Chapter 10

Taking Lady Kharmiya’s hand in mine, I tried not to let my anger or resentment show. I didn’t want to give anything away, and I Kharmiya didn’t deserve my rage. She’d done what she could to keep me safe from her father’s schemes—for her own reasons, true, but she helped when no one else did.

I owed her for that, at least.

The duke’s Keepers of Ancestral Memory, true to their nature, fussed about setting up a mobile altar. Their dedication to precision and detail made them valuable, but sometimes it made them infuriating, too. I took some pleasure in watching Duke Vazand vibrating with impatience.

“I think he’d prefer your version of the ceremony,” I whispered, taking advantage of the distraction to exchange a few words with my bride-to-be.

“Indeed, but he’s stuck with this. Your Keeper, Rennic, has been agitating for as long and involved a ceremony as possible.”

I smiled, pleased that Rennic was making life difficult for my captors despite his vows of neutrality. He was safe. No one would harm a Keeper for fear of reprisal from the entire kingdom, and he could have sat back and let things happen. Instead, he bought me time.

“My father will not let your human friends free, you know,” she added, even quieter. “They will be hostages for your good behavior for the rest of their lives.”

My jaw tightened, my fingers flexed, and my gaze snapped across the roof to watch Eden speaking with her family. It took an effort to pull my attention away from her, but I didn’t want to give anyone else a reason to look in her direction.

“I know,” I said, answering her question once the storm of my rage had subsided. “But the alternative was worse.”

She nodded, indicating her companion and the guard looming over her. “It’s the same for me and Ellarax. If I go along with my father’s scheme, she lives—but once I give in, he will always be able to hold her safety over my head. Sometimes, there’s no good option. You just have to embrace a bad plan and commit.”

I looked at her, trying to read her intentions, but she was too good at locking down her feelings. No wonder, given the court she’d grown up in. I decided to take a chance.

“I have a terrible plan, and no time to explain,” I said. “Back me, and I will back you.”

She frowned, about to ask a question, but I’d timed my statement perfectly. Across the landing pad, Eden tore off her dress and flung the impractical garment aside.

For a moment, confusion reigned. All eyes turned to her, but no one knew how to react. Not because of her beauty, though her skin-tight undergarment showed her body off to perfection. Instead, it was because of all the weapons.

We’d tied them on a harness, covered by the oversized dress, and counting on the duke’s dismissal of humans to complete the disguise. It had worked. Stunners and swords and the smallest of my hunting rifles, there for her family to wield. They leaped at the chance to arm themselves while their guards stared in amazement.

I was expecting this, so I was the first to react. The officer leading the duke’s guards saw me coming, but was too slow to respond, and I grabbed him by his armor. My claws wouldn’t penetrate the ceramsteel plate, but I’d caught him flat-footed, lifting him off his feet before he knew what had happened. He went for his pistol, and I threw him as hard as I could, sending him tumbling off the landing pad into the courtyard far below. While he was still in the air, I turned my attention to the duke and charged.

The officer’s scream snapped the other guards out of their paralysis, but no one seemed to know how to respond. Shoot me? The whole point of their master’s plan was to keep me alive and captive. Shoot Eden? The problem with killing a hostage is that you lose your leverage—kill her and there was nothing to stop me slaughtering them.

And their captain, the one who should make these decisions, was falling to his death.

The sharp crackle of stunners let me know the humans were joining the fight, and guards started dropping. I’d made it halfway to the duke, and the look of shock and fear on his face made this plan worth it, even if I died in it. Not if Eden died, though, so I put on a burst of speed as his bodyguards’ pulse-rifles came to bear.

Caught one by the barrel and twisted it aside. Ducked past the other, though the near-miss scored my side with a sudden burning agony. Then my shoulder hit the first guard, sending him flying and leaving his rifle in my hands. Swinging it like a club, I smashed it into the second’s head. Bone crunched and he dropped. I looked up for my target, but the duke was gone.

I cast aside the rifle—loyalty circuits made it useless to me anyway—and searched for the duke. Screaming chaos surrounded me on all sides. Servants, courtiers, and noble guests panicked and ran in all directions. That worked in our favor: they blocked the guards’ shots, but the humans blasted away with their stunners, not caring if they knocked out the wrong Drachali.

Kharmiya stood between me and a guard squad, shouting at them as they tried to take aim at me. What she said got lost in the confusion, but between that and her putting her body in the line of fire, they held off shooting. Other guards pushed and shoved their way through the crowd toward me. Too many of them. Once the surprise wore off, they’d overwhelm my strange band of allies.

Between the courtiers fleeing into the castle and the stunners knocking them out, the crowd was thinned fast. Taking a chance, I leaped up onto the altar, scattering icons of the Ancestors and hearing outraged gasps from the Keepers cowering behind it. I had to end this fast.

“Where are you, Strahar?” I roared at the top of my voice. “You run from the fight you picked, coward. You challenged your king! Now stand and fight me.”

From my new position, I had a better grasp on the battle. The humans were a tight knot, Eden’s brothers blasting away with the stunners while their parents hefted dueling blades, menacing anyone who got too close and stabbing those who didn’t take the hint. But my mate was no longer with them.

I spotted her beside Ellarax, stunner in hand and a downed guard at her feet. The Drachali had armed herself with the fallen guard’s pulse-rifle, holding it like a club. The two of them were fighting their way to the relative safety of Eden’s family. Kharmiya still harangued the squad of guards, and they were listening rather than fighting. The other guards looked unsure of themselves, and none of them had taken a shot at me yet. A mad thought struck me: we might yet win the battle, duke or no duke.

“Stop!” As though summoned by my thought, Duke Vazand’s shout cut through the fighting. He rose from the pile of unconscious bodies he’d hidden under, leveling a pulse-rifle at Eden’s back. “Stop, or the human dies.”