Page 53 of This Monster of Mine

Meanwhile, the other guard had fallen to his knees, arms raised in surrender. “There’re ten slaves inside,” he blurted out. “And two more guards.”

Knocking him out, Kadra moved his hand in a tugging motion, and the fire spreading across the front door trailed toward a stockpile of logs to crackle there merrily. Still shaken, Sarai followed him through the charred door. He hugged the shadows, glancing back occasionally to see if she was floundering. She gave him an exasperated look after the second time. Sneaking was a skill embedded in every tunnel rat.

The domus was built on a single level. Past the vestibule, the atrium’s courtyard was populated with stone ovens, hammers, anvils, and all manner of tools, the square roof opening allowing for rainwater to drain into a pit of black water, likely used for smithing. The courtyard walls were lined with barred cells where huddled figures stared through the gaps in the metal, looking lost.

Fury boiled in her. She nearly started toward the cells when a shadow crossed the courtyard.The two remaining Guildsmen. Beside her, Kadra was one with the dark, a blade to its sheath. Alert, yet unruffled. He was clearly no stranger to nights like this.

“They’re on either side of us.” His breath brushed her hair.

Shivering, she followed his gaze to a pair of oblong shadows at the far back of the courtyard.

“Stay here.”

Before she could hiss her outrage, he strolled out of their vantage point and raised a palm in the direction of the Guildsman on the left. She saw the second his tunic caught fire. Batting frantically at the blaze, the man ran across the courtyard and threw himself into the water pit, and right into Kadra’s grasp.

While they fought, Sarai spotted a flicker of movement on her left. The inky spot where the previous man had been hiding separated into two.Each figure slunk behind a pillar. Her breath seized. The Guildsman outside had lied about there being two men inside.

On the other side of the courtyard, Kadra had dispatched Burnt Tunic and engaged what he probably thought was the last guard. He ducked a wild swing that placed his back to the two hidden Guildsmen. Moonlight winked off their blades as they flanked him, creeping closer.

She moved without thinking. Gripping the knife Kadra had given her, she slipped out of her hiding place, melting into the dark. Her breath came fast.

Steel rang in the courtyard. Kadra’s sword pierced the chest of the guard he was fighting. The Guildsman behind him raised his knife at the same time she did.

“Watch out!” She let her knife fly right as the Guildsman jerked at the realization that Kadra wasn’t alone.

It hit him square in the shoulder. Pivoting, she grabbed a discarded board and jumped in front of Kadra just in time for the other guard’s blade to thud into the wood. The impact sent her stumbling back into Kadra, who regarded her as if she’d done something utterly baffling.

“I—” her breath cut off when he locked an arm around her waist and thrust her behind him. His sword rose, dripping crimson. Halting it at one of their necks, he traced a thin line.

“The keys to the cells,” he said, his tone soft and lethal.

“You’re trespassing,” blustered the Guildsman with Kadra’s sword to his jugular. “Our scout’s already on the way to inform the Guild.”

“Even if that were true, the mines will have you before your Guild arrives.”

The man chuckled. “Do you know who I am? Every Minewarden knows my name. I’ll be out in minutes.”

Kadra’s teeth gleamed. She’d seen Arsamean wolves grin like that before they tore into rabbits.

“Then I’ll just have to ensure that no one knows your names.” He moved like lightning, a black storm cloud gliding behind them to slam their heads on the closest anvil. Ripping the knife from the first man’sshoulder, he cracked the hilt into his mouth and gripped the man’s tongue when he screamed. Then, the blade descended.

In two breaths, both men’s tongues dropped to the dirt. Their fingers joined them several screams later. Torn between revulsion and awe, she could only watch the blood trickle through gaps in the stone, indelible.

Metal glinted from the pocket of a guard Kadra had killed earlier. Sarai stooped to grab the keys and halted at the sight of a glass-paned door that provided a perfect view of the courtyard behind her. She laughed, a miserable ghostly thing. He hadn’t needed her help earlier. He’d seen the hidden men coming and let them think they had the upper hand.

Catching his sidelong glance, she busied herself unlocking the cells. The captives had pressed away from the walls during the fighting, but now eyed her with desperation, stumbling out when she pulled the doors open. Most were able-bodied adolescents, only a few years younger than her.

“They worked us like animals,” a girl raged, stretching out hands toughened with calluses and burns.

“There’s nothing they didn’t do to us here,” another rasped. His first move upon leaving his cell had been to bludgeon every piece of equipment in the courtyard. He spat on the now-tongueless Guildsmen. “Elsar be praised for you both.”

Hollow, she shook her head. “I did nothing.”

She repeated the refrain through every tearful thanks and nod of gratitude. By the time Gaius showed up to help the children return to their families—or renounce them—and cart the men off to the mines, she was wrung out. Sitting on an upturned bucket, she cleaned and oiled Kadra’s knife while he instructed his vigiles on where to dispose of the bodies. When the hushed voices came to a stop, she knew her reprieve was over.

Odd how she could tell his footsteps at a distance now, the eerie pad of a predator. She held out the blade when he loomed over her. “I know. I shouldn’t have jumped in earlier. Like you’d ever be in danger.”

The stern line of his mouth quirked. “It’s happened.”

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