Page 26 of Archlord of Exile

Then her personal guard charged into the room.

Fuck.

Inez didn’t know what type of magic the guard had, only that he would be far weaker than Rylec.

A dagger flew toward her head.

Inez dodged. Where had that even come from?

The guard waved his hand and another dagger appeared.

Ah. From there.

Inez had trained in hand-to-hand combat for years, but never with anyone who could summon a new weapon mid-fight. Then again, last time she fought, she hadn’t had magic of her own. She raised her hand and the dagger impaled in the bed post flewinto her grip. With a flick of her wrist, Inez threw the blade. The guard tried to dodge, but Inez hadn’t thrown the blade with her hand, but with magic. She tracked his movement with her eyes and the blade followed.

It caught him in the neck, and he crashed to the floor with a gurgled crash.

“Phew,” she huffed out, but Inez didn’t let herself relax. Calanthe surely had more guards. An entire fleet had arrested her and Rylec.

Rylec.

Inez ran from the room. She didn’t care who she encountered on the other side. Rylec wouldn’t go to his death easily, but wherever he was, he needed help. Inez had fled last time, letting a cruise ship carry her to the other side of the galaxy. She wouldn’t leave him alone again.

Inez crashed into a solid male body as she swung out the door.

She bounced off and landed softly on her feet.

Archlord Eliaz raised a dark eyebrow. “Inez.”

Inez redirected her eyes. She couldn’t take her attention off Eliaz, so she stared at the side of his head. Rylec had once said the archlord needed direct eye contact to read and control a mind.

“Where’s Rylec?”

“Where’s Calanthe?”

“Dead.” If the archlord gave her the same answer in return, she’d kill him.

But Rylec couldn’t be dead. His magic still thrummed under her skin. As long as they were both on Tertia, she would know.

“Not dead.”

Bastard. With magic, Inez pulled the dagger from the guard’s neck on the other side of the room. When the blade landed in her grip, she raised it at him. “Where is he?”

For some reason, the psychopath grinned. “How did Calanthe die?”

What? Her furrowed brow conveyed the question, but Eliaz’s eyebrow just arched higher.

Fine. Whatever. What did it matter? “I killed her.”

“Ah. In that case, Rylec is right this way, Your Majesty.” Eliaz dropped into a bow—

not a very low one, but noticeably a bow.

Inez stared. Her Majesty? “What are you doing?”

Before the archlord answered, Rylec spun around the corner. Blood splattered his once-white shirt and pale skin, but it didn’t look like his. The shade was too orange, drying to a burnt color on his white skin. Inez lowered the blade, but didn’t take her eyes off of Eliaz.

“Next time you decide to transport yourself, Eliaz,” her husband started, “bring me along with you—Inez?”

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