Page 2 of Steel Heart Iron Claws

Panic cuts into me like a knife. I drop to my knees, loose hair falling over my eyes, bracing one arm against the dirt to keep from falling.

Remember! You bastard, remember!

But there’s only blankness.

Blankness.

Blankness.

Rian shoves his way through the funeral crowd and draws up to a sharp stop in front of me, staring down with incredulity on his face—but I don’t have time to think about Rian. The emptiness in my head swallows all my reason until I’m clawing at the dirt, a roar tearing from my throat.

“Wolf, what the fuck happened?” Rian clasps my shoulder to calm me. “Where is?—”

The instant I feel his touch, I toss his hand away with enough force to knock him back onto his ass. That triggers his guards, who draw their swords in one fell motion.

Without hesitation, they swarm me.

And that’s when Ireallyfucking panic.

My mind goes blank. My body takes over. Acting on instinct like a cornered cur, I shoot to my feet, throwing a punch at the nearest guard’s chin, which sends him hurtling backward. I dodge the second guard’s sword, only to square a strike in his side.

Screams ring out from the crowd. The voices sound strange, too far away. The whole clearing reeks of impossible smells. Winterberries. Fallen snow. An ocean breeze.

My godkissed senses are going fucking haywire.

My heart thunders in my chest, blood roaring in my ears as I pivot on my heel, evading a sword aimed at my midsection. The blade grazes my shirt, and I lunge forward, driving my shoulder into the guard’s chest, feeling the impact ripple through my bones. He stumbles back, and I slap my hand over his on the sword hilt, twist the sword from his grip, and swing it around in a wide arc.

My senses explode with information, each breath sharp with the scent of pine resin and iron. The guards' movements slow to a crawl in my mind’s eye, every twitch and flinch telling me what they’re about to do.

I duck the nearest guard’s swing, his blade hissing through the air where my head was a heartbeat ago.

The taste of copper coats my tongue as my teeth gnash together, biting into my tongue.

I ram my elbow into a third guard’s throat. His windpipe collapses with a sickening crunch. He drops to the ground, gurgling, his sword clattering beside him. The world blurs at the edges, but my focus narrows to a razor’s edge.

“He’s having a panic attack,” Rian says.

He snatches the elm staff from the old priest’s hand and rams it straight into my solar plexus, knocking the wind out of me.

I double over as pain shoots through my nerves. It’s enough of a pause to give the guards a chance to wrestle my arms behind my back and force me to my knees.

Chest heaving, I watch through my sweat-soaked hair as Rian tosses the elm staff aside and squares up to face me. He slowly sinks to one knee so we’re eye-to-eye and grips my jaw to force me to look at him.

“In the name of the fucking gods, Wolf, what’s wrong?”

Fighting for words, I murmur haltingly, “I was…with a woman…in the woods.”

“Sabine,” Rian says plainly, as if it’s the most obvious thing in the world.

My heart clamps like a fist in my chest.

Sabine?

Despite my body’s reaction, the name means nothing to me.

I slowly shake my head, struggling to push through the haze clouding my memory. “She had fire-red hair down to her waist. A white gown with a red key embroidered on the chest.” I spit a line of blood into the dirt. “Fey lines on her arms. Fucking pointed ears, too. It was the Maiden.ImmortalIyre.”

A deafening silence falls over the crowd. No whispersfollow. Not a word of gossip, not even from that snake, Lady Runa Valvere.

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