Chapter 24

Quill's sweet, shaking voice filled the room as time stopped. I wasn't here for Death. I would not kill these guards. But the way all three took a collective step toward me raised the hair on my body. I wasn't sure I would have a choice by the end of this fight.

I gripped the perfectly shaped handle of Thea's whip, letting the metal teeth glimmer in the lamplight as I snapped it once, inviting anyone who wanted to try me to step forward.

They moved at once, and I launched into action, serenaded by the voice of an innocent as I ripped into Icharius Fern's guards. Strategically, I aimed for weak spots in the armor, loosening the buckles and unfastening the straps, shifting left and right as they lunged and missed, none of them properly trained. One grabbed me around the waist and hauled me sideways. I used the momentum to bring a leg out and kick the helmet from another before planting a knife into the armpit of the man holding me.

He yelped, and I fell to the floor in a crouch. Whipping the chain across another's armor, sparks flew in a warning.

"You get to decide for yourself today. You live or die by your next moves. That little girl and I are leaving this room. Are you?"

Each guard paused, the static in the air thickening. The one with a gash in his pit darted for the door. Two remained. They surged as one, both blades flying for me. I leaped from the ground, soaring over the one with no helmet and coiling the whip around his neck as I came down. The blood spatter was silent, even as I loosened the whip with a flick of my wrist just in time to keep his head on his shoulders. He fell to his knees regardless, grasping at his wound as he crawled on the door.

The final guard was a beast. His sword nicked my arm, and he'd plowed a shoulder into my stomach, and had I not dodged, in the next drive, he'd have been on top of me. But Paesha's desperate scream from the hallway and the way Quill's back went rigid was enough to make the decision I'd been trying to avoid. We needed to get out of the castle, or we were never going back.

"Forgive me," I whispered to the guard, causing him to still.

He knew. And I knew.

And it was over in the next move. Three throwing knives. Three beautifully crafted weapons of art had found their home with less effort than it took to keep him alive. Quill's final note of her beautiful song ended the second I snatched her from the corner and ran like hell.

I couldn't save Paesha while carrying Quill. It was far too dangerous. Every second that passed, the worse it would become for the Huntress at the end of the hall. An overwhelming sense of dread flooded me as I contemplated my own escape. My own free will.

"Keep your eyes closed, do you hear me? Cover your ears and don't look," I told Quill, setting her down behind a pillar. "I promise I will come back for you."

"Okay," she whispered, her face full of terror.

Paesha was putting up a valiant fight, but there was only a slim chance we were walking out of this castle. I cracked the whip, drawing attention to distract the two guards, giving her a window to back away and join my side.

"I know you hate me, but if we don't do this together, we won't do it at all."

She slid a hand over a brow. "Agreed."

The men rushed forward. She held her blade steady, bending slightly in the knees.

"I don't want to kill them."

She scoffed.

I whipped the chain forward. It coiled around their feet before I ripped it backward. "I'm serious, Huntress. I won't kill them if I don't have to. I'll take them down; you take them out."

"And when that stops working?" she asked with a grunt, as another guard rounded the corner.

"Don't speak as if you're already defeated."

A man surged forward, reaching for her. I slung a dagger across his hand. When he drew back, Paesha struck, sinking the tip of her sword into his stomach. Had it been my blade, he would have died. But since it was her, he'd survive it, and I envied her for it.

Another two guards appeared, and I whispered so only she could hear me. "Don't let them pass. Stay on my left. The second there's a break, we run." I turned to stare viciously into those cold, mismatched eyes. "There's a painting around the corner. It's a woman holding a red vase. If this goes to shit, grab Quill and take the passage behind it. The hinges are on the right side, and they squeak when you open it."

Her breath caught as she realized what I was saying. I would be the one to stay behind.

"That's not an option, Maiden."

I lowered my chin as the guard she'd been fighting closed in. "No one gives a shit if I'm captured. Quill needs you to get her out of here. She's just a kid."

"Together, then."

Paesha was a whirlwind of steel, her sword silently slicing through the air with beautiful precision. She'd trained, and it showed. I couldn't help but notice some of her movements reminded me of Orin's. We fought, battling in sync, stacking, letting the bodies of her victims fall into a pile. But the guards kept coming, and we were tiring.

They charged in waves, and while Paesha moved like a dancer, I moved like a killer, taking them down one by one. She was quick and precise. But she was not trained like I was. Our only advantage was how little experience these men had with true fighters. War had only been a promise for so long now, so most knew nothing of its brutality.

After what felt like an eternity of battling, of taxed muscles and aching shoulders, we managed to thin their ranks, though the bodies had piled up. A very distant part of me could feel the coil of Death's power thrumming in my veins. Urging me to take the immortality of the maimed. As if I'd lusted for the blood of the fallen. And maybe I had, especially when I'd killed that single guard. But the post-power fatigue hadn't come to me and, as far as I knew, neither had Death. Though maybe he lurked, waiting for more to die.

The Huntress drove her sword into the throat of the last guard to come for us. Minimally, he would never speak again. Likely, he'd struggle with every breath for the rest of his hundred years.

"Go!" I shouted, spinning on a heel to grab Quill from where she stood, eyes shut, ears covered, sobs wracking her body.

I led the way, leaping over the thrashing and moaning men, who were too ignorant to have saved themselves. The hallway was stained with so much blood, nearly as much as she and I had been, but we'd almost made it to our escape route.

"Wait," Paesha hissed, jamming an arm out to stop me from leaving the hall. She pointed to her sword before gesturing for us to press our backs against the wall.

I held a firm hand over Quill's mouth to hide the sobs as Paesha's battle cry pierced the air and she lunged, jamming her weapon out just in time to cut the guard down. But she'd missed, the blade bouncing off his silver armor.

With only the top of his face hiding behind a steel mask, the beast of a man looked down at her with a terrible grin before snatching her around the throat and lifting her from the ground. Her legs swung wildly, and despite my hand, Quill released a gut-wrenching scream that filled me with so much fear I could hardly concentrate.

Gods. I'd have to kill two men today.

I didn't have time to process what kind of monster that made me. Setting the child down for the second time, I ran forward, throwing all my weight into a kick at the back of his legs. He fell hard to his knees but hadn't released the Huntress. I went in with my dagger. Paesha scraped at his clutched hand with her fingers. He swung his massive arms, unable to get to a standing position, thank the old gods.

In the heat of the moment, the bloodied hall became a blur. She lunged forward. I threw a dagger, the man stilled, and Paesha froze. Seconds later, he was on the ground, unmoving.

"Come on, we have to go!" Her tense voice forced the world back into motion.

The dark passageway was not empty. We'd tucked against walls and held our breaths, keeping Quill as quiet as possible but allowing her to run on her own. She hadn't balked at the spiderwebs, nor squealed at the mice. She was as determined as we were.

It hadn't occurred to me to ask if she could swim until we'd jumped into the disgusting water.

"Hold your breath, Quilly," Paesha said, treading the murky filth, her voice quiet. "Just like Orin taught you last summer, okay?"

I scanned her eyes for a reason behind the tremble in her words but saw nothing there. It wasn't until we were peeking out of the water on the other side, staring up at the parapet, that I saw her wince. She'd be fine, of course, but she could slow down our escape. And we couldn't afford to draw anyone toward the Syndicate house. Not if we were going to hide Quill. It seemed few knew where she stayed.

Cradling her side as we pulled ourselves out of the moat, Paesha slowed before reaching Hollis and Althea in the carriage.

"Show me," I demanded, the second we were racing through the city streets.

"Mind your business, Maiden," she answered with an eye roll.

Thea hugged Quill. "What happened?"

"She's hurt," I answered, never taking my gaze from the Huntress.

She pulled a trembling hand from her side, revealing a deep gash in her abdomen, dark red blood seeping out. "It's just a scratch."

"Careful, you sound as ridiculous as Orin."

I pulled my blade and ripped a long strip into a blanket I'd found under the bench seat. Though she cursed her the entire time, she let Thea tie the wound.

Hollis steered the cart around the two cities while Paesha sat with her hand pressed into her stomach quietly. We had to make sure we weren't followed, though the minutes ticked by achingly slow. Each foot, each block its own victory and torment.

Several passes of wary soldiers marched through the Silbath streets just off the Silk Road. When Hollis jerked to a stop, I wrapped my hand around the only weapon I had left and said a silent prayer as Althea forced Quill under the bench seat and used her soot-stained apron to cover the child.

"If he looks in here," I whispered, grabbing Thea's hand, "do not try to use magic."

Paesha's faint voice was hardly a sound at all. "They will know, Maiden."

And she was right. Two dead guards had sealed my fate. If Icharius Fern wasn't already furious with me, I'd just slighted him for a second time and left the bodies to prove it.

Hollis's nervous laughter from the front seat, where he likely gripped the reins like his life depended on it, filled the night air with palpable tension. But no guard came. We lurched forward, and the sound of the horses' hooves clacking down the cobblestone streets carried us all the way north with no more delays.

Paesha could barely stand by the time we made it to the front door. Still, Elowen rushed forward, falling to her knees in front of Quill and hugging her before she ever laid eyes on the Huntress. But once she did, she sank further. Defeated. "If the members of this house do not stop getting shredded to pieces, we're going to have to build a hospital next."

If the dark circles below her eyes could be used as measurement, she hadn't slept, and the sleeping tonic I'd given her was likely its own form of torture to her mind at this point. But she was direct, calling orders and forcing Paesha onto the couch.

"What happened?" The gravel of Orin's sleepy voice melted down my spine as he came from behind me.

"We had to get the kid," Paesha said, forcing a smile.

"Get her from whom?" he asked with a grimace, immediately taking Quill's hand.

"The new king," the child said quietly. "But Paesha and the Maiden saved me."

"She's family, right?" Paesha said, weakly.

He pushed past me as if I weren't there at all, kneeling beside the Huntress as he took her hand. "She's family." He kissed her fingers, and the golden band around my wrist throbbed. I couldn't watch him love her while he was married to me, but I also couldn't look away. Had I missed a deeper connection between them?

"Looks like you lost the fight, P," he said, moving his fingers over her fresh stitches.

"Elowen says the blade cut something internally. She's supposed to dance tomorrow night," Thea said, bringing a cup of something warm to Paesha.

Orin swiped Paesha's sweaty brown hair from her forehead. "Did you go on the boss's orders?"

She shook her head.

He sighed. "At least it was only a soldier's blade. Drexel can find a new dancer for a week. You'll be better before you know it."

Her eyes flashed to me and back to him. I could see the way she fought with her words, though it took me a bit to put it all together.

My chest tightened, forcing the gasp. "It wasn't a guard's blade. It was mine."