Page 86 of The Cursed and the Broken
“Less talk, more bludgeoning,” I yelled through the torrents of water, blinking the moisture rapidly from my eyes.
He only grinned, somehow still charming in the grips of a battle. Honestly, was anyone around here actually sane?
Men and faeries alike sprinkled the ground before us. True to their word, the men hadn’t dealt any sword blows, but some faeries were alarmingly still. A problem for later, if we could get through this.
Swiping the water from my eyes, I peered frantically around the moving bodies until, finally, I spotted Dante clutched in the hands of Jazmin and Lili. His head lolled and blood streamed down his face in the rainfall. He’d taken a bad blow to the head.
Lili held her hand up to his neck, one finger raised threatening to the soft skin of his throat. Her nail was sharp as knives, poised carefully. One slice and it would be over.
“Stop,” I cried, whether to the faeries or the men, I didn’t know, but it caught everyone’s attention. “Lower your weapons.”
The scouts saw their lord and complied immediately, András following shortly after with an unhappy grunt.
Lili looked at me, her black eyes narrowing as I took a cautious step closer. Sheathing my dagger, I raised my hands. “What do you want? Let him go—let them all go—and I’ll do it.”
“They wait for you,” she hissed. “Your blood calls to them.”
My skin prickled at her tone, the eerie sing-song voice in which she spoke. Whatever or whoever this was, my friend was long gone. I took another tentative step, but she hissed, clutching Dante’s jaw in her fist and pressing her claw to his throat.
A panicked chill flooded my veins. “Okay,” I said, raising my hands. “I will come with you. Just don’t harm them.”
“Like hell,” Dante snarled, writhing beneath her touch. They must have immeasurable strength if they could hold him back. His muscles bulged with effort, straining against his shirt as he struggled. “If they take you to the cultists, they’ll eat you alive. They’ll drain your blood to bring her back.” His outburst earned him a prick of the nail, blood dribbling from the small slice.
“I must,” I said softly, the words still firm as I stepped around him. “I will meet my fate with iron in my heart and war song in my blood. The time for hiding has passed.”
“Kitarni, no. You don’t understand what they’re capable of. What they plan on—”
Jazmin struck him across the face and he sagged against her, blood dribbling down his face as he fell unconscious. “Silence, worm. You will learn your place soon enough. Rotting and writhing beneath the ground.”
I cringed, aching to hold him in my arms. My fingers itched to heal him, the power sensing my need, swirling frantically within my blood. “Please. Do you not remember me? We were friends. I was—”
“You are nothing,” Lili sneered. “A vessel holding the key to her resurgence. With your blood, she will rise. Now come. They wait.”
I felt András’s hand on my arm, saw the fear and fury etched in his face. Not just for his lord, but for me. Somehow, it gave me the strength to face my own fears. I squeezed his arm, nodding just once as I looked over his shoulder at the man I’d come to care for.
He wilted beneath my touch but relented with a backward step. Dante would be safe under his watchful eye if I didn’t make it. Squaring my jaw, I looked at the surrounding faeries, landing finally on Lili’s face. “I will go with you, but I need assurances my friends won’t be harmed.”
The sisters paused, seemingly conversing with little more than a cock of their heads. Lili turned to me. “We will not harm your friends, but theywilljoin us. They will watch.”
My stomach twisted at the unveiled threat. Gods. They planned to truss me up like a pig to slaughter. A carcass to feed from while my friends looked on helplessly.
A flutter of satisfaction filled me and I smirked defiantly at my captors. At least we’d have one advantage after this. The táltosok would be led right into the viper’s nest. We’d know the lay of the land, gather numbers and critical intel to use in the days to come.
Ifwe survived the day.
As if sensing my thoughts, the sisters hissed and their kin set to work, binding the soldiers and shoving sacks over their heads. Where the fuck had they hidden those?
Jazmin grinned, the once mesmerising expression now terrifying as she tilted her head. A predator sizing up her prey, mocking me with a cruel sneer because, of course, they had no intention of giving away any secrets.
“I swear on all the gods, if you hurt them, I’ll rip those pretty heads from your—”
Words failed me as something hard hit the back of my head. Stars burst behind my eyes, blurring the world as I slipped hard and fast into a realm of black.
THIRTY-EIGHT
I woke to the soundof buzzing. An insistent humming that grew louder and louder, causing my temples to throb violently. Wincing, I lifted my head, immediately regretting the movement as nausea rolled over me in hot flushes.
Cultists surrounded me, their hooded heads bowed, their hands outstretched in a circle. Finally, I realised they were chanting, not humming. At least, those who had tongues left to speak with. Muttering words in an unfamiliar tongue, they sang discordantly, their off-tonal cries raising the hairs on my arms. Somehow, the sounds emanating from those with stitched lips were worse.
