Page 2 of Tarnished Queen

Death comes for us all. I’ve seen enough of it firsthand to know that when your time is up, it’s up.

But Belle is pregnant with my child. The future of my family depends on what happens in the next few seconds. On whether I can survive this attack. On whether I can haul ass out of here and save Belle from Xena or not.

“Fuck.” I punch the dirt, letting the stinging in my knuckles bring me back. “I can’t fucking die here, can I?”

Go get your woman, Arslan would say if he could speak.Leave me here for the worms. They’re better company than you anyway. Better-looking, too.

The footsteps from the road are getting closer. I’m out of bullets, bleeding dry, and my vision is starting to go blurry.

But giving up isn’t an option.

There is only one way to go: onward.

I lift myself into a crouch. In the distance, I hear sirens. Someone must’ve noticed the gunshots and called the police. They won’t save me, though. Just another inconvenience. They’ll only get in my way.

I hear a rock skitter across the ground as the Greek man closes in on me. I take a deep breath, count to three, and then launch myself towards the front of the car.

“Shit!” the blond man curses as he lunges back.

My movements feel clumsy and feeble. But I throw myself at him again.

“Nikolai, wait!” he hisses, his voice low. “I’m here to help.”

I’d laugh if I had the energy. But I have to conserve my strength for killing as many of these bastards as I can. I lunge forward as the man pulls a gun from his waistband and fires.

I wait for the searing heat and the pain and the darkness that follows.

But to my surprise, there’s nothing. Then I turn and see a Battiato soldier dying on the ground behind me. When I turn back, the blond man waves me towards him.

“Follow me. I’ll get you out.”

I don’t trust him. I don’t trust anyone right now.

But he is killing my enemies, and the more I bleed out, the less able I am to do that on my own. So I make a snap decision: I’ll follow him until he’s no longer useful. Then I’ll kill him.

I turn back one last time to Arslan. This is a shitty goodbye. Nothing at all like what he deserves. I press my hand to my heart for half a second, resting on the eight-pointed star tattoo on my chest. Arslan has the same ink.

Then I leave my best friend behind forever.

The blond man waves me on again. We move quickly down the block. As quickly as I can, at least.

“No one else is here yet, but backup is coming,” he informs me over his shoulder. “I heard on the scanner that the cops are coming, too. Can you run?”

“Of course I can.”

He eyes me skeptically. I must look even worse than I feel. But he nods once and then takes off at a sprint. I follow down the block and around the corner.

Halfway down the next street, he skids to a stop next to a white pickup truck.

“Get in.”

I move around to the passenger side and climb into the truck. The man gets in the driver’s side and reaches for the ignition. As he does, I rip his gun out of his hold and press it to his temple.

He curses under his breath. “You don’t want to do that, Nikolai.”

“You don’t know a damn thing about what I want.”

“I know one thing,” he warns. “If you pull that trigger, Belle is as good as dead.”

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