She knew he was holding back. He didn’t want her dead yet—he still thought she held the secret to controlling the dragons. It was her only advantage in the fight between sword and dagger.
She could end this now. She could finally save someone—truly save them.
“Sofia!”Chalia called, just as Sofia lunged at Harlow.
She stumbled, his blade coming down against her arm, slicing into her flesh. She felt Chalia’s stress at her pain, but the dragon responded with an image of her and Eha fighting off two king’s men, the chain still dragging Eha’s neck down with every snap of her jaws.
Sofia wanted to scream.
“I’m coming,”she said, keeping her focus on the chief commander. One stumbling step and he’d cut her down.
“You look tired, old man,” she said, sneering. “I could have sworn you’d been intimidating, but maybe that was because I was a child.”
“And you’ve only ever been a rat.”
Sofia pulled her blade back to throw it, even as Harlow bent toward the Dragonborn woman who was huddled on the ground. Her hands covered her head as if she might disappear. The dagger flew from Sofia’shands a moment before she realized what the chief commander was doing. The blade would be faster. Ithadto be faster. But even as she thought it, he pulled the woman up, placing her body between him and Sofia. The dagger plunged into the Dragonborn woman’s neck as blood splattered across Harlow’s snarling face.
Sofia gave a strangled scream as the woman dropped to the floor. Unmoving. She’d likely never know the name of the woman she’d just killed.
“You broke my tool,” Harlow said, glancing in irritation at the body.
Sofia, weaponless, felt a primal scream of rage claw up her throat. And she released it. She lunged forward, as if she might strangle him with her bare hands, but a sharp claw sank into her shoulder and wrenched her back.
“We need to go!”Chalia’s voice shattered through Sofia’s rage and grief.
Sofia turned and saw Eha still chained. Blood was gushing from her claw where she’d been gnawing at her own ankle, trying to free herself.
“The chains are iron,”she said.“I can’t break them. Go! Find Pale One and save the flock.”
Sofia turned to look back at the cavern, seeking out the chief commander. He had her dagger in his hand and was shouting commands as dozens of king’s men sprinted down the stairs. A glint of silver caught her eyes, and she saw netting held aloft between a few of the men—iron netting.
“Let’s go!”she said, hating herself as she said the words. She’d failed at checking on the civilians in the city, failed to kill Harlow, and failed to free Eha.
Failed, failed, failed.
“Save our nestlings,”Eha said, even as Sofia thought the words.“Go!”
And she did. Jumping on Chalia’s back faster than she thought herself capable of as she shook and wheezed.
Chalia surged out of the dark tunnel and into the gray dawn.
Sofia could hear the echoing shouts of the chief commander as Eha let out a bloodcurdling roar, but the cavern had disappeared behind them.
She looked up to see archers along the cliff.
“Shit!” she screamed as a volley of arrows arched into the sky and fell toward them.
Chalia veered to the left, narrowly dodging the torrent, only for another wave to follow.
“Do you trust me?”Chalia asked in Sofia’s mind.
“With my life,”Sofia said without thinking.
Chalia dove, and the last thought Sofia had as the icy water of the ocean engulfed her was that she hoped Lumi and Flor had made it into the slums safely.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
FOX
