Page 16 of A Kiss of Embers
“Pri, was it?”
Seraphina shoved him backward, and he landed with a thump on the ground. The sound was eerie, like a dead body hitting the floor, but Bastien was very much alive.
“You never told me your name,” he grunted, and she only wished she’d kept him unconscious. But he needed to eat to keep him alive.
She enunciated every syllable as she tossed smoked pheasant onto his chest. “Seraphina Nova. Otherwise known as the person who is going to kill you.”
“I thought you planned to trade me for your sister.”
“Of course. But I do want you to be somewhat recognizable when I’m done with you.”
She felt his raw fury like threads of tension strung tight in the air. She rubbed her volcanic rock over his right arm from his shoulders to his elbow to his wrist and fingers.
The moment his arm regained movement, his hand darted toward his belt as if he expected to find his weapons there. She smirked.
“Looking for something? Surely you don’t think I’m idiotic enough to allow a patrol guard to keep his weapons.”
He glared. “What did you do with them? That was my favorite hunting bow.”
“I discarded them in the river,” she lied, her fingers playing with another pouch on her sash where she’d stored a smaller version of his belongings, shrunken using magic. “I figured the weapons you used to kill dozens of my people only deserved a watery grave.”
Bastien’s lips pressed tightly together as he leveled her with a stare. “You cannot possibly tell me your hands are clean. No one’s hands remain unbloodied in this feud.”
Unfortunately, he made a good point. No one enjoyed killing another person. But they did it to protect the ones they loved.
“Release me,” he demanded. “I can break your sister out of jail, and then there will be no need for bloodshed.”
“I’m afraid it’s too late for such actions to be taken.” Her fingers flirted with her knife as she imagined Pri lost and alone, cornered by the Attleglade patrol, and now hunched in a jail behind bars. If they harmed Pri in any way, she would burn down the entire village, even if she met her own end by accomplishing the dark deed.
Leaving her own people without a leader…
She clenched her fists and turned away from her enemy. “Eat. You might not get another chance until we reach our destination.”
“What did you do?” He scoffed and threw the meat into the bushes. “Poison it?”
“Poison is my specialty.” She moved closer until the hem of her dress brushed against his leg. “But I don’t need to sneak poison into your food to do the job effectively.” She leaned even closer. “Believe me, I can make your life a living nightmare with very minimal effort. And I’d enjoy it, too.”
In a movement faster than her eye could follow, Bastien lunged at her with his one working arm and managed to grab her around the neck. The strength behind the attack took her off guard, and he took advantage of her momentary shock to flip her over, holding her against his chest as he tightened his arm around her throat in a chokehold.
She clawed desperately at his arm, but no matter how hard she tried to free herself from his grasp, he proved much stronger than her.
The ring encircling her finger pulsed faintly with the magic to make her stronger, but without sunlight to charge it, she was no stronger than the average woman.
Kicking and clawing quickly proved futile, and as black spots danced at the edges of her vision, her fingers desperately fumbled toward her belt. She spilled powder. She dropped a knife somewhere in the dirt. But then her fingers clasped around a small dart. She had no idea what was in it. The substance inside could give Bastien hallucinations, or it could kill him.
In a single movement he was unable to dodge, she thrust the dart into his arm as the light faded from her vision. Just as her arms drooped and her head fell to the side, Bastien’s grip loosened on her enough for her to gasp in a breath of air and shove his arm off her.
She leaped to her feet and put distance between them, inhaling breath after rapid breath as she watched Bastien’s body convulse in a seizure. Her hand flew to her aching throat. Disbelief trembled through her core. Had he held onto her for only a few more seconds, she would have died.
He was fast and strong. She wouldn’t make the mistake of underestimating him again.
A gasp escaped the fae man’s mouth as he convulsed, his body shaking and thrashing as if a demon possessed him. Even from his current symptoms, she had no idea what she’d injected him with.
At least until she glanced down at the dart gun strapped to her sash and realized what was missing. Although Bastien likely wouldn’t die from what she’d injected him with, it was going to be a rough night for him.
As if to confirm her words, he stopped thrashing for only a moment as his eyes lurched wide open. His mouth formed an “o” shape as terror leaked from every facet of his expression. He inhaled deeply.
And screamed.
