Page 164 of Of Blood and Banes
Liar.I clench my fist to still my fidgety hands. Desperate to pull magic to demolish her and all her henchmen.
She continues, “Where can I find the Book of Magic?”
Book of Magic…I’ve heard that once before. Back when Cole and I stole theBreaking Magical Bindsjournal from Sethan. But that was just it—a quick mention.
“I. Don’t. Know.” I punctuate each word, pleading she won’t hurt Archie.
“I’ve had enough. Kill him,” she orders over her shoulder.
I drop down to a crouch. Shifting my momentum through my leg, I clip her at the ankles. The two soldiers wrestle Archie as he slams a knee between the legs of one masked person, then headbutts the other. While it’s not enough to knock either of them unconscious, it’s enough to loosen their grip on him. He slides out from their grasp. And as the woman drops back on her ass, I lunge. Throwing my weight entirely on her and snatching her throat in my hands. With my hands on her, I feel a light pulse of magic. My eyes light up, and I dig down into the source and begin to pull it.
She gasps, her eyes widening. “Don’t you dare!”
Digging her fingers into my bare forearms, she throws her weight to the left, toppling me off her. We scramble for the upper hand, and I glimpse Archie being detained.
A roar vibrates outside the room. The door bursts open behind her, bits of wood spraying out from the violent contact like an explosion of small arrows. The door shrieks as it’s torn clear off the hinges. Light spills in from the outside, stretching a long, dark shadow across the dusty floor. Cole’s silhouette is stark against the light background, but his honey eyes flash, his broad chest heaving up and down. Violence beams from his features, his lips pulled back in a scowl as he rakes his gaze across the room. The entire set of soldiers stiffen. A few of them inch backward.
Cole’s sword, clutched tightly in his veined hand, is stained in crimson dripping generously from the blade. “Where is she!”he roars, two cups on the desk rattling with his thunderous demand.
Everyone freezes. And as mine and Cole’s eyes connect, the rest of the soldiers in the room swarm toward him.
The room explodes into chaos.
The woman springs back on me, wrestling me with my back down to the ground. I grapple for the upper hand, and she strikes me across the face again before pinning me. Her legs bracket my waist and hands imprison my wrists. Bridging my hips and swinging my arms down toward my ankles, I dismantle her balance and throw her up over me. Before she can recover, I trap her right arm in mine, wrap my leg around her right thigh, and throw her over. Slamming her onto the ground, I rear up and throw all my anger down through a punch.
My knuckles split as they connect with her face.
When her head smacks back against the wooden floor, I glance up at Archie and at the masked soldier tearing Archie’s arms back behind him, exposing his chest. While the other one rears back his sword. Ready for a clean, killing blow.
Glass explodes from the window, showering Archie and the two soldiers with slivers of it. Daeja snarls and snaps forward, seizing the man with the sword and plucking him out of the room. I shove off the woman and race toward Archie as the soldier holding him hostage backs up against the wall.
“If you don’t leave now, you’re next!” I bark.
The soldier’s eyes meet mine. Wide with paralyzing fear, framed in black metal. But he doesn’t have long to consider it because Daeja’s head pokes back in. Blood drips from her maw and trickles down her throat. She lets out a high-pitched screech before stretching her head across the room. Archie elbows the soldier and ducks with Daeja snapping forward a second later, snatching the soldier by the shoulder. She drags him out slowly, only to terrify the rest of the soldiers in the room as he screams. Irace toward Archie and help him off the ground, turning to who lies in wait.
The black-haired woman is gone.
A soldier swings their blade at Cole. And Cole jerks back with breakneck speed, the blade nearly grazing his nose. Each movement is fueled by his wild rage, with each strike and swing something of a dance. Wrath so palpable it rolls off him in waves filling the entire room. Bodies lie deadly still around him.
Cole hurls himself at the remaining soldiers until they drop to the floor, eyes wide with lifelessness and splattering more pools of blood across the walls. One soldier is left, and they back up until they bump into the wall. They hold out a blade in front of them, practically begging for the space between them and Cole. Cole’s expression is unreadable from this angle, but his red hair swings as he lurches forward and seizes the blade in his hand and squeezes, his own blood dripping down his forearm.
The masked soldier gasps. They release their grip on the sword and raise their hands. A male voice shutters, “I-I surrender! Please!”
Cole throws the man’s sword to the side and devours the space between them. Grabbing the man’s throat, he says in a lethal voice, “You forfeited that right once you took her from me.”
And then he snaps his neck. Tossing the limp body to the side, he turns to face Archie and me. The fury alight in his gaze makes me shiver.
“They’re gathering a group and weapons! Quick! Come out the window!”Daeja’s deep-throated growl warns.
I snag Archie’s hand and pull him to the busted window, trusting Cole will follow. “We need to go! Now, this way!”
Daeja reaches through the window again, and I guide a limping Archie to her first. She plucks him by the collar and pullshim off his feet, then out the window. I spot Marge’s gloves on the desk and grab them, tucking them into my waistband.
Cole grabs the side of my face and turns me to look at him. “Are you hurt?”
“No. You?”
He shakes his head as Daeja reappears and grabs my shirt to lift me out of the room. When she sets me to my feet outside, the sky is growing a darker shade of orange.
