He immediately dives steeply, sharply, a blur of speed, heading straight for the Frost Fae.
As the wind rushes past me, I move fast, snatching my axe from my back, waiting another heartbeat, and then…
I leap into the air, crashing down toward Lilis, a perfect trajectory to cleave her head clean off.
She jolts as I fly toward her.
Above us, my bird continues on its path, its talons raking across the two men standing behind Lilis. If their reflexes weren’t so quick, they, too, would have lost their heads.
I should be single-minded. Should be focused on Lilis’s exposed neck. Particularly because her power has already gathered around her hands, and she’s a heartbeat away from releasing it.
But…
Fuck me…
The lowborn woman catches my eye, her face raised to mine.
In that instant, I take in her pale cheeks. Her hands raised in self-defense, the calluses on her palms in full view. Her dull hair, lank with seawater. Her faded-blue eyes, slight frame, and average height.
She’s nothing like the Oracle I seek.
Her features are unremarkable. She’s a mere lowborn. No glow. No seduction. And yet…
She’sfurious.
Her rage nearly stops my poisoned heart.
The anger in her eyes is so fucking justified, it’s breathtakingly beautiful.
I haven’t seen anger like that in a long time.
Not since I looked in the mirror on the night my father was killed.
Now, in a single heartbeat, this woman’s fury beats me down like punches.
How dare we hurt her people?
Have we no conscience?
Where are our hearts?
There’s no time to tell her: Our hearts are corrupted. We lost our honor long ago. Do not believe, even for a second, that we are capable of anything but cruelty, because we are not.
Then I’m past her, released from her gaze and the accusations in her eyes.
My blade sweeps the air, its iron edge grazing Lilis’s throat as she attempts to leap back from me.
Her scream fills with pain.
Blood blossoms at her throat, along with the scent of burning flesh, but her desperate lurch and my momentary distraction saved her from death.
I control the swing, landing lightly and darting to the left, evading the blast of ice Lilis releases at me. It’s clearly more of a reflexive action on her part because her power flies wide, ice splattering the side of the path.
Her scream turns to rage—a garbled command roared at her men. It sounds like she wants them to kill me.
As if they could.
My blade cleaves the air in a whirlwind of iron, cutting through their silver armor, whipping across their chests and arms, even their thighs, as I duck and dart between them until the nauseating scent of burning fae flesh fills the air, and both men drop to their knees, their icy power splashing harmlessly across the ground.
