Page 50 of An Honored Vow

“Keera!” Dynara yelled as the beast attacked. She ran for me, leaving Crison and Vrail behind and catching the beast’s attention.

Panic swelled in my chest. It burst through me, shredding my fear and my control all at once. “No!” I screamed, reaching out my hand and shooting a golden wave in Dynara’s direction, catching Crison and Vrail in the wake.

She fell to the ground as someone pushed her out of the way. I turned to Kairn with two fists of flame. “Order it away, and I won’t kill you.”

He spat at my boot.

I diffused my flames and grabbed my dagger. I yanked his wrist and cut off his ring finger. “Order it away or I will take a different appendage next.” I pressed my dagger to his groin to make my message clear.

Kairn bit his lip to keep from crying, but the pendant along his chest started to glow. Thewaateyshirstopped its rampage and soared into the clouds. It shrieked in the distance and left Cereliath in its smoking, burnt wreckage.

Kairn snarled at me. “Good enough?”

“No,” I said, before slamming the end of my blade into his face. Kairn crumpled to the ground like all the smaller men I had fought as Blade. I cut the pendant from his chest and tucked it into my pocket. Whatever it was, I knew it was too valuable to let Kairn ever get his hands on it again.

Gerarda came to my side and blew two sleeping darts into his neck. “See how simple it is?”

“He was already unconscious.”

“And now he’llstayunconscious.”

I rolled my eyes. “Put a bag over his head. And a gag and earmuffs to be safe.”

Gerarda’s smirk fell and she nodded.

I turned around expecting to see the others fending off the few soldiers that were left, but the men had fled. Instead, Crison and Vrail sat on the ground where Dynara had left them. They were conscious but Elaran stared down at them, eyes completely wide.

Crison and Vrail each had amber eyes.

CHAPTERNINETEEN

PIRMIITH HANDED ME Achange of clothes he’d found at the back of the safe house. Dust shot into the air as I unfurled them but they would do. All I wanted was to get back to Aralinth to check on Vrail and Crison. They had seemed fine traveling to the safe house, great even. But that same uneasiness that settled in my stomach every time I watched Gwyn use her magic twisted my belly now.

But I couldn’t do anything for them until we dealt with Kairn. And I would never bring him into the spring city.

There were too many things he could see.

Too many thingsDamiencould see.

I took the glamoured wristlet off. It was useless now that Damien and Kairn had broken the enchantment.

My breath hitched as I lifted the shirt from the pile. It wasn’t a shirt at all, but armored leathers. A vest with no sleeves.

My jaw clenched.

“We should cover his face before he wakes,” Pirmiith said from the other room. Feron had pulled rock from the earth the moment we stepped inside the tunnel. All Damien would see was stone in every direction.

As far as he would know, we were in a cave.

“No need,” I called in Elvish from around the stone wall. “He’s seen the gold of my eyes. He already knows I’m aniinokwenar.”

I fidgeted with the gold ring along my middle finger. It felt like Feron had given it to me so long ago. A safety net for when Damien entered my dreams. The glamour kept him from seeing anything he could use against me.

Like my scars.

I hadn’t needed it for weeks. The elixir worked well enough, and even on the occasions that I fell into a short sleep without drinking it, Damien never called. As soon as I had learned to take control of the dreams, he lost all interest in the connection he’d forged between us.

The ring would keep my scars hidden from him and Kairn. But I trusted everyone else and knew they would see them. I didn’t even know the names of some of the Elverin that Pirmiith had brought, but they would know this truest part of me.

---