Page 2 of Court of Bone and Amethyst

Zyren’s stern voice and his loud knock on the interior wall of the carriage makes me jump, and the carriage driver pulls over along the side of the street. We get out of the carriage, and Zyrenslips the driver some coins before he drives away again. I look up at the huge house we’ve stopped in front of.

“You have allies here?”

“No,” Zyren says. “We still have a few blocks to walk. But I don’t want the driver to know where we’re actually going.”

I raise my brows. “You think he would tell someone?”

“For the right amount of coin or coercion, most would.” Zyren glowers and strides off, pulling me along with him.

“Surely the Septarus would have a hard time finding us in a city this large,” I say. “Plus, they don’t even know we’re here.”

“I make it my job to never underestimate my enemy,” Zyren says, his voice a low rumble. “Especially when they’re as desperate as Avonia is to find us.”

“But we completed the spell to keep out the nightmares, to lock them back behind the border of their territory. And she can’t try to merge Valaron with the rest of Aureon for another twenty-two years.”

Zyren’s voice grows even darker. “All spells can be undone.”

We turn down a street to the right, my mind spinning at his words. “So, if the Septarus capture us—”

“Stop saying their name,” Zyren says. “You never know who could—”

A carriage pulls up alongside us and several warriors jump out. Simultaneously, four warriors emerge from an alleyway between buildings, weapons drawn.

We’re rushed from both sides.

Chapter Two

Zyren

Icount seven attackers,making note of their weaponry in a matter of moments, a combination of sword, mace, and axe. They’re hired mercenaries, all wearing assorted clothing, no House Septarus emblems to be seen. Another thing is instantly evident from the way they move on us: they are here to kill, not abduct. Avonia apparently has no qualms with someone else doing the job.

My black blade emerges from beneath my cloak and my magic explodes outward. A roiling storm of shadow swirls around me and Sarielle. With a cry, my shadow ravens dive toward our attackers, and my sword cuts through the darkness that has now turned the alleyway from morning sunlight to deep midnight.

Two warriors fall beneath my blade in the first sweep as I spin in a circle, keeping Sarielle pinned tightly against me. My ravens distract the others as they deflect the talons and beaks of the tangible darkness. I lunge in and out, taking my blood payment. Our enemies fall one by one. I catch fragments of images as my deadly dance continues: the gleam of a pendant through the fluttering fabric of a tunic my blade has torn open, a spray ofcrimson on the white coat of the carriage horse, Sarielle’s golden eyes flared wide with panic.

From the shadows surrounding us, one of the warriors charges through, bellowing like a wild animal. I have only an instant to act, shoving Sarielle away as he plows into me. We hit the cobblestones of the alley floor with a resoundingthud. I use the momentum to keep moving and fling him sideways as we land, rolling on top of him and shoving the edge of my sword into his throat. His eyes go blank, his life cut off just like that, breathing one moment and on his way to see his ancestors the next.

The tally in my head tells me there’s one more, and I don’t need to turn to see where she is. The last warrior advances on Sarielle, twirling her mace in her hand. Sarielle has her back to the alley wall, frozen in fear. As I pull a dagger from my belt, aim it, and hurl it for the mercenary’s throat, I see Sarielle’s eyes go from gold to black. A pulse of magic shakes the alley, and the monster inside me shivers, in awe and in fear.

But then my dagger buries itself into the warrior’s throat and she falls lifeless to the ground. Sarielle turns that dark gaze to mine, and a low growl climbs from her throat, an animal deprived of its kill. A shimmer of power moves between us, and I let my shadows fall. As light floods into the alley once again, Sarielle draws in a long, shuddering breath, blinking her eyes. They shift from inky black to gold again, and confusion rolls across her face.

“What just happened?”

“Later,” I say, climbing to my feet and grabbing her by the elbow. “You are far too recognizable. We need to get inside.”

The house of my friend is just another half-block away. Once there, we can regroup and decide the next phase of my plan. I’d watched my brother murdered in front of me the day before, and I cannot let that happen to Sarielle. The Septarus have clearlyput a price on our heads, so not only do we have to contend with Avonia’s vast armies, but now we have to watch out for every sell-sword in the land.

The idea of Sarielle dying in front of me…

I hammer my thoughts of her back into the deepest corners of my mind where they belong. It was thoughts like that, feelings I shouldn’t be feeling, that created the crisis we now find ourselves in.

If I hadn’t let my feelings for Sarielle get so out of control, I never would have let myself lose control in the meadow. Never would have ended up wrapped in her embrace, skin to skin. I can still smell her hair, still feel our limbs entangled. A betrayal which led to my brother displaying a monstrous side of himself I’d never seen before. The things he’d said to me and Sarielle are seared across my soul, the last words he’d ever spoken to me.

Which is why I’d been so distracted at the wedding ceremony. Out of my mind from losing Sarielle, haunted by the threats my brother spat at us. If I hadn’t been so distraught, I would have felt what was happening in the crowd. Sensed Avonia’s warriors creeping up on us. Would have blocked the arrows that impaled my brother’s heart.

If I weren’t such a dark and selfish creature, my brother would still be alive.

I’ve now locked my thoughts of Sarielle deep, deep within the recesses of my mind. I cannot afford them any longer. And the idea that she’s nowmy wife—because of all my folly and misguided desires—the very thought of it feels like a spear driven through my gut.

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