Page 29 of A Touch of Gold and Madness

Another shot echoed off the buildings, urging me into a sprint through the street. I weaved between forgotten cars, crunching over broken glass and discarded trash through intersections. After several minutes, I quietly retrieved my sword while seeking cover amongst the buildings toward the sound of the fight ahead. By that point, the adrenaline had returned, but my wounds screamed too loud to ignore. I’d fought in worse conditionsbefore, but I didn’t know what lay ahead of me. Stepping into a fight without my magic while severely woundedandrecovering from black crystal poisoning put me at a major disadvantage.

A pained scream pierced the air. As quickly as the beast had calmed, it just as quickly reared its head at the sound of Dash’s struggle. It wasn’t so much the darkness coming out in defense of Dash; it was the call of bloodshed that brought it back to life.

I listened to the fight nearby, trying to place how many attackers were present against Dash. No more shots rang out, so I assumed the Kinetics in question used magic to subdue him. And Dash wasn’t the untrained human who’d shoot in a wild panic. Ammo was such a rare commodity these days that one didn’t waste bullets on hopeful shots. If he wasn’t shooting, there must be a solid reason for it.

Based on the sets of moving feet, I gathered that two Kinetics had Dash outnumbered. And with their magic, it wouldn’t be a fair fight. Shoving my free hand through my hair, I made a risky decision.

I unclasped the black bracelet that suppressed my Elemental magic. Shoving it into a pocket inside my cloak, I breathed a relieved sigh from the cold affinity of metal as it wafted through my senses. Its strong, unyielding essence grounded me while it fueled my body to begin healing the wounds. My skin transformed from its usual warm tan to its gilded sheen.

I stepped from the alley a bit more balanced as the dizziness fled my mind.

Kill. Kill. Kill.

The pain in my leg ever so slowly faded as I neared the scene transpiring behind an abandoned salon. Voices grew more distinct, and I paused to take stock of the situation.

“We take him back as a prisoner,” a deep voice sounded.

A pause. “No,” a second male said, “we should kill him. The king hates humans.”

“But he’s a rebel, part of the militia. King Forest would wanna get information outta him.”

“I fucking saidno. Orders are orders. The kid dies…or we will.”

“Godsdamnit. What the fuck was he thinking? He thought he’d hurt us with a gun?” the first voice asked, confusion lacing his tone.

His partner scoffed, “He’s a human kid. What do you expect?”

Hearing them speak about humans like they were nothing sent another wave of raging heat coursing through my chest. The grip on my sword tightened, and I had to remind myself it wasn’t their fault; they didn’t know any better. Forest had everyone’s brain completely fucked regarding this world. But they’d earned their death sentences when they hurt my human ally.

“Come on, Russ,” the first one said, “let’s just get it over with. We need to find the others and spread out. That little cunt is up to something tonight.”

Thatlittle cuntcould only mean Princess Gray. And an instinctual part of me snarled at the disrespect, which pissed me off more because I didn’t have any fucks to give whether she lived or died after her purpose had been served. She was just as guilty as these two doorknobs I eavesdropped on.

“Wait,” the hard-ass named Russ—I assumed was short for Russet—said. “You feel that? That energy?”

“Yeah, who…”

“Fuck,” Hard-Ass muttered in a panic. “Go. Grab the boy; we’ll finish him off later.”

I took that as my opportunity to reveal myself. Listening to these fuck-twats gave my body a chance to heal while riling up the darkness within me. Sliding my shoulder from the salon’s brick wall, I slunk around the corner, obscuring myself in the shadows.

The men were busy gathering up the boy and his weapon. As they sensed my presence, they froze their frenzied movements, knowing they hadn’t been fast enough to miss my arrival.

“You’rethe king’s warriors?” I asked with a raised brow. “I imagine he’d torture you excruciatingly slow if he knew you were running from the chance to kill me.” I bit my bottom lip and squinted my eyes as I observed them. “Just think of all the glory you’re missing out on.”

Both men glanced at each other before removing their blades, a sword and two daggers.

“Leave the boy,” I said, my voice hard, dropping all pretenses. “Only cowards murder those that they easily outmatch.” Quickly assessing Dash, I noticed he was unconscious. With a swift check with magic, I noted that the iron within his blood still pumped through his bloodstream. Alive.

Hard-Ass apparently decided to grow a pair when he said, “You mean like you?”

The smile that stretched across my face was nothing short of rabid as I fought to keep the madness and rage at bay. “See…I might be the exception to that little rule.” Reaching out with my element like an extended limb, I removed four knives from my weapons belt and hovered them in the air in front of me. They spun and rotated to the beat of death’s war drum in my mind, the blue glow from their sigils illuminating the dark space.

“It’s sad, really, that I must kill the ignorant like yourselves. But that’s the world we live in—the one that your master so diligently crafted.”

It was dark, and this alley was significantly narrower than the previous one. I couldn’t see the shades of their hair, but the currents that glowed on their necks were orange and gold: infrared and light source magics.

“Youarefucking insane. That was all you, man. You started all this.”

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