Page 13

“I have to go,” she said.

I wanted to help her, at least see her to her front door. Which was ridiculous. Why did her safety tug at my conscience? I mean, I knew why—a heroic part lingered somewhere in my darkest pits. To protect the innocent from the pointy-teethed enemy.

Pfft. Screw the caring. Under different circumstances, she’d blow the whistle on me.

“She’s so afraid of you.” Aidan’s voice crawled across the back of my neck.

I spun, stakeblade back in my hand. “What are you doing up?”

He chuckled, the woman gasping.

“I can’t say I blame her.” He spoke in a clear voice, his stab wounds healed.

Uh-oh.

Aidan licked blood from his lips. “Vicious, aren’t you?”

“Thought you already knew that.”

“Quite.” He rushed me, twisting me into his arms, then slammed my spine against his thigh.

I choked on a wail, every vertebra popping with a loud crack.

To my shock, the woman didn’t make a sound, considering some fucker broke an elf’s back over his thigh.

Every sensation left my body. No pain, no awareness, my head drooping.

“Cool off, Paris,” Aidan drawled and threw me off the bridge.

I plunged into the cold darkness of the Albion River, my lungs filling with water as the current whipped me about like a helpless ragdoll.

How fucking awesome for me.

Chapter Four

Silvanus

Itore into the air, a spray of glinting ice shards flung outward.

Power coursed through me, my body shining with lunar light as I flew directly at the closest frostbrood.

It opened its jaw, blue light blazing in the back of its throat, about to unleash its deadly beam of ice at me.

I laughed, high on the storm raging within me, I went full speed into its middle half. Drove my fist into its icy scales.

Boom!

The impact immediately stopped the creature in its tracks. It tremored as lines cut through its body like hungry, burrowing worms.

I punched it with the other fist.

The cracks widened, the frostbrood releasing a guttural roar as chunks fell from it, splashing into the water.

I flew up to meet its golden gaze for a few seconds. Just to look it in the eye, hoping Aidan would catch sight of me bathed in divine moonlight, understanding that this was only the beginning of his end.

It stared right back, glints of panic in the fading gold.

I didn’t wait to see it collapse but reveled in the incredible crash of its death as I launched an attack on the others.