Page 153 of A Promise of Peridot
But I drove my elbow into his nose, a satisfyingcrackreverberating in my ears alongside the feel of more blood—warm, wet blood—seeping into the fabric of my blouse. The man behind me barely flinched.
I screamed again as he wrenched me away from Kane—
Kane.
Kane, who would decimate all of them. All these humans. They would—
Where was he?
I struggled to crane my head down, fought the man who held me, my spit flying, teeth gnashing, and finally,finally,when I was able to look beyond the ceiling—
All the blood in my body turned to rigid ice.
Kane was on the ground, face crushed into splintered wood, near unconscious. His arms were pulled behind him by one lone thug, a knee denting into his back. The guard had wrapped a chain—lighter in color than iron, but appearing heavier than steel—around Kane’s wrists.
Kane groaned and struggled against the man until he tied a leather gag around his mouth.
“What’s wrong with him?” I shrieked. “Why can’t he move?”
“Lilium chains,” Killoran said, stepping around a river of dark blood from one of his slain men. “The only alloy that can suppress a Fae’s power. A prisoner or two have been brought to the island still in them over the years. They’re near impossible to get off. Had to slice through my fair share of wrists to collect the metal. Neat trick, huh?”
Killoran feasted on the shock that spread over my face, a body still twitching by his feet. “Oh, you thought I didn’t know your king was Fae? After all my years here, all the men delivered from the Onyx Kingdom? Men who spoke of a king that never ages, who is never seen alongside his prized dragon, who has, on rare account, been seen using darker magic than any sorcerer or witch?”
I shook my head. I had nowords. None, save for “Please—”
“The Fae king of Onyx has power that I need. Power that will allow me to stay in control.”
What kind of power could he take from Kane? He couldn’t have his kingdom, and Kane would never serve another king, let alone a despicable monster such as—
Harvesting.
That’s what he meant. He’d harvest Kane’s lighte.
The thought was more sickening than the thug’s arms wrapped around my middle.
“And you,” Killoran said, stepping around a bound Kane as if he were a heap of garbage. “The king’s pretty armorer will make a perfect meal for the beast. Did I neglect to mention the creatures that we share the island with? Who crawl up from the depths below when they’re hungry?” Killoran shook his head, laughing to himself, and that woozy, swirling pit in my stomach doubled. I cringed as the sensation crawled through my body like vermin. “I’ll be honest with you. I make it sound a lot worse than it is. Their dinner is but our meager entertainment.”
Tears pooled in my eyes. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t think.
I needed to use my lighte.
But all I had mastered was healing and forming a protective bubble around myself and others. Aside from that, I had only ever produced destructive rays of energy that set anyone near me aflame or turned them into red mist.
I couldn’t risk hurting Kane. Not when he couldn’t protect himself.
“Onyx Kingdom will have your head,” I vowed. “King Ravenwood’s army would go to the ends of the continent for their king.”
“Oh, dear! A mass of men already weakened from fighting two other kingdoms. However will my army of violent, depraved prisoners beat them? An army of men and women who had to be the strongest, the most vicious, to survive.”
I didn’t exhale.
The warlord raised a single brow. “If Onyx Kingdom tries to invademyisland, where I know the landscape better than my own ass cheeks, they deserve to be slaughtered.”
Kane, near unconscious, groaned from the ground.
“Relax, pretty king.” Killoran shook his head. “I’m not going to hurt your men unless they come for me first. You two really have the wrong idea about me.”
Killoran was out of his Stones-damned mind. I struggled against the man who held me, his nose still dripping blood down the back of my shirt. “You have no idea what you’re do—”
