Page 53 of A Dawn Of Blood

“We won’t let you keep searching for the iron,” she replies, making me lose all hope, especially when she waves one of the other mermaids over.

She whispers into her ear and has something handed to her. Then she turns back to me.

My heart pounds in my chest.

“We have it right here,” the mermaid says, handing me a piece of metal.

For a split second, I just stare at her in shock, then grab the metal.

“But right now, I want you to leave our home,” she warns.

I rush to nod, already starting to swim away when I remember to look over my shoulder to say, “Thank you.”

It’s with the iron in my hand that I dive out, feeling truly victorious for the first time since I arrived to this bleak point in time.

But the moment my head is through the surface of the water and I hear the noise and I see the mayhem right in front of me, I realize we’ve been made.

No, worse. We’re already being attacked.

Chapter 39

Gasping for breath as I drag myself out of the water, I watch my team struggle to fight off an entire division of Cain’s army, including Alaric. Nuala’s white tiger is writhing in place, an especially resilient enemy vampire obviously in the midst of using Blood Magic on her, while Dryden is managing to keep everyone else at bay with a swarm of air blades he keeps shooting out.

The chaos makes it hard to think, but besides getting everyone out alive, my mission is also to make sure we don’t lose the Aesir iron I’m holding onto for dear life.

So as soon as I’m out of the water, I yell out in anger and run straight towards Alaric. As soon as he sees me, he shifts his focus away from Nuala and Dryden, a look of heartbreak in his eyes for having to attack his friends.

He lets me knock him onto his back. As we pretend to wrestle on the cold, hard ground, I take the iron out of my uniform and slide it into one of his pockets, whispering, “Take this and be thedouble agent that you are. Even if we all die here today, you’ll get back to the Academy, the rest of you will forge the sword, and none of this will have been for nothing.”

Rolling me over to continue the pretend fight, he grits out, “Understood. Now retreat to Ydril Tower, Anna.” He pauses for a second before he adds, “But before you do, hurt me, and do it like you meant it.”

For a split second, I hesitate. Then I break free of his grip, roll over and spring to my feet. Gritting my teeth so as not to think of the damage I’ll be dealing, I summon a powerful thunder whip and send it straight at him.

It makes pain shoot through me, when I see his eyes round as the impact sends him flying back and falling to the ground, the stench of burned fabric and skin starting to come off his body.

For a moment, I stay frozen in place.

Then I see him give me a sad smile, motioning at the plan B he has hidden in his uniform, as if to tell me it’ll all be alright.

Snapping out of it, I spin on my heel and start shooting more thunder whips at the soldiers attacking Nuala and Dryden, Nuala back in her human form. “Jump on,” I order as I run past them.

I shift and, feeling them both grab onto my fur, I kick myself off the ground and start sprinting north of the lake.

“Quick,” I hear Alaric yell out, “they’re headed for Ydril Tower.”

I breathe a sigh of relief. No matter what happens tonight, at least I know that we haven’t blown Alaric’s cover and that the Aesir iron is safe with him.

It doesn’t hurt that my wolf is enormous and that it’s in the blink of an eye that I’m stopping in front of Ydril tower.

Panting, I let the two of them get off before I shift back.

But we barely get a moment to regroup before the enemy troops start surrounding us again, making us turn around with our backs to the tower walls.

“Fuck,” I hear Dryden curse.

But I don’t feel as pessimistic about the situation as he does. Scanning the division preparing to attack, I note, “At least the general doesn’t seem to be here.”

“Or,” Dryden points out, “he doesn’t know you’re among us and won’t be bothered dealing with three inconsequential intruders.”

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