Page 153 of Secrets of Graves and Gold

I double-check the shadows to confirm my sense of where the second guard is standing. Then I retrieve my second knife from its sheath, brace myself, and lunge.

As I spring forward, I’m already flinging my first knife. It plunges into the first guard’s throat.

He gurgles and staggers, blood spilling across the floor while I whirl around the door.

The second man standing guard is just starting to step forward when I toss the other knife to my dominant hand and stab it home into his chest. It must puncture his heart, because before he’s even sagged to his knees, his form hardens to clay.

I clutch the hilt to wrench the blade free—and a body rams into me from the side.

No! Julita cries out.

An elbow digs into my ribs, and a fist clocks me in the jaw. I reel around with a swipe of my retrieved knife, driven by years of honed fighting instinct.

It should have been enough, even with the element of surprise my attacker had. But as Borys slashes at me with his own dagger, my magic roars up inside me, bellowing to tear him apart.

My mind spins, and Borys’s image distorts into two, three men in front of me. I swing out half-blindly, shaking my head trying to clear it, wrenching back the power that’s addled my awareness.

Borys’s blade rakes against my side like a vicious burn. His arm smacks my hand hard enough to break my grip on my knife.

As the blade falls, he rams his knee into my gut and heaves me backward.

I lurch over the threshold and slam into the banister overlooking the stairs with a burst of pain through my scars. The wood creaks against my back.

Borys hurls himself after me, lashing out with his dagger with obvious experience but middling skill. He’d stab it right through my temple if I didn’t yank my leg up in time to kick him hard in the chest.

With a grunt, Julita’s brother stumbles back to the doorway. He pauses there for a second, his dark eyes glinting, brandishing his blood-streaked blade.

It’s not just his accomplice’s blood on that dagger now. Mine is seeping into my dress where he carved open my side.

I don’t think he gouged deep enough to puncture any organs, but the throbbing ache sears through my torso.

Both of my weapons are in the room behind him. And I don’t think I’ve managed to do more than bruise my opponent.

He’s got the upper hand, as he can no doubt see too.

Julita’s rambling takes on a panicked quaver. Oh, fuck. Ivy, you have to get through this. You’re better than him. You can find a way.

Her brother lets out a dry chuckle. “It’s Julita’s friend again. She did pick a persistent one. And just like her, you don’t appreciate what I’m trying to accomplish.”

A snort tumbles out of me despite my desperate situation. “What’s that—bringing on a second Great Retribution? Have you all forgotten that the gods wiped scourge sorcery out the first time around?”

Borys’s chuckle expands into a low laugh. “This isn’t scourge sorcery. Those imbeciles wasted potential. Snuffing out lives like that.” He snaps his fingers. “We’re finding out how much power we’re all capable of together.”

Is that what they’re telling themselves?

Gods help us, Julita mumbles. They’re the insane ones.

At least while I’ve got him talking, he’s not stabbing me again. “The All-Giver abandoned us over magic like this. Even if it’s not quite the same, are you really willing to take the chance?”

Borys scoffs. “We’re going back to what the gods meant this world to be. Energy and action and wildness. The scourge sorcerers five hundred years ago wanted to bend everyone to their will, make up more rules, control the realms—but the All-Giver wanted us to be free.”

For fuck’s sake. Julita’s voice starts to firm with a sharper edge. As if he knows the slightest thing about freedom.

“So instead you’ll send us into total chaos,” I retort.

“That’s how the world began. That’s what the All-Giver thrives on. The Great God truly wants us to have it all. You’ll see.”

Is that what the gods would honestly prefer? For me to release my magic with all the madness that’ll come with it?

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