Page 125 of Throne of Ice and Blood
“We’re going to have to fight our way out of here,” he says. Smoke explodes through the air as he shifts into a half-shift and spreads his massive wings. “Get ready.”
Before the final word has even left his mouth, a horde of dragon shifters in silver armor surges around the corner.
Tossing the sword to the ground, I yank the two daggers from Draven’s belt instead. I don’t know how to fight with a sword. If we’re going to have any chance of surviving this, I need weapons that I can actually wield.
Draven doesn’t even flinch or worry for one second about what I was doing when I dropped the sword and stole his knives.
He just gives me a quick nod of approval. “Don’t hold back.”
Before I can reply, the first wave of guards reaches us.
But then they hesitate for a moment when they notice that it’s Draven. Summoning my magic, I shove it at those sparks of confusion in their chests until it makes them even more hesitant and disoriented. Draven swings his sword and cuts the head off the first man.
That snaps the others out of their stupor, and they lurch forward. I keep my magic pouring into them anyway since it makes them clumsy and uncertain. Draven rams his sword towards one man’s chest, but the other six all swarm towards him at the same time, so he’s forced to abandon the strike.
Storm winds crash through the room.
Six of the attackers are flung backwards by Draven’s magic, but the final one, who was standing closest to me, dives forward right before the storm wind can hit him.
Air explodes from my lungs as he slams right into me, knocking both of us back and sending us crashing in through the doorway to the treasury. The pain that shoots through myshoulder blades when I hit the ice floor hard makes me lose my grip on my magic.
Draven whips his head towards us, but I can barely see it over the body of the dragon shifter who lands on me a second later. Rolling sideways, I shove him off me and gasp in a breath.
“I’m fine!” I call to Draven.
But he doesn’t have time to reply, because the other six guards have recovered and launched themselves at him again.
I scramble up from the floor right at the same time as my attacker. His brown hair is disheveled, and surprise and confusion swirl in his eyes as he stares at me. For a moment, we just stand there facing each other.
Golden light fills the large room around us. Rows upon rows of shelves line the walls, and all of them are practically bursting with treasure. Gold and silver and gems and all manners of precious objects fill the shelves, and piles of coins occupy parts of the floor. In the middle of the room are pedestals that display gleaming artifacts. And all of it is lit by the sparkling faelight gems in the ceiling, which reflect against the precious metal and makes it seem like the whole room is glowing.
I’m surrounded by the entirety of the Iceheart Dynasty’s accumulated wealth. The treasure that the human resistance tried so hard to steal. And I can do nothing to complete their doomed mission. Because it’s all too late.
Alarm spikes through my spine as the guard lunges at me.
Leaping back, I yank up my daggers to block his strike. His sword slams into my intersecting blades so hard that I stagger backwards. Twisting sideways, he slides his sword free and feints to the right before striking to the left. I barely manage to see it coming in time to dodge.
Pain spears through me as his sword slices along the side of my ribs. A gash appears in the smooth black fabric of my dress, and blood spills out from the cut in my side. I gasp in pain.Resisting the urge to drop one of the knives and press a hand to the wound, I instead use the precious moment when his sword is still out of position from the strike to ram my own dagger towards his throat.
His eyes widen in surprise, but he jerks back in time, and my blade whooshes through the empty air instead. Warm blood slides down the side of my ribs as I twist with the missed strike and duck underneath his retaliating sword. It passes only a breath over my head.
Panic crackles through my every nerve as I jerk upright and jump back to evade another strike.
My heart pounds and my mind is screaming at me. Because I know, without a doubt, that I am outclassed against this man. He’s an elite guard in the Silver Dragon Clan, and he has probably been training with that sword since childhood. And I’m a fish cutter with emotion magic. I will never win this duel.
Outside in the corridor, black storm clouds and winds whirl between the ice walls. Lightning bolts flash and steel clashes as Draven fights the other six guards on his own.
I throw myself sideways as my attacker rams his sword straight towards my chest. Pain pulses through my wounded side as I hit the row of shelves along the wall. Golden cups topple over and plummet to the floor in a clatter of metal. I shove myself away from the shelf, making a bowl of gems wobble right on the edge. It crashes down as the guard’s sword hits it a moment later, missing me by a hair’s breadth.
My mind screams in panic as I try to scramble out of reach. I need to?—
He launches himself at me.
For the second time tonight, air explodes from my lungs as this damn guard slams right into my chest. But this time, he is ready for it. I’m not.
His arms wrap around my body, pinning my own arms to my sides, as I topple backwards. The impact as I hit the floor knocks one of the daggers from my hands. I gasp as the guard lands on top of me, his arms still locked around me. But that fortunately also traps them underneath my body and immobilizes the sword in his hand so that it’s pressed against my side instead.
He seems to realize that too because he shifts his legs so that he is straddling me instead and then jerks upright while pulling his arms out from underneath me. In order to do that, he has to release his sword. And I use that second when he draws back to my full advantage.
