The leader of the dragon riders grins. “He made a mistake working with the Hollowborns. A mistake Elder Thorne is correcting.”
His attack is fast, but I’m faster. My blade is leveled at him before he’s even halfway across the room. I don’t think, just move—straight for his throat, a low slice that turns the worldbright red for a second. He goes down and I kick his body at the next one, buying half a heartbeat.
I pivot, pulling Harper behind me. The second man is smarter, stays out of reach and tries to herd me back toward the bed. I take a wild swing, nick his cheek, but there’s a third coming up behind him, and a fourth at the door, and then the whole room is bodies and blades and shouting.
As three men rush me on one side, another goes for Harper. I plan to take down the man who’s coming for my woman, but Harper grabs her dagger and stabs it deep into the eye of an attacker, who screams bloody murder. She doesn’t stop there, just stabs him again and again. The sound is meaty and wet, and the look in her eyes is pure murder.
“Behind you!” she screams.
I spin and catch the hilt of a sword with my ribs. It hurts, but not as much as it should. I stab the man and feel the blade cut through leather, before the guy grunts and drops to the floor. The third attacker knocks the sword out of my hand, but it doesn’t matter—I have a second blade tucked in my boot. I reach for it, and when he bends to grab me, I jam my knife up through his jaw.
Blood sprays my face, hot and metallic. For a second, everything slows down.
I see Harper swinging her dagger in a wild arc, catching a man in the temple. She’s screaming, a wordless, animal sound that makes every hair on my body stand up. The fourth attacker grabs her from behind, pinning her arms, and she thrashes like a hooked fish, kicking at his shins until he loses his balance.
She twists, bites his hand, drawing blood, then knees him in the groin. He goes down and she stomps his head for good measure.
It’s beautiful.
But there are more, too many. Two fresh men crash into the room, both going for me. I take a hit to the face, then another to the gut. My dagger is knocked from my grip as I try to catch my breath. I’m doubled over, vision blurry, but I still manage to sweep one off his feet. He cracks his head on the stone floor, then I’m rolling on top, smashing his face into the ground until he stops moving.
The other one yanks me up by my hair and rams a fist into my mouth. I taste my own blood, spit it in his eyes, and rake his cheek with my nails. He recoils, and I use the chance to grab his dagger. He tries to pull away, but I drive it into his thigh and he collapses, howling.
I’m up again, searching for Harper. She’s in the corner, two men pinning her arms, a third trying to clamp a hand over her mouth. She bites one of his fingers clean off. He shrieks and falls back, clutching his ruined hand.
I reach for her, but the dragon riders swarm me, a pile of bodies and leather. I fight, punching and kicking into the sea of bodies, even as they kick and punch me from every direction. They manage to hold me down, wrenching my arms behind my back. One of them slams my face with his fist, and the world goes white for a second. Another pummels my stomach. I can’t breathe, can’t even scream.
When I blink back to reality, Harper’s being dragged toward the door. She kicks and claws, rips out a chunk of someone’s hair, but it’s useless. There are six men on her, and even she can’t fight that many.
“Sevrin!” she cries, voice raw. “Sevrin!”
I lose the rest of her words in a chorus of boots and fists. They hit me again, and again, and again, until my teeth rattle and my vision tunnels.
All I see is Harper, arms outstretched, screaming my name as they haul her away. I try to struggle my way free, but they’vegot me by the arms and throat, choking out any last spark of rebellion.
They keep kicking me. One, two, three, each blow like a little death. I feel every one, but I don’t even care. All I care about is Harper.
Her voice fades into the corridor, echoing off the stone: “Sevrin! Sevrin!”
I lurch up, wild and blind, but they punch me back down. My skull rings, vision seared by red and black.
Harper is gone. The room is full of blood and broken bodies, but none of it matters.
All I can think is that I failed her.
I barely notice when the pain finally stops, when they start dragging me from the room. There’s only one thing that matters: I have to get her back.
I have to.
I have to.
She’s my everything.
23
Harper
My body jerks.My eyes fly open, and I find I’m lying on the stone far from the fortress, the cold wind clawing at me. I can feel warm blood dripping down my face, and every inch of me hurts. I hurt in a way that I’ve never hurt before. Someone’s fist rams into my stomach so hard my brain takes a full three seconds to tell my lungs to scream.
