Page 143 of A Reign of Roses
Kane’s mighty dragon wings flapped as he soared, and just inside the castle doors was Briar, hands strained against the skies, wind and static and snow swirling around her and pulling her carefully coiled dark hair free. Chanting, muttering—
Magic scenting the air and thick on my tongue.
Until Kane slammed to the ground, on two human feet—
And all other mercenaries that had been nipping at his tail, snarling, savage for his death—severed.
Split in half. Blood spraying, hooves and claws and snouts falling from midair.
Cleaved.
By some ward, some guard Briar had spawned around the castle.
Those slower, and spared the same gruesome fate, slammed into the barrier and fell to the earth.
Briar slumped against the castle’s innermost wall and caught her ragged breaths.
Lethal silence fell. The entire keep’s eyes on Kane.
Tendrils of that obsidian power still clung to his shoulders, those dark dragon’s wings still retreating tightly into his spine, when he stalked through the heavy stone doors of Shadowhold and prowled right for me.
Covered in ash and blood. Limping. Face colder, crueler than I’d ever seen it. Heartbreakingly menacing. World breaker. Eater of hearts.
They’d come for his home. Not Willowridge—not his capital—hishome.
Ourhome.
They’d killed Dagan. Right before my eyes, they’d killed him.
I started to break before he’d even touched me.
Kane gathered me into his arms in one powerful movement and I crumpled against him and cried.
39
Arwen
Kane rubbed slow circles alongmy back as I hunched over the shivering, freckled soldier, stitching him closed. The claw wound was serrated. Not seamless, and my lighte would have worked better, but my power had to be conserved. Every life saved with it was a wager now.
Beyond the flesh and thread beneath my fingers, the great hall grew more and more packed with citizens, some wounded, some only terribly afraid. Moaning sounded as soldiers and residents of the keep nursed their wounds. In a crowded corner Lieutenant Eardley and Griffin were conferring around a table with a group of high-ranking Onyx officers. Their voices ratcheted up an octave and Kane murmured, “I’ll be right back.”
I only nodded. He pressed his lips to the crown of my head, but I could barely feel it.
They had already moved Dagan’s body into the crypt. They’d told me it was the safest place,just in case.Just in case the main castlewas breeched, and Lazarus’s army decided to desecrate the bodies of the dead.
Those were the kind of monsters we stood to face.
The great hall had become a makeshift infirmary, war room, and hideout. Though I was sure Briar, Griffin, the Onyx soldiers, and I had killed at least three dozen, I knew Lazarus had more. This morning had just been the warm-up. An opening act, to dazzle us with the performance of savagery he had in store.
The tremor of heavy footfalls sounded just a moment before the massive doors to the great hall swung open.
I turned, the freckled boy whose shoulder I held turning with me, to see a handful of darkly armored Onyx soldiers stalking through. Ashy, bruised, bleak—
Silence fell as Barney, at the helm, lifted his helmet of bone and said, “They’ve got us surrounded. The sheer number of men…” I’d never seen Barney with that expression.
Defeat.
Kane’s men were mortal. A handful of them halflings, maybe. We’d only be safe in here for so long, and when the ward was released…The walls and gates and ramparts that surrounded Shadowhold were no match for Lazarus’s army.
