“Which one?”
I’m fully alert in an instant, though I dare not open my eyes too wide.
Moonlight carves silver across the floor. Cassy is lying beside me, curled on her side, her hand resting loosely against her chest like a child.
Two shadows loom at the foot of the bed.
“Does it matter?” one hisses. “Kill them both.”
Blades gleam in their hands.
I don’t think—just move, throwing myself over Cassy just as the dagger plunges down.
Pain explodes through my ribs, hot and blinding.
I scream. The sound rips the quiet apart, jolting Cassy awake. Her shriek joins mine, piercing the dark.
I roll, yank my dagger free from its sheath in my bedside table, and kick out as hard as I can. My foot connects with the nearest attacker’s chest. He grunts and stumbles back as the second attacker lunges, steel flashing.
Too fast to even think, I parry his lunge with the bloodied blade. Sparks fly, and we grapple over the daggers, close and breathless. My wound burns, and hot blood seeps down my side.
Then the door slams open, and a fierce voice cuts through the chaos. “Get off her!”
Mariel.
She charges, candlestick raised like a weapon, swinging with all her strength. The blow catches one oark across the jaw, breaking one of his tusks with a sickening crack. He reels but doesn’t fall.
Snarling, he grabs her by the hair and hurls her against the wall. Thethudof skin on stone makes my stomach lurch, and she crumples.
I twist just in time to catch a knee to the gut, sending my dagger skidding across the floor. The other oark grabs mefrom behind, his arm crushing my chest. I thrash, claw, bite—anything to get free. Finally, I sink my teeth into his ear, and he howls in pain.
“You little bitch!”
His fist crashes into my face so hard that stars burst behind my eyes.
The two oarks drag me toward the wall. One pins my arms back while the other raises his blade.
“Die already!”
This is how it ends. Not in the Trials. Not in fire. But here, helpless in the dark.
A furious roar splits the air.
The first assassin turns—too slow.
Keiren crashes through the doorway like a storm made flesh—blade, fury, and shadow, all in one. He doesn’t fight like a man; he moves like wrath incarnate. Every strike is precise, lethal.
The other creature tries to run, but Keiren catches him and snaps his neck.
In the seconds that follow, the only sound is our ragged breathing.
Keiren drops to his knees beside me, his sword clattering to the floor. “Fire—”
“I’m fine,” I rasp. “Cassy and Mariel—”
I try to stand, but my vision spins. I collapse back, and he catches me just in time. His arms are trembling. Rage? Fear? I can’t tell.
Mae bursts in, Arther close behind. Her skirts sweep across pools of blood as she rushes to Mariel, then Cassy.
