Page 79 of A Kiss of Flame
His brother lunged towards him, swords coming so close to his throat that had Finn not bent back like a reed, they would have taken his head off. The movement left him exposed and he twisted again, barely avoiding the remaining guard’s weapons slicing through the air towards him.
The door rocked again and this time something splintered. The knights beyond didn’t have weaponry and Leander was already summoning reinforcements.
‘Get back,’ Finn tried to yell to them. It wouldn’t do any good, he knew that. His brother knights would never give up. They’d arm themselves with whatever they could. ‘Anselm, you have to get out of here another way.’
What that might be, he didn’t know.
Something struck the small of his back, sending him lurching forward. Leander was waiting, a blow knocking his sword from his suddenly numb hand and bringing him to his knees.
Why did he always end up on his knees?
The two curved blades closed against his neck and he swallowed, his Adam’s apple brushing the edges. He fell still, perfectly still, because he had to. It was over. Breathing hard, Finn looked up into Leander’s triumphant face.
The door gave way and he heard Anselm cry out a warning while Olivier ploughed into the remaining assailant. Too late though. They were too late.
‘Let him go,’ Anselm snarled. Hestia had been as good as her word. But for his pallor and the shadows under his eyes, no one would have known him for the man they had dragged from death’s chill embrace last night. He circled Leander, holding the sword from the fallen guard, but there was nothing he could do to help Finn and he knew it.
Leander laughed. ‘Now? I don’t think so. It’s time I dealt with you for once and for all, Finnian. Before it’s too late.’
‘Too late for what?’ Finn asked.
Leander had that reckless light in his eyes, malice and vengeance combined. ‘She still hasn’t told you, has she? Hestia and all her plans within plans. She thinks she’s so clever. But I’m not giving everything up that easily.’
All the same Leander didn’t land the killing blow. His hands shook. Finn could feel the trembling all down the blades, almost as if some other force held him in check.
‘What plan?’ he asked in as calm a voice as he could. If he could keep him talking, keep him gloating even, he might still have a chance. ‘Is this about Wren? Did Hestia have something to do with Elodie’s kidnapping?’
At that, Leander howled with laughter. ‘Elodie? Oh, I have no idea what the sisterhood intend for Elodie. Even Hestia has no idea and she’s meant to lead them. They’ve been laying plans of their own, some of them. But I’ll tell you this, I’ll look after Wren. You have my word on that. I’ll make her mine if it’s the last thing I do. I’ll make her forget you ever existed.’
He leaned into the swords, as if trying to force himself on, and froze, his expression changing from crazed obsession to bewilderment. And then pain.
Blinding, furious, pain.
Leander screamed as he fell and Finn rolled aside, narrowly avoiding the swords. They clattered on the flooring beside the crown prince, who lay there, writhing in agony.
Behind him stood Wren and Hestia, and the eyes of both women were as black as a moonless night, and shadow kin, eyes aglow and teeth bared, wound around them like a pack of hunting dogs.
CHAPTER 42
FINN
Finn struggled to his feet, checking on Anselm and Olivier. They weren’t hurt, but they looked as wary as he felt. The other guard crawled away silently. And Leander sobbed in rage and fury as he curled around his right arm where the bracelet seethed with dark magic.
He’d never seen Hestia display power like this before. She belonged to the Sisterhood of the Nox, he knew that, but even so…
Wren stood beside her, in a dark green Ilanthian gown, the sleeves falling from her wrists like fronds of weeping willow, her hair coiling and moving like smoke in a breeze. Power radiated from her and filled the sorceress.
‘What is going on here?’ Finn said, in as calm and determined a voice as he could muster. ‘Hestia? What have you been doing?’
‘Stand down, Finn,’ Hestia snapped without so much as glancing at him. ‘This is witchkind business and I will have answers. I want to know everything, Leander, all your petty plots and machinations. Someone will blame us for Sassone’s ridiculous coup. If you know anything?—’
‘How could I know anything?’ Leander spat through clenched teeth. ‘I’ve been on your leash since I got here.’
Hestia scowled at him and words of othertongue filled the air, flowing like whispers and songs, jarring against the ear and making Finn’s skin recoil against his muscles and bones. The shadow kin around her surged forward and Leander’s face blanched. He snarled in agony again, his body arching back like a drawn bow, as shadow kin wound about him, holding him in place, crushing him, tighter and tighter. They didn’t bite, but their teeth grazed his skin, a threat, a promise.
Wren didn’t move. She watched Leander, as if his pain and fear fascinated her. Perhaps it did. Finn wasn’t even sure if this was Wren anymore. She seemed to flicker in the shifting shadows, sometimes the woman he loved and other times…
He had to stop this. Now.
