Page 33 of The King's Queen

It sounds fake even to my ears and I can only pray he is dumb enough to believe my poor acting skills. A gloved hand brushes a stray tear from my cheek. I flutter my eyelashes and try to focus on his scar rather than his face.

“I may be able to help.” He removes his hand and scratches his dog’s head. “My name is Luren, my boss sent me here to find someone. If you have any idea who this woman is, my boss would be willing to pay handsomely.”

I swallow thickly and nod. Something is off. The music has grown quieter than before, and Luren’s hound begins to snarl softly, his hackles raised and teeth bared. My eyes drift down towards his hip, where a dark dagger lays. A cursed blade. What’s more is it is laced with a green substance I know all too well. Etherbane.

“Who is your boss?” My fingers smooth the silks around my waist, fumbling for the rough edge of the concealed blade, but I am too slow.

My suspicions are confirmed when he leaps to his feet, his meaty fist tightening around my neck. I gasp for breath and my eyes water. A trap. All of it was a trap.

“Tell Mavis we have her!” He shouts over the crowd before turning back to me. “Save your crocodile tears,pureblood.”

I struggle against his grip, red fogging the corners of my vision. Several armed men burst through the crowd, eliciting shrieks of terror from the innocent onlookers. The dancers huddle in the corner, the elders shielding the younger girls.

Luren’s hand roughly palms my hip, finding the dagger Kya had hidden there before we left. He tuts his tongue before tossing it aside with a triumphant snarl that tells me he thinks he’s won.

Glass shatters as Kya breaks through the window, and gunshots ring out through the building as Amír slams open the side door, gun leveled at Luren’s head. I use the momentary shock to slam my knee into his groin and my head into his own. He crumples with a string of prolific curses while I slide to the ground. Air, I need air, but there’s no time. Bodies hit the floor as Kya carves her way through the crowd, and I feel my heart stop.

Gone is the smiling face that helps me back up from a spar, and now I realize that in all our training sessions, she never once used herself to her full capability. This is the feared assassin of the Nightwalkers, and she’s killing for me.

She grips my hands fiercely, pulling me to my feet. “Can you walk?”

I nod, staring at the blood left behind on my hands as she whips out her daggers again.

“Careful. He has Etherbane.”

“I noticed.” I grimace in response.

She instructs me to stay close behind her as we make our way to the front of the building, where Amír is smashing a man’s head with the butt end of her gun. Blood splatters across my face as Kya slits a man’s throat, and I shriek, distracting my friends long enough for more assailants to strike.

A swarm of bodies closes Kya from my view as many make their way towards them, forgetting entirely about me. I rise to my feet only to be pulled back down again by a strong hand wrapped around my leg. My ankle gives a sickening crunch as I land, and I stifle a cry as I notice the dagger, my dagger, aimed for my chest.

“I won’t kill you,” Luren grunts, his scarred eye wider than the other. “Boss needs you alive, but I can still make it hurt.” He raises the blade again, and I roll, though it slices my arm. Golden blood begins to flow freely from the wound, pouring onto the filthy ground. A few patrons take notice then and murmur amongst themselves. Shit, I can’t let them see my face.

Just barely dodging another assault, I bring my fist up into his nose and hook my leg around his neck, effectively flipping him on his back. He drags the blade across my leg, skinning my calf. My knee nearly grazes his poisoned dagger. With a half-broken sob I fall to the floor, crawling towards the exit, where I can still hear the sounds of fighting.

At this point, I doubt that Kya and Amír are coming for me. It’s too much of a risk. I am on my own. The nearest exit is the window, if I could just make it there… An all too familiar hand wraps around my exposed wound, and Luren drags my leg towards himself.

“You fucking bitch,” he grits through clenched yellow teeth, clutching at his bloody nose. “Fuck Mavis. I’ll kill you myself. I swear, I’ll kill you. I’ll-“

The grizzled man drops his knife with an agonizing scream, blood pouring fourth freely from the bullet hole in his hand. Amír stands a few feet away, Kya carving their way through the crowd towards me.

The redhead loops an arm under my arms and hauls me to my feet. “We need to go. NOW.”

“You came back.”

“Save your gratitude for when we make it out of here. Alive,” she sneers, but I can see the cold sweat beading along her forehead. Kya points to the window, and without waiting for a command pulls out one of her espas and tosses the slender blade through the window. The glass shatters and scatters along the floor. It’s a clear shot if we beat the crowd.

We are only a pace away when Amír cries out, falling to her knees. Kya screams as she sees the blood staining her lover's trousers, the gold and red blossom growing far too quickly.

“Shit.” She curses softly as Mavis’ cronies advance, one coming to retrieve his dagger from where it lays beneath her. “Leave me.”

“Are you out of your mind?” Kya’s voice is shrill with something I’m unaccustomed to hearing from her. Terror. Pure, unadulterated terror. She readies her single espa to fight, but it’s one assassin against dozens of men.

I loop my arms around Amír’s shoulders, carrying the brunt of her weight and run as quickly as I can to the window. It’s low enough to slip out without a running start, but the jagged glass is menacing and waiting to draw blood. Then again, so are the men in the other room. I think I’ll fall to the mercy of the glass.

“Hold on!” I shout and hurl the both of us through the window, doing my best to cover the other woman’s body with my own. I scream for every bit of glass that bites into my bare flesh, my costume doing less for my protection than it does my modesty. Kya follows our lead and jumps through the notably less hazardous window in pursuit. After plucking her weapon from the ground, she rushes forward to take some of the burden from me.

The shouts ring out as our assailants rush through the entrance of the bar, too large to fit through the windows. We need to get out of here, now.

---