“Not a chance,” Daegan says in a cold, deadly reply.
“If she’s the princess then we have no choice but to take you all in as prisoners. Everyone has been told the princess has recently escaped and is on the run. General Greenwood will want her taken back alive.”
I step forward, my knife now in my hand. “We will never be your fucking prisoners again,” I spit out through clenched teeth. “You can go now and tell that to your general.”
“We’re not leaving here without you, sweetheart.”
“Your choice. But it’s five against three. Do you really think you stand a chance?”
“I think you mean four, not five. That one just sold you out.”
I smile. “I wasn’t talking about her.”
With the dramatic flair I was really hoping for, Kezra enters my line of sight followed closely by her signature golden trail, and all heads turn her way. They look impressed and awed by her presence but not scared. That’s okay. Their mistake.
The leader of the three seems to be done with talking. He swings his sword at Daegan, who counters it easily. The rest of us jump in.
I charge at one of them with my dagger, yelling and sending a wave of water at him. It knocks him onto his back, and I waste no time pouncing on him.
I still haven’t trained much at all in hand-to-hand combat, or with my dagger, but I’m filled with so much rage at the thought of them thinking they can take me prisoner again, at the thought of Adrian taking me prisoner again or taking Daegan again, that I see stars as I hold the knife to his throat. Maybe it’s careless because he still has a grip on his sword, but I’m almost positive they probably have orders to bring me back alive, so I act with reckless abandon.
He knocks me off him with ease then flips me over and straddles me, smirking.
“Nice try, princess.”
His grin will forever be plastered in my memory, as that’s the last thing I see before his head gets severed from his body.
Some of the blood hits my face, and I don’t have it in me to scream. I push his body off me and jump up, looking the other way in a panic.
Daegan is there, steadying me with a firm hold on my arm.
“I’m sorry,” he says with a surprising gentleness not fitting the carnage happening around us. “But I’m not fucking letting them take you again.”
I look at him, at his intense and unwavering gaze. It calms me, and the bile that I was trying to fight down begins to dissipate. I can do this.
“Thank you,” I tell him, breathless.
We both look away, realizing there are still two guards to handle. The moment is over.
Rhydra has her legs tied up with vines, but she’s still fighting strong, chopping at everything that’s being thrown at her by another one of the soldiers.
He’s weak. I lift my hands, preparing to send a barrage of sharp icicles his way, but then I hesitate. I haven’t practiced a lot lately, and I don’t want to miss. She’s too close. Fortunately, Daegan is already on his way. He jams his sword into the soldier’s side with little effort, then pulls it out and stabs again, and again.
I run to Rhydra and help her cut the vines around her ankles.
“I had him,” she grumbles at Daegan, who has just rammed his sword into the soldier once again. Just to be sure, I guess.
“Sure,” he tells her with a wink.
She makes an angry grumbling sound.
Raef approaches, breathing lightly as if he went for a leisurely stroll, the last guard bloody on the ground behind him. “Idiots,” he says.
“Kezra, where were you?” I ask.
She appears again, seemingly out of nowhere. “That was hardly a fight. I’ve seen a toad have a tougher time against a hazefly.”
“Right. So you were moral support. I’m starting to think you made up that whole bond thing. I don’t feel any different.”
