Page 20 of The Blood Crown

Anyone else, and she would have known their death to be as certain as her own. But as Ven’s curved blade arced gracefully through the air, his movements unflinching and unfaltering. He seemed an army unto himself. He’d always been so impossibly beautiful, she thought as the last of the air was relentlessly squeezed from her lungs, her power hissing uselessly against her fingertips as if it could will her body to survive.

Flashes of white appeared throughout the darkened forest as her vision went black.

Chapter 10

For a fleeting moment, Aurelia wondered if her lightning had returned to her. If somehow the spell in the in-between had been broken between one instant and the next.

The pressure around her body released, and she was dropped to the ground, coughing and gulping down air. Shrieks of agony tore through the stale air of the darkened forest as her vision returned.

Wiping away the splatters of silver blood that flecked her face, she saw the massive body of the serpent still towering above her, but the silvery scales were littered with dark lines, angled in every direction.

Arrows.

The flashes of white closed in, surrounding the three heads. Males and females completely devoid of color, from their moonlight-colored hair to their alabaster skin, even the gear they wore was white. The pale beings flooded the clearing, swiftly moving in from wherever they had been hidden in the forest, firing more of the dark arrows into the scaled hide of the beast.

Hissing in pain, the serpent reared back as if to strike. But there were at least a dozen archers, silently nocking more arrows as they stepped closer. The serpent fell, dissolving into a mercurial fog that swirled and eddied along the forest floor toward the river.

The mist reshaped as it moved, forming into the supple bodies of the three silver sirens. Their lithe arms and legs were still covered in arrow shafts, weeping iridescent blood as they ran for the water, graceful and swift.

Wind whipped Aurelia’s dark hair across her face as another shower of arrows rained down on their targets.

The middle siren fell first.

The one on the left only made it a few more strides before she was taken down as well, the one to the right following quickly thereafter.

Still frozen where she’d fallen onto the ground, Aurelia whipped her head to where Ven had been standing a moment before—

A white-haired male had his arrow nocked and poised at his back. Ven locked eyes with her for an instant, and then he moved so quickly that he was only a blur of black, twisting around to choke the male with his own bow.

“Don’t,” an icy voice echoed across the clearing.

The unforgiving tip of an arrow was leveled in Aurelia’s face. Her throat bobbed as she swallowed hard, her fingers quietly searching the dirt for the dagger that she had lost, but the sharp tip dug into her neck, forcing her head up.

Rage flickered across Ven’s face as he released the male, raising his hands in surrender and discarding his blade as the archer took up his bow once more—white skin flushed pale pink with embarrassment. The severe angles of the male’s face only sharpened as he prodded Ven.

Grimacing, Ven dropped to his knees. The blood stain across his leg spread. The effort of the assault had cost him.

Karro lay unmoving across the clearing.

The pit deepened in Aurelia’s gut as she watched a white-haired warrior approach his motionless form. Another male picked up the heavy broadsword from where it had fallen onto the forest floor as the first rolled Karro over and crouched beside him, removing the smaller weapons from his body. He patted the pocket at Karro’s chest, the dull flash of iron catching her eye from across the clearing as the archer’s mouth split into a severe smile, flashing the prize to his comrades before pocketing the coin. Removing the white glove from his hand, he pressed his fingers against Karro’s bronze throat.

Breathe—she just needed him to breathe, to at least know that he was still alive.

A heartbeat later, the archer gave a single nod to whoever it was that had given the order, and she exhaled a ragged breath, not caring as the point of the arrow dug into her own skin. Her dagger was kicked out of reach, hands roughly roaming her body. She unconsciously tensed as they landed over her upper chest, sweeping over the ring. And for a moment she wondered if they wouldn’t find it—if it might go unnoticed.

The hand lingered, passing over the small pocket sewn into her gear, reaching inside.

The archer held up the relic, calling over her shoulder, “Captain!”

Blood steadily leaked from Aurelia's shoulder, seeping down the arm of her gear. Her vision was going splotchy again as a tall, white-haired female stalked through the clearing. Braids crossed the crown of her skull, spilling down her proud shoulders in a waterfall of platinum. A harshly beautiful face met Aurelia's as the Captain palmed the ring with a cold smile.

Turning it over in between her slender fingers, she stared down the bridge of her sharp nose to where Aurelia knelt on the ground. “How did you come by this?” Her voice was smooth and sharp like a well-honed edge.

“I found it,” Aurelia lied.

“And do you know what it is?” the female purred.

Aurelia glanced up at the ring, lifting her gaze to meet the female’s pale red eyes. “Something that would have filled my belly for three months if I’d found the right buyer.”

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