
“Yes,” Rhyan said.
The turion scratched at his head. “I didn’t know we had any Kolinas in Vrukston.” He held up his hand. “Learn something new every day.”
Rhyan lowered his chin. “We’ll be on our way then.”
“One more thing,” the turion said, his dark gaze locked on us. “Just need to see your dagger.”
“Of course,” Rhyan said. His eyes met mine, his hand on the hilt as he withdrew and turned the blade in his palm to safely hand it over. “Here,” he said, placing it in the turion’s hand. Barely a second passed before Rhyan spun on his heels, withdrawing his sword, knocking his dagger from the turion, and pointed the tip at his neck. His opponent had barely blinked before he found himself at Rhyan’s mercy.
I had my swords out a second later. A cough signaled that Sean, and the two soturi who’d been trailing us had emerged from their hiding spots.
Five against five. One for each of us.
The soturi glanced around slowly, each one sneering confidently. They thought they could take us.
But then, I watched in horror as the turion touched his ear, and blue light from a vadati began to glow. “We know who you are, Lyriana,” he said.
“Now!” I yelled.
Rhyan launched at the turion, slamming his body to the ground, the vadati rolling out down the waterway.
Realizing the innkeeper could be watching, as well as anyone else inside the buildings down the street, I pulled out my stave.
The spell came to me at once. “Ani petrova chayate lyla.”Shadows cloaked us in darkness, as if the sun had just been eclipsed, but only where we stood.
Everyone froze, shocked at the sudden nightfall, and then, all ten of us were in battle. I kept my focus on the soturion in front of me, his blond hair shorn so short it was spiky on top.
“Need two swords?” he asked as he thrust.
I blocked the hit with ease, metal clashing against metal.
He shook his head, and angled his hips, preparing to strike again, but I went in for the kill, my vision clear even in the darkness that encased us.
With one hit I knocked his sword from his hand, and with the other, I stabbed just below his armor, hitting flesh. He grunted, his eyes widening in shock as I pushed the blade in, shoving it past muscle.
He coughed, and spat, blood spewing across his armor before I grunted, and pulled the blade out. He collapsed, coughing miserably.
I slid my blade across his throat a second later, and his eyes closed.
Sean met my eyes, his soturion now dead, as well as the other two. Only Rhyan remained, battling the turion.
The Kormac warrior had flipped Rhyan onto his back, and punched him in the face. Rhyan’s eye was already swelling.
Sean started forward, and I was already regripping the hilt of my blades, ready to rush in. But Rhyan yelled out, and with a fury I’d never seen from him before, he grabbed the man’s head, and shoved his fingers into his eyes. The turion cried out in pain as Rhyan flipped him over onto his back. He punched him in the face, again and again. Rhyan reached for his sword and the turion was dead seconds later. Rhyan got back up, his chest heaving with exertion.
“Come on,” Sean yelled. He raced across the ground and grabbed the vadati which was now clear. The connection was gone. The turion didn’t have time to announce our whereabouts, but he’d said my name. Which meant others were looking for me now.
“We can’t wait for tonight,” Rhyan said. “Lyr and I need to cross the border now.”
“I agree, and I’m coming with you.” He turned to the other two soturi with us. They all seemed to be around Sean’s age, in their early forties, with the same brown hair that Sean had—albeit with some specks of gray.
