Chandra bellowed a curse. The air crackled behind me. I looked back to see him surrounded by several men.
Where had they come from? Wait…they all looked the same…
Otherworldly light burst from Chandra’s skin, slamming into his attackers, pushing them away for a brief moment before they converged on him again.
Chandra fought back with no weapon but his fists. The men multiplied as if by magic, swarming him. Forcing him to fight harder to keep them from crossing the bridge. To keep them from getting to me. Oh gods, this was an assassination attempt.
I looked down the bank toward Silva’s tent.
Like fuck was I going to run and hide.
I ran in the opposite direction, toward the guy with the bow and arrow. His eyes flew wide at the sight of me barreling toward him.
“Dhanush! Now!”
He held it out, stunned. I yanked the weapon from his hands. “Arrows! By order of the liege!”
He babbled something incoherent, then shoved a quiver filled with arrows at me. I slung it over my shoulder and bolted back to the bridge, heart slamming into my ribs. One of the men had broken free of Chandra and was almost on my side of the bank. I ground to a halt, reached back for an arrow, nocked it in one fluid move, then fired.
The man went down, and the cluster of attackers around Chandra halved.
Comprehension hit me in the gut. There were only two attackers. The rest were some kind of duplicates linked to the two originals. Killing the real guy had dispersed his copies.
The air fizzed, and more men appeared around Chandra. Shit, the guy that was left must have powered up. Movement across the bank caught my eye—two powerful men running toward the bridge.
Asura?
Were they there to help or were they with the attackers?
I couldn’t take the chance.
I drew another arrow aimed at one of Chandra’s attackers and fired. It passed right through him.
Dammit! I needed to hit therealattacker, not a copy.
An eerie calm settled over me because I knew what I needed to do. My body reacted with a muscle memory I didn’t know I had, drawing arrow after arrow and firing in rapid succession. The scene around me shifted to a blood-soaked battlefield, enemies swarming my companion…the man I cared deeply for.
My closest friend.
My confidant.
“No!”
I fired faster. Limbs burning. Rage igniting my chest.
Chandra turned to look at me, and for a moment he was someone else. Someone I knew and yet didn’t know.
I shot another arrow, and this time it hit home. All the men vanished.
I lowered the bow, the world shifting from night market to battlefield and back again.
Darkness edged my vision, and the world tipped.
“Leela!” Chandra cried.
I sank into oblivion.
Chapter 11
