Page 68 of Crowned A Traitor
Klara wanted them to reappear to feed her rage. She wanted to tear the High Queen and her cowardly disciples’ limb from limb as the Hounds had done to Arthur.
“Leave me. Get to the field,” Klara ordered, and Wolfgang crouched beside her and she shrugged his hand from her shoulder.
I did this, the Beanstalk, Father, Lilith.Klara tormented herself as she saw Lottie had returned to Human form.Least Lottie is safe. The Hounds, she searched, but they weren’t there.
“The Hounds I sent with you?” Klara asked. Lottie opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out.Their own blood hunted them down, Klara couldn’t stop her hands from shaking.
“I’ll meet you at the field,” she said, snatching her arm away as Lottie tried to hold her hand. Klara felt Lottie’s hurt but she couldn’t think, couldn’t apologize. She rather Lottie hate her then die because of her.
“Keep your sister alive. I will keep the others away.”
My plan will work.
“Abadan will kill you, I’m stronger than you think,” Wolfgang said, and Klara heard voices in the distance. “If I have to choose between killing her and saving you two, I will kill Abadan.”
Klara sensed her words cut through him, and Wolfgang rose from her side.
“You’re in my way,” Klara gripped her axe in one hand and Arthur’s cuff in the other. Wolfgang moved aside as she walked the path to her approaching enemies.
“Take your sister and leave, they won’t hesitate to kill you both if you stand anywhere near me,” her words were cold and harsh.
Wolfgang took his sister’s hand, “The High Queen will kill you,” Wolfgang whispered.
“I still have a few tricks up my sleeve,” Klara gripped the axe tighter, “and I’m not that easy to kill.”
Better to be feared than loved, Klara thought and took off in the direction of the retreating Hounds. If they insisted on hunting the Heiress of Hell, then she would show them exactly what she was capable of.
Klara leapt through the trees, the full moon lighting her path as she grew closer to her enemies. Their hunger for her only made her move faster as she allowed her long-suppressed magic to run through her body. Klara’s mind filled with Abadan’s smug smirk,Are you coming for me, child?The words poured through her mind as Abadan’s laugh pierced her ears like a blade.
The closer Klara got to the marshes, the harder she pushed herself. Klara just about tasted the putrid air when her body was flung off course. She slammed into a thick tree root with such force that it cracked.
“Shit that hurt.”
Klara punched the earth as she twisted her back to ease the pain of being struck. Klara jumped back to her feet, scanning her surroundings. The crunch of a branch underfoot alerted her, and she spun on her heels, axe high above her head, ready to end her attacker.
“I’m not here to fight,” a deep voice resonated around her as a figure stepped forward into the moonlight. Klara flung her axe.
The axe cut through Frendall and embedded itself in the tree behind him. Frendall stared at her as he placed a hand on his chest where the axe spun through.
“That’s one way to say Hello,” he said, and Klara walked through his projection and pulled her axe from the tree.
Klara saw his sword strapped to his back though it would be harmless in his current form.
“Not like I can harm you,” she said, and he rolled his shoulders. She might not be able to hurt him, but Klara remained ready, he had warned her that he would come. End her with mercy if he had to. The image of Arthur being torn apart rippled in her mind’s eye, she wouldn’t stop now. She wouldn’t be ready for Kharon until Abadan’s head was severed from her body.
Klara scanned the trees and saw no others, but that didn’t mean they weren’t lurking in the shadows.
“I’m alone,” Frendall said, raising his arms in submission and Klara lowered her axe slowly. The metal and wood handle heavy in her palm.
“Where are the others?” Klara asked, knowing he wouldn’t go far without his Demons. “I left them at the swamp, figured I could find you and try to convince you to return.”
“Return?” Klara laughed at the thought as he winced. “Abadan wants me dead, and the last time I saw my sweet half-sister, her arrow missed my heart by a fraction.” She clenched her axe tighter until she feared the oak handle would shatter into splinters, “There is no returning. Not after what the Hounds did to Arthur.”
Frendall pulled at his collar, “yes, that scene with the Hounds wasn’t pleasant, but you might as well have put up a beacon to your location.” His Commanders uniform seemed to suffocate him as Klara sensed his unease.
“You kept your word and came after me.”
Frendall drifted closer, and she raised an eyebrow.
