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“This isn’t necessary?”
“Not when their presence could escalate things.”
“And if you’re telling me that she’s not here, Hanan will discover your lie,” Dorcan continued from the road. “As will the King.”
“Is there any single part of me that looks like I give a fuck?” Nyktos replied, and I blew out a low breath.
I hoped Nektas was really close.
“You should.” Dorcan tilted his head back. “Especially since I’ve heard you’ve had a rough couple of days. Dakkais. Draken. And you’re about to take on a Consort.”
“Oh, shit,” Saion muttered, tensing.
The change in the air was sudden and tangible, charging with static. Both Ector’s and Rhain’s hands went to their swords. I doubted Dorcan was unaware as he said, “A piece of advice, old friend. I don’t think this is the time you want to further anger any of the Primals. All we want is to take Bele to Hanan’s Court.”
“Then shouldn’t Hanan be here?” Nyktos replied. “However, he’s likely too much of a coward to make such a request in person. That’s why he had you act as his errand boy instead. Either way, I’ll give you a piece of advice. It’s time for you to find a new Court to serve,” Nyktos said. “One where the rulers have the courage to make such demands themselves.”
“You know I can’t do that.”
“If you made a blood oath to Hanan—swearing fidelity to him—then that was a very unwise choice,” Nyktos replied.
“Perhaps.” Dorcan tilted his head toward those standing behind Nyktos. “What I do know is that the bulk of your guards are too far down the Rise, and your armies are at the western border.”
“Armies?” I sent Saion a quick glance. “Nyktos has an army?”
Saion frowned at me. “Of course, he does.”
That was news to me.
“It would be wise of you to just give us Bele,” Dorcan said. “And then we’ll be on our way, without having caused any…disturbances.”
“You’ve already caused a disturbance.” The coldness in Nyktos’s voice sent a chill down my spine. “So whatever you think you’re going to do, get on with it. This whole scene is becoming a bore.”
Dorcan laughed again. “So be it.”
“How good are you with a bow?” Saion asked under his breath as the Cimmerian who had been getting handsy with the dagger at his waist twisted, angling his body toward Rhain. I didn’t hesitate.
I released the arrow, striking the Cimmerian between the eyes before he could let go of the dagger. “That good,” I murmured, ignoring the throbbing warmth of the embers of life in my chest as they responded to the god’s death.
Dorcan’s head swung in my direction, but I knew he couldn’t see me. I leaned back as the clash of swords echoed from the road below. I quickly nocked another arrow and moved farther into the parapet, peering down. My chest tensed.
I could only see Nyktos, taller than all the others in the swarm of Cimmerian, going sword to sword with Dorcan.
“Stay unseen,” Saion ordered, starting to rise. “If Nyktos is overpowered for some reason, get your ass inside and go to Bele and Aios. Charmed or not, you can still be killed.”
Nyktos overpowered? My throat dried. I’d seen him fight with a sword against Gyrms and dakkais. He’d ripped an entombed god in half with his bare hands. He couldn’t be overwhelmed.
“Do you understand?” Saion demanded.
“Yes.” I dropped to my knees behind the shorter wall, beside several shadowstone spears.
“You’d better. They don’t know what’s inside you. Who you really are. They’ll take your head back to Hanan on a spike,” Saion warned. Then, with that lovely imagery, he leapt off the Rise.
Assuming Saion had survived a jump that would’ve surely broken every bone in my body, I took aim at anyone wearing a balaclava. A head on a moving target was harder than a chest, so I waited even as my finger began to twitch, until one of the Cimmerian warriors turned toward a Shadowland guard, bracing himself. I fired, reaching for another arrow as warmth pulsed in my chest once more and stayed that way, responding to the deaths. Readying the arrow, I saw Rhain kick a Cimmerian back as he thrust his sword behind him.
Shadowstone was indestructible…
The shadowstone blade pierced the armor with a spark of stone against stone, embedding deep in the Cimmerian’s chest.
Apparently, shadowstone wasn’t impenetrable against itself. Good to know.
Rhain jerked the sword free and spun, arcing his blade across the neck of the one before him. The other had gone down, but he didn’t die immediately. He rolled onto his side, attempting to stand—
And then I saw it.
A black mist of night seeping out from the wounded Cimmerian. I fired, striking him in the back of the head. A cry of pain echoed from somewhere else, and my chest scorched my insides as I nocked another arrow. Dark shadows had gathered across the road, opaquer than even the Shades, spilling out from several of the Cimmerian.
I quickly sought out Nyktos, my breath catching at the hard set of his striking features as he whirled, cleaving a Cimmerian’s head from their body as he met Dorcan’s blow with his broadsword. He twisted at the waist, shoving Dorcan back as he turned and threw a second, shorter sword. It whipped through the air, slicing through the head of a Cimmerian who had driven one of Nyktos’s guards to a knee. Blood sprayed as the short sword circled back through the air, right into Nyktos’s waiting hand. He whirled, meeting Dorcan’s attack with both swords, and that was…well, that was impressive.
Night swirled higher and higher. Once it reached their heads, I would be of no aid to them. I could see that the wisps of the thick, cloak-like mist weren’t seeping out of the arms of all the Cimmerian, so I focused only on them. Giving up on the head, I took aim at the chest of a Cimmerian and fired. I held my breath, watching to see if the arrow pierced the shadowstone.
It cut through the armor, and a ragged breath punched from my lungs, but there wasn’t a lot of relief. The arrow didn’t go as deep as Rhain’s sword had, only managing to stop whatever the Cimmerian had been doing to call upon the night. The Shadowland guard quickly seized the opportunity as the Cimmerian ripped the arrow from his chest, turning to the Rise.
The embers of life flared inside me as I found another warrior conjuring the mist and loosed an arrow, catching the Cimmerian in the chest. The embers pulsed again and again as I quickly fired and snapped another arrow into place on the string. I shifted on my knee, finding another Cimmerian—
Gasping, I fell back against the wall as a dagger hissed through the air, passing inches from my face. Heart thumping, I returned to the parapet to see Nyktos sever the head of the Cimmerian who’d likely thrown the blade.
As the warrior fell forward, Nyktos’s eyes snapped to the Rise, the bright silver of his irises lashed with luminous eather as I leveled the bow toward him. Our gazes locked for only a heartbeat.
Nyktos’s head tilted as I pulled the string taut.
And fired.
He whipped around as the arrow struck the Cimmerian charging him from behind.
I smirked as he looked over his shoulder, his lips tipping up faintly. He turned back to Dorcan, leaving me to wonder if he had actually smiled—just a little—as a Cimmerian lifted his sword and pointed at the Rise. I reached for another arrow, keeping low. I readied the arrow and rose. Maybe Nyktos wouldn’t be that mad—
“Gods,” I exhaled. A void of utter blackness had risen up the side of the Rise, quickly cresting the top and spilling across the battlement.
Lurching to my feet, I swung the bow into the darkness. There was a curse from within the mass, echoed by mine as I twisted. Nyktos and Saion had failed to mention that the Cimmerian could somehow use whatever they manifested to scale a Rise in basically seconds. I grabbed a spear, the cool-to-the-touch metal in a firm grip as I spun.