Page 28 of Queen of the Night
She nods again. “Yeah, I think that plan B should become plan A. It would save us a whole lot of trouble, and I’m positive Lucentia will choose you. You’ll make a great king.”
I’m unsure how to respond. “I’ll take that as a… compliment. Though it sounds a rather treasonous opinion.”
“You won’t tell the king, will you?” She says it with a lilt of sarcasm and a somewhat dramatic whisper. Her shoulder brushes my arm with unnoticed familiarity, and her gray eyesare bright in this moment of unguarded lightness. She’s not making it any easier to put distance between us.
“I’ll not speak those words aloud. You have my word.” I place my hand across my heart, and while it’s there, I rub the tightness from my chest caused by the ever-building guilt I feel for continuing to hide my true identity from her.
Vera laughs, but it fizzles out like steam from water-drenched fire as a snarl sounds, raising the hair on my arms. I instinctively step in front of her while simultaneously reaching for my sword. Rhosse and Darvy both turn back, unsheathing their own weapons.
“We’ll be needing that lucent now,” I mutter.
Chapter 17
Vera
Ifreeze. My veins are full of lucent, pulsing beneath my skin, eager to be used and tested.I push lucent toward Ikar, focusing on the amount I send, not too little but not too much. In less than a second, his enchanted sword glows bright. I curse, having forgotten about Rhosse and Darvy. I quickly separate two more channels, controlling the same amounts, but I find that my focus is strained between the three men and the enemy before us. Darvy’s sword glows as brightly as Ikar’s, and Rhosse uses an enchanted battle axe, glowing with lucent, as well. I nod to myself; things are going well.
Then the wolves attack.
I pull my sword, my back to Ikar’s, and fight off a smaller wolf that has targeted me—if you can call any of themsmall. They stand as tall as horses, their shoulders rounded, with sharp, bony spines that run the length of their back and down their tails. Add to that their fierce, enormous faces and mouths full of razor-sharp teeth ready to rip our bodies to shreds.
Gloam whispers around them, giving them life and making them appear even larger than they already are. The wolf snapsits jaws at me, backing off and moving forward again as if testing me. I swing my sword like I know what I’m doing, but it won’t be long before it realizes any skills are practically nonexistent.
Immediately my mental focus wavers as the wolf lunges. I lift my sword, targeting its chest, but its jaws clamp down around my blade and wrench it from my grasp, tossing it into the forest beyond. I certainly don’t have time to clamber around searching for it, so instead I pull my dagger, but it seems woefully small. Somehow, I know if I survive this Rhosse is going tokillme in our next weapons lesson.
It stalks toward me as if it has already won—drat myself for agreeing. I back up, realizing that Ikar’s back is no longer against mine, stumbling a bit over the forest floor, searching over my shoulder for help only to see Ikar, Rhosse, and Darvy wrapped up in fierce battles of their own to my right.
How could I have thought I was capable enough for a job like this?The dark whisper eats at my confidence.
The wolf continues toward me—I know I’m being cornered, but I have nowhere else to go. I continue to stumble backward, farther and farther away from my comrades. I yelp when I trip over a jagged branch and end up forced to scuttle backward like a pitiful crab.
The wolf prepares to spring forward, but Rupi dives from the treetops with her feathers quilled larger than I’ve ever seen them, straight at the monster’s eye. I don’t let her bravery go to waste, scrambling to my feet even as the wolf roars so loudly my ears ring. The wolf easily shakes her off and charges at me, its mouth gaping so wide I can see down its gloam-filled throat, just a breath away from tearing out the soft flesh of my neck. Rupi prepares to dive again, and I instinctively pull an orb and thrust it out ahead of me at the same time I jab at the wolf withmy dagger. For a moment, the orb seems to stun the monster, then Rupi makes contact again, and the wolf rears up in rage before slamming down before me again. I cringe and hold my hand steady, waiting to feel its jaws clamp down around my forearm, but instead the nauseating sound of a sword plunging into its form fills my ears.
“Vera, lucent!” Ikar shouts, reminding me.
My orb flickers badly, and I realize I’ve forgotten about the men and the lucent I was hired to offer them. Feeling a rush of guilt, I pull more and send it rushing out in somewhat erratic waves toward each of them. Ikar’s enchanted sword pulses in the wolf’s chest, and the beast falls to the ground at his feet, lifeless.
Ikar wastes no time pulling his sword free and running back toward Darvy and Rhosse to finish off the other three wolves. Grunting and shouting and the awful sounds of gruesome fighting assault my ears as I scramble through the brush in search of my sword. All the while, I’m sure to keep up the lucent. The odds are fair, three wolves to three men and a mostly unhelpfuloriginator.
Rupi soars to a spot in the long grass and flaps her wings, catching my attention. I spy a glint of steel and run toward her, finding my sword and pulling it from the dirt and grass.
I give her a rushed pat of gratitude. “Thanks, girl.”
I turn and view the fight, worried I’ll do more harm than good if I go rushing in. One wolf lodges its claws in the back of Rhosse’s armor, taking him to the ground, its wide jaws going for his neck before Darvy jumps in and stabs the beast through the side at the same time the second wolf locks its teeth on Darvy’s forearm and throws him to the ground as well.
Ikar finishes off the one he’d been fighting and runs to help. It’s then that from my outside perspective, I see another wolfcreeping from the shadows of the forest, eyeing Ikar’s exposed back as he stabs the wolf that intended to maul Darvy.
I don’t think—I run. I pull lucent through the newly enchanted blade and hold a lucent orb in my other hand as I sprint. The wolf lunges, and I force myself not to close my eyes as I brace my sword arm. I feel the moment my blade makes contact, and the beast’s heavy form lands atop me, sending us both crashing to the ground.
I lie beneath its weight with my eyes squeezed shut, waiting to see if it gotmebefore I gotit. It’s unnaturally silent as its last breath leaves its lungs. I can’t see anything besides thick black fur, but apparently my sword hit its mark. I might not be skilled, but with a hefty dose of Lucentia’s luck and a little bravery, maybe Iamcapable enough. I’d laugh, but I feel as if my lungs have been pressed to my spine. I struggle to breathe, and my head aches from the impact. Even as darkness encroaches in my vision, I force myself to continue sending lucent for the men, though I no longer hear any sounds of fighting.
Ikar shouts my name, but my hearing is growing fuzzy with the lack of air, turning to a high-pitched ringing. The next second, he lifts the wolf off me as if it weren’t twice his size, and I realize he used my lucent to increase his strength. I’d forgotten he could do that…
Did I know he could do that?I wonder dreamily as I stare at his handsome face and suck in lungfuls of air at the relief. My lucent orb flickers, and I finally let it fizzle out as I lie in the dirt, exhausted and still battling darkness at the edges of my vision.
Ikar sheathes his sword and kneels, looking over me with concern. “Are you hurt?”
Rupi hops worriedly atop my chest, gently nudging mychin in an attempt to get my attention and ensure I’m okay, but I’m still gasping for breath and wheezing in a manner that I’m sure is attractive, making it impossible to answer.
