Page 86 of Claimed By Shadow and Blood
That was my chance.
I crouched and lunged across the chasm. His eyes widened as he grasped his bow and drew back an arrow while trying to aim, but he had no chance. In less than a breath, my claws struck his stomach, smashing him to the left. He swung the bow back my way and loosed the arrow, and it cut across my chest.
Everything inside me screamed to just give up. But I’d rather die fighting than at the hands of the people who’d tried to break me. I batted the arrow to the ground and smashed into him again, my front paws colliding with his chest. Every injury I had burned, wrenching a howl from between my teeth, and the two of us tumbled back away from the edge of the embankment, limbs tangling.
Squeals from the unicorn had me glancing over. The quicksand was up to its neck. The foal fought desperately to get to the shore.
A fist punched me in the snout, snapping my head back. My face exploded in pain, but I pushed through and sank my teeth into the man’s arm.
He screamed as he used his free hand to search for the fallen arrow.
It was time to end this. Black dots clouded my vision, and I adjusted my hold on his arm, shifting my head just as metal flashed in front of my face. He whipped the arrow by with his free hand, missing me and jamming the pin-sharp point into his own leg.
If my mouth hadn’t been so dry, I’d probably have laughed, but not when so much was at stake. I lunged forward and sank my teeth into his neck, just as I had with Sword Assassin. Each of them deserved a real wolf killing for everything they’d done.
He gurgled as blood filled my mouth. He clearly had something to say, but unluckily for him, I had no desire to hear it. I wanted him gone, and for the first time, I didn’t care about taking a life.
Jerking my head to the side, I ripped out his throat. I backed a few steps, watching him try to grip it and stop the bleeding with one hand.
I yanked my wolf back, wanting to say something to him before he fully died. She tried to fight me—she’d been caged so long—but I yanked her back harder. Shifting while bleeding this much wasn’t smart, but I didn’t give a damn. I was dead either way, and I’d need to be in human form to save the unicorn.
She huffed but receded, and soon my bones cracked back into my human form. The hot, dry wind chafed my bare body, and the cuts from the blades bled faster. Kneeling and snarling in pain, I grabbed him by the shoulders and growled in his ear. “Which do you think will kill you first? Bleeding out? Or the quicksand?”
He choked as blood dripped from the corners of his mouth and frothy red saliva formed at his lips. They moved, but gurgling and gasping was his only response.
This was too easy a death for him.
I yanked the arrow from his leg and pushed him off the boulder, straight over the edge. He sailed headfirst into the quicksand with a heavyplop.
I waited for the satisfaction, and though it didn’t come, nor did any guilt. It was as if killing him meant nothing. He wasn’t the one who’d forced me into this. He was just some knight who hadn’t done his job.
I took a breath and studied the opening to ensure another assassin hadn’t appeared.
A whine drew my attention back to the baby unicorn, which continued to work its legs as if swimming slowly. I kept hold of the arrow and raced around the basin’s edge to get closer to it, taking care not to trip.
“Come here, little one.” The unicorn was still almost a dozen feet away.
The unicorn’s dark gray mane whipped back and forth as it shook its head and another panicked squeal escaped. Its nostrils flared wide and it wheezed, its chest heaving. There was no way to reach it from here.
Not without rope.
Wait. I didn’t have rope, but I did have that dress. If I wanted to retrieve it as quickly as possible, I needed to shift back into animal form.
I hated to leave the arrow behind. It was my only weapon. But if I didn’t, the unicorn would die.
And that was something I couldn’t live with.
Setting the arrow carefully on a nearby rock ledge, I held up my hands. “Just hang on. I’ll be right back.”
I tugged at my wolf, but she lay inside me as if she didn’t have the strength to get up.
Realization slammed into me like a boulder. I was too injured to shift, which meant my time was running out.
I jolted forward, and the pendant dangling from my neck bounced into an arrow wound. Blood coated the pendant and trailed down my body, but I continued to run.
As I rushed back to the original circle where I’d entered the chamber, the unicorn’s cries grew more frantic, breaking my heart a little more. It didn’t understand that I’d be coming back… I hoped it would soon.
My injured feet pounded the stone, causing my injuries to open further. My vision narrowed, my head spun, and my feet throbbed worse than ever. Still, I jumped from the basin and down the path. When I glanced up at the well, crimson water was gushing out stronger than before.
