Page 46 of House of Embers
She put her back to his. A dagger was handed over his shoulder to her. She felt better with it in her hand. She hadn’t been able to wear even a single blade under the dress she was in, but Fordham had no such restrictions in his suit. Steel was always her preference.
“Come out and face us,” Fordham yelled into the darkened corridor.
But no one answered.
The assassins, whoever they were, melted into the shadows as if they too had the Ollivier family gift. But of course they did not. She’d known assassins like this and knew how to defeat them.
Kerrigan breathed in her fire magic. It was her strongest elementby far but one that she had always kept a lid on. She always played with air and earth and sometimes even water. Fire felt like the chaos of her hair. Like it would burn down the world if she took the lid off her rage. She only tapped into it when she had nothing else.
If she was going to burn down the world and start fresh, she needed to start with an ember.
Her fire magic responded like a fount, blossoming down the hall and lighting the way. One assassin, dressed in all black with their face covered, cried out as they caught fire and dropped down to roll the magic away. Another assassin sprang out from the other direction. Smoke flooded the hall in either direction, and if they weren’t careful, it would be as deadly as the flames Kerrigan had at her fingertips.
Fordham engaged the assassin as they slashed at him and his betrothed with their daggers. The element of surprise was gone, and it was clear that Fordham was by far the better swordsman. The oleander daggers would have hindered them and made them easier targets, but it was too late now.
Kerrigan jumped into the fray as another came into the hall. She used her air magic to blast the smoke into the face of this assailant as she heard another. Perhaps there were more? Or was this a test?
“Don’t kill them,” Kerrigan yelled back to Fordham as she lifted her blade to deflect the assassin’s sword.
“They’re trying to kill me,” he barked.
“I have an idea.”
Kerrigan twirled out of the way, using her superior footwork to get to the other side of the assassin. She kicked them in the backs of their knees, which crunched hard on the ground. Then she laid them out on their stomach and pushed her heel into their spine.
“Don’t move or I’ll personally sever your spine,” she snarled.
The other assassin, who she’d taken down with her flames, recovered enough to return to their feet. Kerrigan used her air to hold the first down as she engaged with the second. She didn’t need anythingfancy for this. She had all four elements at the ready. And yet she wanted to prove her point.
She grasped at the shadows in the hallway and let them coat her hands. The assassin gasped at the sight, falling back in evident fear at her control. But already she was using the shadows like a whip, lassoing the assassin with darkness and reeling him into her. She punched him in the face when he got close enough and unwound him on top of his partner.
They both cried out as she mastered her air magic and tightened the grip around them with the closing of a fist.
“Who sent you?” she snarled at her incapacitated assailants.
“We’ll never say!” the first yelled.
She kicked the second. “And you?”
The assassin glared up at her with fire in their dark eyes. “They’ll beat you. We are just the first wave. You’ll never be safe.”
“Yeah, yeah. I’ve heard the propaganda before.” Kerrigan rolled her eyes. “A name?” She glanced up at Fordham. He had the two he’d been engaging with in a similar position, though held with nothing but his shadows. He looked like a dark god as the shadows swept over him. “You get anything from them?”
“I recognize them,” Fordham said. “They’re Laurent dogs.”
“As I figured.”
“Your idea?” he asked.
“We need to make an appearance. Can you jump?”
Fordham’s smile was deadly. “Together.”
Then he grasped her arm, and they all disappeared at once.
Kerrigan landed in the center of the ballroom they had just vacated, four assassins cowering under heavy pressure before her and Fordham. Shadows crawled over Fordham, a wave of black smoke announcing their entrance.
Screams went up at their unorthodox entrance. Attendees ran from the sight of him at full power. They should have been afraid of Kerrigan in that moment, for she was barely holding on by a thread. She wantedto kill Barron Laurent for sending assassins to ambush them. He must have wagered that they’d either complete their mission or Fordham and Kerrigan would run away with their tails between their legs. He clearly didn’t know her well or that she had a flair for the dramatic.
