“I told you to hide somewhere safe until I came for you,” she said, exasperated.
Arly bent and picked up the two youngest as she strode into the room, the eldest and Roderick following on her heels.“The children felt you could use assistance.”
The children, huh?Was she sure she wasn’t the one who thought that?
“I didn’t,” Kira said.
Roderick’s face was a shade paler as he leaned against the wall.“Glad to see you’ve come through your ordeal in one piece.”
“Thanks,” Caius said, his calculating gaze on Arly.
The other woman’s face was hard as she looked down at her fallen comrade.A crack in her mask came when she glanced at Bez, sympathy in her face as she shifted her hold on the children to set a hand on his shoulder.
“The traitor doesn’t deserve your grief,” she said softly.
Bez scrubbed the tears from his face.“I know.”He nodded at Arly to show he was alright.“We should go.The humans and the rebels are in this together.”
Caius’s smile didn’t quite reach his eyes.“Perhaps on the way you can fill me in on everything that’s happened while I’ve been otherwise occupied.”
Jin
“What the hell?”a pirate exclaimed as the door slid open to reveal a woman crouched over the body of a pirate.
She looked up at their entrance, her mouth dropping into an “o” shape.“Ah.This is a bit awkward.”
The pirates took in the massacre before them in stunned surprise.Bodies lay everywhere.Like puppets whose strings had been cut.They slumped face down or on their sides.No signs of trauma to indicate what had killed them.It was as if they’d simply lain down for a rest.Except they would never open their eyes again.
Almost twenty in total.A sizeable chunk of Belladonna’s leadership, Jin was betting.
One by one, the pirates’ gazes returned to the woman.
“What did you do?”their leader demanded.
The woman pursed her lips as she took in the dead.“I’d say this isn’t what it looks like, but I doubt you’d believe me.”
“You’re damn right about that,” someone muttered.
“Itoldthe cadre that trusting wizards was a mistake,” another pirate spat.
The woman nodded.“Yes, I agree.That was definitely a mistake.”
“What do we do?”one of the pirates asked their leader.
Already a few of the smarter ones were edging for the door and the possibility of safety.The leader proved to be not as intelligent.
“Kill her,” he ordered.
“That’s hardly wise, don’t you think?”Jin said.Seeing their looks, he shrugged.“I mean—she just took out over twenty people without lifting a finger.”
“I thought you didn’t speak human standard,” someone at the back of the pack whispered.
“You assumed and I went along with it.”
Another pirate glanced at the bodies.“How do you know she didn’t lift a finger?”
“Look at them.Do you see any wounds?No.They were taken out by a fast-acting poison.They dropped where they stood.”
Or sat, in a couple cases.
