Let’s pray it doesn’t come to that.
Rowan’s fingers looped in mine and he shoved something into my hand, wrapping my fingers around it. It felt like a twig. “Keep hold of that,” he whispered. “Don’t let it go, no matter what happens. Don’t let him see it.”
I nodded, keeping my eyes locked on my stalker as he took a step toward me, his sinister grin growing wider.
I caught another flash of black in the grass. My heart hammered against my chest. Was that another guy? Did my stalker have a friend?
But no. Arthur strode toward us, his face set in a determined scowl. Corbin and Flynn were right behind him. The three assailants advanced toward Rowan and I, their hands raised, seemingly unperturbed by the other guys approaching them from behind.
Arthur crept forward, his eyes narrowed in concentration. He raised an arm behind his head. The moonlight glinted off a narrow blade.
Shit.
As soon as I saw that blade, my whole body stiffened. None of our assailants had pulled out any weapons. They hadn’t actually touched us at all.
Arthur can’t really hurt that guy. He hasn’t done anything?—
I screamed as Arthur lunged. I braced myself for the blade piercing the man’s flesh, for blood and horror. But the guy whipped around and ducked the blow, moving impossibly fast – a black smudge against the inky night. Arthur swung his arm back, aiming for the guy’s head and yelling something in a language I didn’t recognize.
The man’s hand clamped down on Arthur’s wrist, stopping Arthur’s blow an inch from his face as if it were nothing.
What the hell? Arthur wasstrong. The stalker shouldn’t have been able to stop that blow.
Arthur’s face twisted in pain as the guy yanked his arm around, throwing him off balance and tossing the knife into the grass.
“Arthur!” I yelled, stepping forward to help him. Rowan’s hand clamped around my wrist, pulling me back.
“Stay with me,” he said. “You can’t fight them.”
“Can you take the heat, fire-wielder?” The man rasped, wrapping his arms around Arthur so that his forearm pressed against Arthur’s throat. Arthur’s face contorted, and he let out a strangled bellow. He grabbed the guy’s arm and for a moment, a bright orange light flared, as though someone had struck a match, but then it was gone and Arthur’s body went limp, his eyes rolling back in his head.
No. I’m not watching a guy die in front of me.
I’m done with death.
I jerked my arm from Rowan’s and rushed forward. “Let go of him!”
“Maeve, no!” Rowan tried to grab for my hand again, but I shrugged him away. I reached the guy holding Arthur just as Corbin leapt on his back.
I flung myself at them, intending to help Corbin pry the stalker’s arm from Arthur’s neck. My fingers grazed the guy’s skin and a sickening tingle shot up my arm, like a jolt of medicine that made me want to retch.
What the?—
Someone’s hands wrapped around my waist and lifted me away.
“He’s not worthy of you, Princess,” the stalker hissed in my ear, his breath hot and ugly on my skin.
“Put me down!” I kicked hard. The balls of my ankles smashed against the stalker’s shins, but he gave no sign that he even felt it.
“She’s a feisty one,” he sneered, tossing me to the ground.
I threw out my hands, but my chest hit the earth first, driving the wind out of me.
I gasped for air, my legs curling up against my stomach.
Rowan’s face appeared in front of me, his eyes wide with worry. “Maeve, are you?—”
But he didn’t get to finish his sentence. My stalker moved in a blur, faster than my eye could follow. He flung out an arm, catching Rowan across the chest. Rowan sailed through the air and landed with a thud in the grass some thirty feet away.
