Her eyes began to glow, like white paper lanterns cast into a night sky, and a second set of canine teeth appeared in her grin, sharp and long. He didn’t know what she was, but Kaid knew she was not human. He used the only thing he knew—brute force. He walked up to the woman and punched her directly in the face, causing her to fall backward into the tree she had been pinned against.
Instantly, Gyrial and Asta shook from whatever spell they had been under. The major once again pinned the woman to the tree and an animalistic growl escaped his throat. Why hadn’t Kaid fallen victim to the woman’s song as his company had? No matter the answer, he was grateful for it.
“Oh, Bright Eyes, I’m delighted you’re here. If you changed your mind about wanting company, you only needed to ask,” the woman mused. Kaid noticed a drop of blood leaking from her nose, likely from his punch. Her tongue darted up and licked it away, then a wicked laugh erupted from her. “You’re all in over your heads.”
“I’ve had enough. What are you? A witch?” Asta rushed over and grabbed Kaid’s dagger from his hand before returning to the woman, lifting the blade, and plunging it directly into the woman’s shoulder before removing it swiftly, blood smattering the ground.
Kaid flinched. He knew Asta was ruthless with her words, but he had no idea she was so merciless with her blades as well. Though, he did feel a bit ridiculous that he hadn’t been the one to impale the courtesan with the steel. He had completely forgotten that it was in his hand when he punched her.
The light flickered out of the woman’s eyes and she shrieked. “I’ll tell you! I’ll tell you if you spare me!” She pleaded.
Asta looked between Gyrial and Kaid before nodding her head. Kaid flanked her side, just in case the woman decided to use her enchanting song once more, since he apparently was unaffected by her spell for reasons Kaid would rather not question until they were safe.
Again, Gyrial moved with an unnatural speed and switched out his forearm against the woman’s throat for the dagger that had been in Asta’s grip seconds ago.
“Speak,” Asta demanded in a voice colder than the gale coming off the ocean.
“You won’t be getting your missing villagers back. They will keep disappearing and you cannot stop it. We will keep taking more until there are none left, and then we’ll move on to the next village. And the next, then the next, then the next, until we’ve wiped out Salendron. And then we’ll move on to the next country.” The woman looked into Kaid’s eyes as she cried, “Hail Yrsa!”
She lunged forward with the same speed Kaid had seen Gyrial move with, and pinned the major to the ground. She crawled on top of him and pinned his wrists above his head, hissing in his face to reveal her elongated canines. Gyrial hissed back and curled a knee between them, using the force of his leg to throw her into the air.
Asta charged at them but Kaid caught her shoulder and pulled her back, moving her behind him. She fought against him, trying to get around his large body in order to get to her friend, but Kaid held her in place. He couldn’t even think about what might happen to Asta if she got involved in this fight if this woman was giving a formally trained warrior like Gyrial a hard time.
“Gyrial!” She bellowed, the desperation in her voice breaking Kaid’s heart in more ways than one.
Gyrial and the woman moved in a blur of limbs, but Kaid knew the soldier still held the dagger because he could see the flash of silver glinting in the moonlight.
The movement stopped and Kaid’s heart skipped a beat when his vision focused to see Gyrial pinned against a tree, the dagger now in the woman’s hand and held to his throat.
The courtesan sneered. “Say goodbye to your friends, creature. You should have stayed in the mountains where you belong.”
It was like time had slowed in Kaid’s mind. He watched the woman’s muscles in her arm tighten as she prepared to slide the blade across Gyrial’s throat. At the same moment, Gyrial’s palms pushed into the courtesan’s chest, sending her stumbling backward. Then, a flash of golden hair raced past Kaid, and Asta placed a hand on each side of the woman’s face and twisted. The woman fell to the ground, her neck mangled, causing her head to lay at an unnatural angle.
“Shit,” Kaid muttered.
Asta stepped away, continuing her steps until she backed directly into Kaid. She was shaking uncontrollably and he wrapped his arms around her as she shouted in anger. In agony. In defeat. They had rid the world of this demon, but they now knew there were many more to come.
Gyrial stalked over to Asta and cupped her face in his hands. “You’re okay.” He pressed his forehead to hers and Kaid could see the line of dried blood on his throat from where the dagger had rested a moment before. “You’re okay, Asta. Everyone is okay.”
Asta pulled out of Kaid’s embrace and approached the woman’s body before gesturing an arm toward it. “She’snot okay. Ikilledher!”
“And if you hadn’t, she would have killedme,” Gyrial countered. “You saved me, Asta. You saved whoever else she was going to kill.”
Asta cracked her knuckles multiple times, then grabbed the woman’s foot and began pulling her across the forest floor.
Though he was frozen in shock, Kaid understood what she was doing. They needed to get rid of the body. Quickly. They had made a lot of noise out here and someone could have heard them.
Gyrial ran to Asta and put a hand on her shoulder, stopping her motion. “I’ll take care of it, Asta. Go home with Kaid.”
Her eyes shifted to Kaid as she wiped a trail of tears from her cheek. She sucked in a deep breath and dropped the creature’s foot before pressing her palms to her eyes.
Kaid stood beside her and placed a hand on each shoulder. “Let’s get you back. We can get Linnea and you two can have a sleepover. Okay?”
Asta nodded and leaned into Kaid’s chest. “Okay.”
He steered her away, bringing her back down the path without another word to Gyrial, who surely wanted to make quick work of the body disposal. By the time they got to their horses in the village, Asta was once again walking with her confident swagger.
“You had to, Asta. There was no other choice.” Kaid mounted his horse and she mounted hers.
