Page 113 of An Archer's Reckoning

“You won’t hurt anyone else!” I roared.

Atikus’s hand still rested on my arm. I tossed the Mage aside as if he were made of paper. He slammed against the nearby wall and crumpled to the floor.

I stormed across the room, dagger raised, a twisted anger thrumming through me. My voice came out a discordant blend of stern man and angry woman, as if the two spoke at the same time. “The throne ismine!It is time for you to die.”

Jess screamed again.

Her eyes darted around the cavern as she cowered against the shelves.

Dittler sensed her distress and snorted angrily, while the other horses whinnied nervously and strained against their leads. The stallion tore his tether free from the iron ring bolted into the wall and charged toward me from across the cavern.

Atikus woke and cried out, willing me to hear him and return to myself.

Nothing mattered.

Nothing but stopping Jess from her wicked rampage.

She was evil.

She had to die.

The world blurred and slowed.

I reached Jess, and my bloodthirsty dagger arced toward her chest.

Dittler charged.

Jess pleaded and wept.

Then she screamed.

As the dagger descended, our eyes met.

A flash of recognition seared through my vision.

Pain filled me as I wrestled with the demon driving me to treason.

Jess watched as my arm shook against the falling knife.

It slowed but did not stop.

As the blade reached her throat, my other hand gripped her shoulder and hurled her aside, as though part of my body warred with the rest.

Jess lost all balance and stumbled toward the mystical mirror bolted to the cavern’s wall. Her startled eyes shot upward as her face neared the golden metal surface. She threw her arms out to brace herself, but momentum drove her forward into the looking glass.

The mirror’s surface flared brightly at her touch, and Jess vanished just as my knife plunged through the space she’d just inhabited. The blade dug deeply into a shelf, its point now visible on the other side of the thick wood.

I staggered back. My hands pressed against my temples. My mind was instantly my own again, and I fell to my knees.

I couldn’t tear my eyes from the mirror and my bloody dagger.

Chapter 44

Velius

At two o’clock in the morning, the Triad sat in session, each glaring through bleary eyes at the Eye.

“You can’tseriouslybelieve this is real, Velius.” Vre’s knuckles whitened as he gripped the arms of his chair. His normally disheveled hair hung limply against the golden band of his collar. He’d freed three buttons of his crisp jacket, revealing a sweat-stained white shirt that clung to his chest. Thick tufts of black hair poked from its neck.

---