“Fuck, my skin is crawling.” Skye said, rubbing her arms feverishly. “I need a shower.”
“I’ll get you nice and clean, love.” I said, wiggling my eyebrows.
Aiden chuckled as Skye’s cheeks flamed, and then we all jumped as a man appeared out of the bushes.
It was the man from before.
Fuck my life. I could feel agitation rolling down my spine, my temper getting ready to snap, but then I saw the manic gleam in his eye. His brows were furrowed, his skin a little too sweaty for the cool weather.
“You,” he growled at Aiden. “I saw you at the dam. Your affinity for electricity would’ve served him well. He may punish me for this, but I’ll be rewarded for my loyalty in the next life.”
Before anyone could speak, the man lunged at Aiden, and the shadows reacted a split-second too late. Time seemed to slow, the future playing out in front of me in excruciating detail. The knife would go right through Aiden’s heart, killing him before a Healer could help. Or, worse, he’d bleed out while Marion Exhausted trying to save him, if I could even get to her in time. Skye could teleport faster, but she’d have to reveal herself–
But not a breath later, the man coughed, then choked as he crumpled to the ground. He twitched and gurgled, his eyes wide as he looked up at me. He writhed in the dirt for a second, and then I saw it.
His knife was no longer in his hand. It was now embedded in his throat, almost precisely on the artery that would’ve killed him instantly.
When I looked at Aiden, a chill ran through me. His arms were crossed over his chest, his expression hard as he watched the mansquirm in the dirt below us. It appeared as if he hadn’t even reacted to a man lunging at him, and in the next moment, it made complete sense why.
Skye’s stared the man down with a savage expression, one I’d never seen on her before but definitely wanted to see again.
Without moving an inch, she’d turned the man’s knife back on him.
She was so fucking amazing.
“Now what?” Aiden asked when the gurgling stopped. He pulled Skye’s back to his front, and she ran her nails up and down her palms as she watched the man’s blood pool in the dirt.
I blew out a breath. “Let’s get Holmes.”
Marion didn’t believefor a second that I’d killed the man.
I was one of the only people on the continent who could effectively get away with cold-blooded murder, so it was no question that I would take the blame.
Marion’s blue eyes were wide as she checked him over. Her gaze darted from me to Aiden, and then to Skye. Her body language was clear. She wasn’t sure who’d killed him, but she didn’t believe it was me, and she didn’t believe I’d even touched the knife.
But, because she was a good Palace Healer, and I was her Prince, she kept her questioning gaze tilted downward.
“This was a fine strike, my Prince.” Marion struggled to stand, and Aiden cringed. “Only millimeters from hitting the artery full-on.”
“Thank you,” I said, holding Skye’s eye contact.
I was so beyond proud of her. Would it have been wrong to say I hoped there was another zealot waiting in the bushes so that I could watch Skye kill again?
Hmm. That thought seemed a little morbid, even for me.
Skye raised an eyebrow at me, as if she could see my dark thoughts, then dropped her expression as Marion looked to her again.
Marion suspected Skye, she just wasn’t sure what’d happened. Technically, Skye hadn’t used her affinity to kill the man…he was killed bythe knife. So Marion wouldn’t pick up on an affinity signature like she had after the academy attack, because those men were killed by Skye directly.
Marion looked to me again, her jaw working slightly. She wanted to say something to me, but thought better of it. Instead, she held out the knife to me, then took a deep breath. “If that’s all…”
I nodded.
“Thank you, Marion.”
Chapter 43
Wyatt
