Page 106 of Forged By Heart and Claws
I motioned to the groom’s door.Go. We've got this taken care of here. Can you find your way?
I'll trace my steps back to where we split off and then follow Ryker's scent. Ryker, you guys did go through the main entrance, right?Ember swept her hair back over her shoulder.
Yes. Thought we'd handled them all, too, but some of them were sneaky bastards,Ryker responded.Be careful.
Make sure you have your sword,I linked back to her. I stepped forward and found that the barrier that had kept us there briefly was no longer present. It had vanished with the guardians.Contact me immediately if you need backup.
"What are you doing?" Colm roared, his voice cracking with fury. "Pick up your weapons! That’s an order!"
One of the soldiers near him stepped forward and removed his helmet, revealing a weathered face and piercing blue eyes. “You said this was Fate’s will. That you were purging corruption,” the guard called, his voice carrying across the suddenly still hall. “But Fate just spoke through the Guardian Beasts. They’ve blessed King Vad and Queen Briar. We all saw it.”
His words hung in the air like a spark over oil. Murmurs rippled through the remaining soldiers.
Colm’s face twisted with rage. He shoved the merlinite orb into his robes, shot downward like a streak of shadow with his wings tight, and seized the man by the throat. With a violent thrust of his wings, he rocketed up and slammed the guard against a marble column.
His claws tore through flesh. Blood poured down the man's neck, soaking the dark-gray collar of his armor.
“It is not your place to question,” Colm snarled. “Only to obey. And if you cannot obey, then you’ll serve in other ways.”
The man choked, struggling in Colm’s grasp. “No…please?—”
Colm ignored him. With his free hand, he drew the orb from his robe. Cracks webbed across its surface glowed with dark blue light. With a vicious sneer, he jammed it against the man’s forehead.
The guard stiffened, and a guttural scream tore from his throat as his skin blistered and blackened.
“No!” Vad shouted. Shadows snapped from him like whips, lashing toward Colm?—
Calla Lily threw up a barrier far smaller than the one the guardians had put over us. But even though it was small, it was efficient, catching Vad’s shadow magic mid-strike. Vad’s power recoiled, flickering out.
“Stop!” I yelled, scanning the debris for something—anything—I could use to break through the shield.
The orb sank deeper. Flesh hissed and bubbled. The man's eyes rolled back as a hole burned through his skull, the scent of scorched flesh drifting in the air. The guard's screams weakened as his body began to shrivel within his armor, his skin turning ashen.
Colm’s wings darkened before my eyes, the smoky gray shifting to a slick, oily black threaded with pulsing crimson veins. His aura thickened, turning so dense it seemed to choke the air. Nausea twisted in my gut.
He flung the charred body aside, and it crumpled to the marble floor with a sickeningcrunch. He turned to Vad, a cruel smirk stretching across his narrow face. Smoke blades formed around him. “It used to take so long to siphon magic from others, but thanks to your little gift, it’s so much easier now.”
His gaze swept down to his guards. “Now then, insolent wretches, pick up your weapons and fight, or I’ll give you a fate far worse. Fight well, and maybe I’ll forgive this act of cowardice.”
Several guards scrambled for their blades, desperation on their faces.
The wolves growled low and crouched.
“Don’t do this, Colm,” Vad warned, stepping in front of me and pushing me gently behind him. “Release them and surrender. You’ve lost their trust. Everyone sees you for the liar and fraud you are.”
Calla Lily glided toward Colm and laughed. She laid a many-ringed hand on his shoulder and tilted her head mockingly. “There’s nothing fraudulent about the pain we can deliver.”
“If anyone should surrender,” Colm purred, “it’s you. I've just consumed another fae's full life force and magic, the entirety ofhis essence. Can you even begin to understand just how powerful that makes me right now?”
Without warning, he lifted a single clawed finger toward Calla Lily. She gave a barely perceptible nod, and I realized too late that she was dropping the barrier.
Colm clenched his fist.
A concussive blast erupted, the force slamming Vad backward into me.
I screamed as we crashed to the floor. My wings cushioned some of the impact, but pain lanced down my spine as benches toppled and the shockwave rattled the hall.
Colm and Calla Lily laughed, the sound echoing through the hall like a warning.
