Page 4 of Ruthless Scoundrel
I pick at the selection of fish on the banquet table, fueling my magic with the flesh of the dead. Most of the creatures in my repertoire are seafaring, and while there are cliffs just outside the window behind the band, getting the princess to them is going to be more work than I can manage as a Man.
“He’s killed me!” a panicked voice screams, and the banquet hall falls into quiet murmurs.
Everyone turns toward the noise, and I spot the third princess, Alyse. She’s covered in blood and completely nude.
She smells like death.
Alyse laughs manically, grabbing the person closest to her. Then she starts crying.
It’s more than death. There’s somethingverywrong with her.
“Let me go!” Reina’s voice draws my attention and my gaze snaps to her.
A guard is holding her back as she struggles to get to her sister. Suddenly, her skin flares bright blue under the guard’s grip. He jerks his hand back with a pained cry, and Reina runs across the dance floor.
Alyse grasps the hem of the queen’s dress from the ground, mumbling something up at her. She’s covered in filth and blood, her pupils fully blown.
“He said it would make it better. The dust for my nose,” the third princess says.
Drugs, then.
“Healer!” the queen roars over her shoulder.
I slip between the people crowding Alyse and make my way to Reina. This is just the distraction I’ve been waiting for.
“You’ll be all right, princess,” a tall guard says as he drapes a cloak around Alyse’s shoulders.
She clutches the fabric tightly and vomits blood.
She’s fucked.
“Alyse!” Reina screams, pushing against the guards keeping her away from her sister. My heart aches as I watch. There’s genuine pain and fear in her expression. She loves Alyse.
The hairs on my arms stand on end and I scent ozone in the room.
Instinct takes over.
I drop to the floor as lightning smashes through the back side of the entertainment hall with a massive boom. Bodies fly and people scream, but the sound is dimmed through my damaged eardrums.
I yawn once, twice, and shake my head as I search the flaming rubble for the princess.
There. Tanned skin and golden hair with a silver dress. She lifts her head to look for help, but then her eyes flutter shut and she falls back. There’s blood dripping from a cut on herforehead. Everyone, including the queen and her guards, are flat on the ground but starting to move.
This is my only chance.
I pull Reina into my arms and run through the smoldering hole made at the back of the hall. It’s a two-story drop to the grass below, and I grunt as I take the weight of myself and the princess against my knees.
A dragon bellows from the sky, but the tonal shift informs me that it’s just moved out of range. But in a few more seconds we could be in the path of its next attack.
I charge across the smoldering grass for the cliff’s edge as the dragon comes around. The powerful beat of its wings echoes in my still-aching ears. The sound makes my heart thunder as loud as the dragon’s magic.
Ozone fills my senses and crackling courses through the air. The cliff is too far. I won’t make it…
Lightning slams against the palace behind me and the shock wave of destruction makes me stagger forward. I take a quick knee and look back at the palace. The queen and her guards are rallying, but they can’t see me this far out in the darkness.
Guilt surfaces again as I look down at the unconscious woman in my arms.
I could still take her back. I could leave her behind and think of something else.
