Page 24 of The Broken Prince

But then she lost her footing—and his hand gripped her by the neck.

“No!” I sprinted forward to save her, even though I had no idea what I would do once I got there.

She started to scream, scream in a way I’d never heard her before, and that was when I realized he was burning her flesh. Flames erupted from his hand, and he charred her skin as he continued to hold her—and he grinned.

“Motherfucker, let her go—”

I was knocked back so hard I rolled.

Aurelias threw his blade right into the monster’s eye, and my mother dropped to the ground. She gasped as she grabbed her neck, which had turned bright red where her skin had burned away.

The monster screamed as he pulled the dagger from his pupil, throwing it straight at Aurelias’s head.

He dodged out of the way, the dagger hitting the stone and bouncing away.

The monster let out a scream and directed his blade at my mother’s stomach, ready to impale her right into the stone.

But Aurelias got there first and deflected his blade. “Run!”

I rushed to my mother and grabbed her by the arm, dragging her away as she struggled to breathe. “Mother, I can’t carry you. Come on!”

She forced herself to her feet, using my weight to support her.

I used all my energy to keep her moving, and just when I couldn’t go any farther, Pyre dropped out of the sky and released a mighty roar.

“I need you to take her.”

Mother continued to struggle for breath, like her lungs gasped for air but nothing entered her chest. “She needs help. Take her to a healer in the closest kingdom. And fast…she can’t breathe.” I forced my mother to climb, forced her wrists around the reins.

But she reached for me and tried to pull me on top.

“I can’t leave.”

Despite the fact that life literally faded from her with every passing second, she looked like she was on the verge of tears. She shook her head.

I squeezed her hand, unsure if I would ever see her alive again. “I won’t abandon my duty. I love you, Mama.” I couldn’t look at her a moment longer, couldn’t accept the fact that this could be a final goodbye. I turned away from Pyre and turned back to Delacroix, which was already set ablaze from the battle. “Gods…have mercy.”

SEVEN

AURELIAS

My blade met his, a clash of steel against steel, and I felt the strength that no human could reproduce. He was powerful enough to push me back, to make my boots slide across the stones.

He spun his blade then brought it down on me, and I only had time to dodge out of the way because I knew it was coming. I took the opening and sliced his bare skin, cutting deep into his arm, and instead of blood spouting out, it was liquid fire, orange tinged with yellow, glowing with its own internal illumination. “What the fuck…”

He came at me again, releasing a growl after I wounded him, and he picked up the pace, giving me a flurry of blows that would defeat even the best swordsman. But I blocked every hit because I anticipated it, and when one of his cronies snuck around behind me to fight with dishonor, I was able to anticipate that too.

But there was no way I could fight them all and survive.

A few of the soldiers had fled after the monsters had slaughtered their comrades in a few seconds. Now that the queen was gravely injured, the rest had lost their morale. The monsters had fought the soldiers of Delacroix in the field as the dragon circled above to burn them all, but I feared that had little lasting effect on monsters that seemed to be physical manifestations of flames themselves.

These guys were supposed to decapitate the king and queen, to hang their heads outside the castle walls before they burned the city to the ground or claimed it for themselves—and I was the only thing standing in their way.

Others jumped in, so it was me against five.

I couldn’t win.

I could anticipate all their moves and block them, but I couldn’t be everywhere at once. My energy would wane, and it would wane faster without human blood in my veins. But I kept moving, kept blocking, kept making my mark and pissing them off even more.

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