Page 22 of Kill the Queens

The cold tip of a blade pressed against Ace’s throat. Large green eyes stared up at her.

The woman wasn’t unconscious any longer.

“Aren’t you a terrifying looking creature,” the woman growled as she kept the blade pressed to her throat and slowly rose. Ace stood with her, not thinking today would be the best day to die. Not right after she’d brought Shelby back. That would surely be no good, especially if what his grandma had said was true…if their lives were tied together.

“Ace?” Shelby’s voice cracked on her name before she heard him grunt.

Figures were forming on the edge of Ace’s vision, men who’d been hidden moments ago but slowly walked out onto the road. Ace assumed it was one of them who’d made Shelby quiet.

“Aren’t you too pretty to be laying where you could get run over?” Ace tried to stay relaxed, to sound as if she wasn’t at all worried about the blade at her throat, but the truth was Ace knew little about fighting, particularly fighting with a knife.

“You flatter me.” She batted her long dark eyelashes. “I’ve got a girl here. Possibly some Fae hybrid freak,” she yelled to the rest of the group that Ace hadn’t yet seen but knew vaguely were there.

“Let’s keep her.” A man with a thick accent chuckled. He’d hardly gotten the statement out before someone else screamed.

There was a scuffle behind them and the girl watched it with wide eyes and blatant intrigue. When the screaming stopped the woman leaned into Ace. “You’ve got yourself a warlock.” She smiled like a cat, then whispered quietly between them. “I’d rather keep him, I think.”

“He’s rather hard to put up with. Stuffy. Likes to stick to the rules. He absolutely hates spontaneity. Which probablymeans he isn’t very happy to see you. You weren’t part of his plan.” During the screaming Ace had gotten only the slightest inch of space between her and the knife but that was enough. She slammed her hand into the woman’s shoving the blade away.

Her fingers lost their grip on the knife, the blade flying from the woman’s palm and sliding into the soft earth. She hissed but instead of chasing the weapon, she met Ace’s jaw with her fist. Ace stumbled backward.

Oh shit!Pain pulsed inside her head.

“I didn’t come to play games. We came for the weapons and the coin.” Ace was still nursing her jaw when the girl grabbed Ace’s shirt and pulled her up to her face.

Someone was screaming again behind them. It didn’t sound like Shelby and Ace hoped it wasn’t Petu. The woman let Ace go, barely letting her get her footing before she shoved her fist into Ace’s gut and walked away as Ace crumpled. What little air Ace had left her and she couldn’t get a full breath in. Her knees cracked against the ground. Fighting the Fae hadn’t even been this painful.

“Grab his arms.” She shouted at the men before mumbling under her breath. “Fucking warlocks.”

“That wasn’t very nice.” Ace wheezed forcing herself back up to standing. She faced the wagon again, the dark-haired girl between her and it.

There was a group of about six men with her, one of which was sitting in the grass staring down at his red blistered hands and another not far from him whose clothing was singed. A man was behind Shelby, holding his arms tightly behind him. Petu still sat on his seat glaring down at the end of a sword. The remaining two men were peeling away the blanket on the back of the wagon and sorting through the various weapons.

Shelby’s face was scrunched up, contorted with anger and frustration. So…he pretty much looked the same as he alwaysdid. His hazel eyes focused for a long time on the girl between him and Ace until he turned his gaze to Ace. His attention swept up her body then down. What was he looking for?

"You should know when to stay down," the girl scolded.

It started as a trickle; a fleeting feeling Ace couldn't quite grasp. Hundreds of little sparks ignited against her skin. She couldn't see them, only feel them as they burned then fizzled out leaving behind the tingling sensation that seeped into her gut.

Ace took a step forward, though the echo of pain in her face was a clear reminder that she didn't know anything about fighting and should probably not be so stupid. She pushed away the thoughts.

"I've been no good at following the rules lately." Then Ace smiled, a large wicked grin where the split in her lip she hadn’t realized was there stretched and stung.

The closer the woman came the more the feeling that flooded over her skin ignited until it stretched over her. Until she felt the spark of holy fire come to life in her eyes. That sudden flash of orange to pink that came and went in her gaze was enough to stop the woman.

She lowered her hand as she felt the heat surge toward her palm. She knew the feeling, tugged on it fast and hard. One of the men called out to the girl, called her by name—Jisela. Ace didn't care about her name. Not really. Not when Jisela and this group were threatening her and Shelby. Ace didn't go through everything she had to give it up so easily.

The hilt of a sword glowed in her grip, her fingers wrapping around it tightly as it expanded to its all too impressive length. Jisela's mouth fell open. Someone cursed loudly. Jisela turned, sprinting back into the woods.

Ace's muscles tensed, her body urging her to step forward, to swing the blade she held. She knew without a doubt the blade would cut through the woman like a hot knife throughbutter, the men too. The back of her mind, or maybe it was the gods—it was so hard to tell when Ace felt both foreign to herself and suddenly complete—told her if she tried, she'd cut through metal too.

The power in her, the kind that tasted like coal on her tongue, wanted to be used. As the things the gods gave often did. There was a minute, or possibly a longer stretch of time, she wasn't really sure, where she considered the chase. Ace wanted Jisela dead. She wanted all those men dead, even as the swords were dropped back into the wagon and all of them fled.

Shelby shoved a boot into the back of the man who'd held his arms as he jumped from the wagon, sending him skittering into the woods. It was more falling than running but somehow the man remained upright as he weaved into the tree line.

"An angel!" Petu shouted in the space between them.

The words hit Ace so hard the thread of power she'd worked so hard to grasp at when it appeared slipped from her grip and the sword was gone once more.

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