Page 9 of A Deception of Courts

Human skin turned grey beneath my fingers as I forced my freezing power across it.Intoit. Soon enough, I could tighten my grip, and my fingers dug into glass-like skin. I tugged, and the lower part of the Hunter’s face came away in my hand with little effort.

He stumbled back, eyes wide and bleeding red. Then he fell – dead.

“What were you saying about staying together?” I whispered into Duncan’s ear before drawing back, half a face still in my hand. Each tooth fell away from the mass of frozen flesh. They pattered across the street like hail, thudding mutely across the blood-soaked cobbles.

“My point proven,” Duncan replied. His torso stiffened beneath mine, which pressed into him. I revelled in the feeling, allowing myself only a moment of enjoyment during such an event.

Then we were apart. Without another word, we threw ourselves back into the fray of battle, this time not straying far from one another.

It was impossible to find Seraphine among the small but deadly crowd of Asps that had exposed themselves. The assassins were deep in the courtyard, focusing on the wall of Kingsmen that had taken the rear of the fight, whereas the Hunters were left to us to pick off one by one.

Lucari shrieked, blood dripping from her beak as she dove and sliced down upon the heads, faces and necks of the Hunters she could reach. I still knew little of the bond between a Tracker and their hawk, but Kayne had explained that the tips of the hawk’s claws had been painted with liquid iron and left to dry. Its purpose, not that he needed to elaborate, was to weaken the fey the hawk found and to allow time for the Tracker and their group of Hunters to catch up with them.

There was something poetic about Lucari turning her sharp metal claws back onto the very humans she had once served.

Aldrickhadto be far away from Lockinge for my plan to work. But I almost wished he could see us now. Tearing through his misled followers. When he heard of this, I hoped he felt the blow. If I focused too much on the death left in my wake, the kindling of guilt would’ve hindered me. Instead, I focused on the fey I was doing this for.

It was not long until every Hunter, who didn’t have the sense to flee into the burning city, died. Breathless, I stepped over the corpse of a silver-clad Kingsman whose face had been shredded; by a knife or claws, I could not determine. Bile burned the back of my throat, but this was not the moment to show regret.

I had a group to lead. Then, in the dark of a room where no eyes were on me, I would grieve the lives lost – enemies or no, death was a hard thing to deal out.

“Is that all of them?” I muttered, unable to even comprehend the blood that flowed from the bodies into the grooves of the cobbled streets, where it ran like rivers between each stone.

“For now.” Seraphine’s cool voice set my nerves on edge as she peeled away from the wraith-like bodies that patrolled the dead, digging swords into hearts or necks just to make sure they had died. “There is over three times the number of Hunters we have just dealt with currently sleeping throughout the castle’s corridors. We need to be long gone before the drug wears out of their systems. Before sunrise.”

“And you are confident the dose is strong enough?” Althea asked, skin still sizzling from her expenditure of power.

“Princess,” Seraphine began, eyeing Althea with well-earned caution. Her dark hair was tucked into the hood of her cloak, allowing only her eyes and bright features to be exposed to the night. If one were to illustrate an assassin without ever seeing one in the flesh, they would have painted a detailed portrait of the woman standing before us.

“‘Althea’ will do just fine,assassin,” Althea replied, lips curling.

“The dose is strong enough to put the giants of old tales into the deepest of sleep. So, yes.” Seraphine bowed her head slightly, not drawing her eyes away. “Althea.”

“Then we move on to the next step,” I added, desperate to keep going.

The assassin smirked. Her beady eyes traced me from face to foot and back again. “On your request, we move, my king.”

I was her current employer, not her king. No matter how I had tried to express my desire for the Asps to work alongside me, not for me, Seraphine still treated me like her boss.

There would be a time I would truly express how uncomfortable that made me feel, but now was not it.

“Enough time has been wasted,” I said, eyes drifting toward the gleaming gate that would lead us upward through the interconnecting courtyard and toward the entrance to the prison. “Kayne, send a signal to our ships. I need them aware of every failure and success until our very heartbeats are in sync.”

The whistle Kayne conjured, as his teeth bit down on his lower lip, was no different to a nod in agreement. Lucari dropped from the sky, landing on the leather band around his forearm. Kayne replied, “See that you all make it out alive.”

“Suddenly care for the fey’s wellbeing?” Althea questioned.

My skin prickled in reaction to Althea’s backhanded question.

“How about I please you with an answer when you return?” Kayne bowed, stiff and forced, but still a sign of respect.

Althea’s head tipped in some form of acceptance.

I couldn’t fathom that we had made it this far. I had hoped for success, but standing amid the dead with mere moments until we reached the prisoners, I could hardly contain myself. Part of me longed to release a cry of victory until every star could hear what I had done. My bones trembled with anxious energy which wouldn’t calm until I unlocked every iron collar and saw every captive fey on the Cedarfall ships.

As if reading my nervous energy, Duncan reached out a hand and gripped my shoulder. “We are almost there, Robin. You’ve done incredibly so far.”

We. Such a beautiful and frightening statement, but I was pleased to hear it. Either way, I needed them all. This would have been impossible without my unlikely band of allies. Each of whom looked at me expectedly amidst the sea of bodies.

---