Confusion suddenly crumples his face as his eyes dart over my shoulder.
“What the fu—”
Alarm discharges in his stare, and he drops the bottle and the glasses. Crystal and glass shatter and scatter across the floor. The scent of wine wafts through the room as his shaky, fumbling hands reach for the sword sheathed at his hip. He shouts for the Moon to run, but his eyes dart between the two of us like he’s suddenly unsure which of usisthe Moon. His panicked commands dull to a muffled murmur as I cock my arm, dagger in hand, ready to silence him.
“Auset, Lutyn, no!” Neith shouts. “He won’t hurt you, Auset. I vow it, please no.”
She rushes forward either to try to stop me or intercept the blade I’ve already sent soaring through the air. At the last moment, I adjusted my aim, and the knife sinks into the fae’s wrist before he has half of his sword pulled out. He yelps in pain, and Neith tries to go to him. I step into her path, not willing to give her an opportunity to escape. Out of nowhere, a thunderous, rhythmic boom fills the air. It’s like someone is beating on the sky itself, and I fight the urge to cover my ears as the eardrum-shattering beats vibrate through me.
“Shit,” Neith snaps, and she dashes to the window, searching for something.
The cacophonous beat of a drum grows even louder, and I look around trying to figure out where the deafening sound is coming from.
“What is that?” I shout, my strong voice barely audible above the booming din.
“The perimeter has been breached. That’s the alarm. We’re under attack.”
She continues to look out the window, wincing with every frantic beat of the alarm as she tries to spot who’s attacking the village below.
I don’t need to look. I know exactly what’s happening.
The Scorpions are here.
Without warning, pain lances through my flank. Neith cries out and doubles over, and I look down, shocked to see the head of a bolt sticking out of my side. I whirl and find a guard in light gray armor struggling to reload her weapon.
Fuck. I knew someone was going to nail me with a crossbow.
I snarl and press a hand to my wound and then immediately decide against that as the embedded bolt moves, and I’m forced to swallow the cry of pain that wants to tear out of me.
“Vit, stop right this instant,” Neith growls as she presses her hand to a wound she doesn’t have.
The guard isn’t at all interested in listening to her princess, and she fits another bolt in place.
Piss on the Kings, I need more than daggers if I’m going to fight off guards.
Desperate and out of options, I grab Neith and hold her in front of me. Thankfully, she doesn’t struggle or demand to know what I’m doing, she simply gasps a shocked breath and goes with it. In other circumstances, I might respect her on some level for that, but I was just shot with an arrow, and I’m feeling too pissed to credit her for any amount of bravery.
The insubordinate guard freezes as I lift a dagger to the princess’s throat. Neith shutters as the metal makes contact with her skin, but she continues to keep silent and makes no attempt to get away or disarm me. I can’t tell if she’s trying to help me or simply biding her time.
Or perhaps she’s in as much agony as I am right now, and staying upright is all the challenge she can handle.
Warm blood trickles down my hip to my leg, but there’s nothing I can do about it until the bolt is pulled free. I shut the pain out as much as possible and concentrate on getting to wherever my Scorpions are.
“I want you to back out of the room and down the hall very slowly,” I order the guard, just now noticing that there are more armored fae clogging the corridor behind her. They look as though they’re trying to get past the bottleneck that Vit has created by stopping in the entryway, but she just stands there, oblivious to her own obstruction.
These fae can’t be serious. They really think they can take on the four realms when they can’t even execute an effective counterattack in their own fucking village?
“Move!” I bark when she only stares at me instead of retreating.
Vit and the guards behind her glare with seething hatred as they’re forced to withdraw or risk me slicing theirMoon’sthroat. I advance until Neith and I draw even with Lutyn. He’s still on the ground, cradling his hand and watching on in shock.
“Get up,” I order, motioning for him to walk ahead of me and Neith.
With a grunt and a pained wince, Lutyn pushes up from the ground. Quickly, I reach out and yank the dagger from his wrist before he can so much as flinch back to stop me.
I’m going to need every weapon I can get my hands on.
“Piss and balls!” he cries out as he stumbles away from me, shielding his arm as though he expects me to try to take the entire limb next. “I didn’t realize it was you,” Lutyn declares apologetically as he looks from Neith to me, his gaze intense. “You surprised me and I reacted, but I won’t hurt you, Auset.”
