“Jonas?”
“Fire?”
Skadi spun around to avoid another blow. The man was screaming and tormented in his head. A clear sign of Sander being nearby, corrupting memories with fear. She ended up chest to chest with me. Breaths were harsh between us, sweat and blood painted our skin. There had never been a more stunning sight.
Skadi leaned close. “Just once, give me the last word.”
An elven warrior let out a battle roar and raced for us. We stepped apart.
I kicked out a foot, catching his ankle. The man stumbled forward, sprawled out on his stomach. Before he could take another breath, Skadi dug her dagger into the back of his throat.
I gripped her arm and spun her into me, grinning. “Never.”
Our people shoved through the elven warriors. Skadi took my hand and pointed toward the king’s throne room. “Gerard and Arion were gathering there before they locked me in Arion’s chamber.”
A ruthless kind of hate took hold. Something cruel and bloodthirsty. I held her against me, my voice as a broken blade. “Did he touch you beyond the shackles?”
Skadi’s eyes flashed. “No.”
“All I heard was yes.”
A small, villainous grin played on her mouth. “I must’ve misspoken.”
“Flawless as you are, mistakes are bound to happen at times.”
Skadi raced for the door to the throne room, I followed. We weren’t the first inside. Bursts of elixirs snapped and scorched fleeing guards. Rifters twisted spines. Lynx and his calming mesmer had a pile of bodies of those he’d managed to calm into sleep. All their throats were bloodied.
Mesmer was taxing, much like Skadi’s affinity. By now, most elven and alver kept to their blades.
A hand gripped the back of my neck. Sander appeared, soaked in blood from his head to his chin. When he smiled his teeth were stained in red. “Spotted the prince using his flames to pull their guards and the king away. They’re aiming for the shore to flee.”
“No!” Skadi blanched. “They can’t go free, not again.”
I took hold of her hand. “No worries, Fire.”
“Jonas we?—”
“We’ve hit our marks, Wife.” I drew my nose along her damp cheek. “We have them exactly where we want them. Now, it’s time for you to finish this.”
Chapter 55
The Mist Thief
Outside the palace,warriors were flooding down stone staircases. From this side, it was the shortest distance to the sea. Arion had used his flames to transport guards and Gerard to the shore.
Raum approached Jonas’s shoulder. “The cowardly prince is by those ships. They're readying to flee.”
Panic was tight in my belly. I couldn’t fight this battle again. Arion brought the fighting to the fae once, abandoned me to clean up the aftermath, and now he and his wretched father would flee again. Hiding away in Grynstad until they recovered and fell upon us again.
But panic halted for a moment when Jonas muttered in a dark voice, “Send the signal.”
Raum shoved two fingers into his mouth and whistled, not a simple tune, it rose in pitch, then deepened, a deliberate melody.
Blasts of fiery light burst into the night sky. The boom rattled the ground, it rippled over the tides.
I did not have the ferocious eyesight of a Profetik alver like Raum, but I could see the pause of the retreating prince.
Jonas took my hand and hurried us down the path, but kept glancing out to the sea every few paces.
