Page 145 of The King has Fallen

“She is mine.”

“Everythingthat is yours ismine,”he spat back, twisting that sword and swinging it up unexpectedly. I only managed to jerkaside at the last minute and that razor's edge of a blade shaved the hair from my arm.

“Bullshit,” I grunted. “She’s no simple conquest.”

Clang, stamp, whirl and clang again.

“Oh? Are you breeding her?”

“God willing. You will not take her, Gault.”

He was beginning to sweat, but very little strain showed on his face, the smug fucker. “So you think she’s strong enough to survive?”

He blocked my stab and sent her a lusty glance that made me roar and leap for him.

50. Truth and Lies

~ MELEK ~

“No, Melek!” Yilan shrieked as I rushed forward, throwing images into my head of him taunting me, intending to distract.

And she was right, I realized, as Gault met my flurry, calmly twisting to block my spear, then whirling aside. Now we made a triangle—Yilan behind the bed, me a few feet from its foot, and Gault on the opposite side, his back to the tent entrance.

“You were always just one step from betrayal,” Gault snarled, panting harshly, though his limbs had not slowed, and his eyes were gleaming with bloodlust and smug satisfaction. “I knew they were wrong about you—even if I lose this, you will not win, Melek. They will see your true colors.”

The rage in me blistered my skin. I wanted to rush him, but Yilan was shaking her head, her eyes on Gault as she stood, halfcrouched, appearing to try to hide her nakedness from him. She held one hand raised towards me in warning, the other hanging down near her knee as if to balance.

I would have bet my life that below the level of the bed she now held a dagger.

She glanced at me once, fear and admiration in her gaze, and my chest swelled with pride in her courage as she nodded.

We would advance together.

Yilan sent me an image—her leaping onto the bed like a cat, unconcerned with her nudity, a dagger flashing in the light of the lanterns as I rushed forward from his other side. Force him to fight us both at the same time.

But as we turned and she sucked in a breath, before either of us had advanced, Gault bellowed like a butchered beast, and his eyes went wide. He clutched at his stomach and his sword clattered to the dirt.

I was confused until a spearhead appeared, blooming from his stomach and through his hands like a deadly sapling reaching through the earth for sunlight, and a ragged voice screamed,“You have no right!”

Gault’s face twisted between fear and rage, but his hands were pinned to his stomach by the spear now piercing him through.

Writhing and roaring, he fell forward to the dirt, revealing Gall behind him. Pale, shaking, tears running down his face, Gall yanked the spear out of the King, then turned it in his grip, holding it up then plunging it back down and into Gault’s back again, screaming.

And Gault, who’d been twitching, roaring, shaking, went very, very still. His eyes still blinked, his mouth opening and closing… but then blood poured from his mouth and he coughed, spitting it, spraying the bed, my legs, and the ground in front of him.

His eyes rolled and his head was craned back, but his body didn’t move.

We all froze, staring at him, gaping like a dying fish.

“Melek, get Gall!”Yilan cried as she clambered over the bed and yanked Gault's head up by the hair.

He stared her in the face, pain and rage burning in his eyes and she spat on him. “You deserve this, you fuckingpig,”she hissed, then laid her blade to his throat as she leaned into his ear. “Die knowing that I am going to eat your testicles—fried. Yourroyal seedwill die in the body of your enemy you sickfuck.”Then as he gave a hoarse roar, she leaned back and drew that blade through his skin so that his lifeblood surged, soaking her legs, the dirt, and even parts of the bed beyond her.

She didn’t flinch, but she made a strange growling noise as she continued the cut until he was half-decapitated. Then she cursed and threw his face into the dirt—muddy with his own blood—as she staggered back.

I was staring at her, admiration, fear, grief, and relief rushing through me. But then a shadow moved, and it was instinct. Reflex. Because we’d both almost died and now something was coming for her—I charged, leaping for her, tackling her, shoving her aside and rolling back to my feet with the spear up, and—Holy shit!

With a strangled cry, I threw the spear aside, and threw myself to the ground, just as Gall leaped at me, screaming.

---