Page 89 of Forged By Heart and Claws
My claws dug into my palms. The blade at his shoulder wavered ever so slightly.
After folding his robe, Colm set it aside. “My men check on me every three hours. Let's be generous and say the last round was recent, so we'll pretend you have nearly three hours. If everything goes flawlessly, you might save some of the adults.But the children?” His smile curved wider, crueler. “The infants? Even a small exposure can be fatal to bodies so small. Horribly. They will die. Can you live with that?”
Briar’s breath caught. Her fingers clenched tighter around her sword hilt until her knuckles bleached. Her fear pulsed through our bond, quiet and raw beneath the rage in her eyes. If it wasn’t for that, I never would’ve known and would've assumed it was only rage.
“What kind of poison?” she bit out.
Colm blinked slowly. “Now, why would I tell you that? You don’t have enough time to break me, sweetheart.”
Veralt moved in, silent and grim. He patted Colm down with calculated force, retrieving a dagger, two vials of viscous green liquid, a silk-wrapped sliver of a blade with no hilt, a set of bone-handled lockpicks, a pouch of black powder, and several tight packets of dried herbs that smelled faintly metallic.
He lined the items up on the closest table, beside the rubble of broken crystal and scorched metal. The display looked like an assassin’s kit.
The cold weight in my chest deepened. My instincts screamed this wasn’t a bluff. Every word he’d said had been delivered with the quiet, bone-deep confidence of someone who believed he’d already won.
“Bind him,” I ordered. My voice was low. Final. “To the chair.Now.”
I shoved Colm forward with a hand between his shoulder blades, and Thalen stepped in without hesitation. He bound Colm’s wrists behind him tightly, securing them with a series of rough, practiced knots. Then he dragged him toward the velvet black chair in the corner and forced him down into it.
With no back spindles to anchor to, Thalen looped the rope around the carved legs and tied off the slack with sharp jerks, making sure Colm couldn’t shift an inch.
Colm exhaled, unbothered. “Hope you have a plan, Vad. Because the clock is ticking.”
“We’re just going to tie him up and leave?” Veralt spread his arms wide.
Colm answered before I could. “Unless you’d prefer to be the reason a few dozen children die choking on their own blood, then yes.” He grinned, a wild glint in his eyes as he turned toward Thalen. “Go on and pull it tighter. I don’t mind pain.”
“Tell us how to deactivate the traps in the prison.” I struck him across the cheek with the hilt of my sword. His head snapped to the side, blood spraying from a split in his lip, but when the bastard recovered, he just smirked.
How much time did we really have?
Briar stepped forward with fury flickering in her eyes. She stopped beside me, her hand flexing at her thigh like she wanted to reach for something sharp.
“We already have Calla Lily,” she whispered with each word honed with venom. She leaned down so that she was near his face, her hand pressed against her thigh, and her fingers tensed. “You either tell Vad what he needs to know, or… when we get back, we’ll kill her. And if we don’t make it back, we left instructions for someone else to finish the job. So. Your move, Douchewaffle.”
Colm’s grin faltered. “No… You’re bluffing. I know you, Briar. You wouldn’t?—”
“Wouldn’t I?” Her voice dropped to a dangerous whisper as she set her hand on her hip and pointed her sword at his chest. “You think you know me? You tortured me. Youalmostbroke me. But even then, you knew one thing—there’snothingI won’t do for the people I love.”
Her voice cracked, but she didn’t waver.
“Calla Lily is responsible for so many deaths. Yuki. Thalira. She cut Rhielle’s throat, didn’t she? She threatened Vad. Mygrandfather. She helped you kill King Merrick.” Her blade trembled, not with fear but with restraint. “She’s a monster. And I’ll end her myself.”
Desire grew deep within me, but I fought it off. I’d take care of that problem later. Right now, Briar didn’t need saving. Shewasthe reckoning.
Colm’s throat bobbed. A breath caught in his chest. “You can’t kill her. She’s only in this because shelovesme.”
Briar’s jaw clenched. “Then she can die with you.”
His mask cracked. An angry hiss tore from his throat. “You feckingbrat?—”
Briar grabbed him by the collar and yanked him forward. “Tell usnow?—”
A thunderousboomcut through her words, shaking the observatory door in its frame.
My blood turned to ice, and I spun, sword raised.
“Colm!” Calla Lily’s voice rang out, high and shrill. “I saw the light shift! Are you all right?”
