Page 83 of Throne of Ice and Blood
I drag in panicked breaths as I have to stop backing away when Silver Hair sprints across the room so that he is behind me instead. Blondie now blocks the route to the door while the two brown-haired ones advance from the other side. Cold calculation shines in their eyes now that I have removed their blinding rage.
Oh Goddess, I shouldn’t have decreased their anger. I shouldn’t have increased it in the first place. I should have seen that there were dragon shifters in here earlier. I should have left sooner. I should have done a million things differently. And now, I’m going to die.
Fear and terror crackles through my body like lightning. I need to use my magic or find a weapon or an escape. Or something. Anything. But I can’t think properly. I need to?—
The two brown-haired men lunge at me.
I leap back. My body hits the table behind me hard enough to make the chairs topple. Wooden clattering echoes between the pale walls as the chairs hit the ground while I throw myself to the side. A sword cuts through the air in the space where my chest used to be mere seconds ago.
Orange Eyes snarls as he yanks his sword back and spins towards me.
“My ancestors lived like animals because of you,” he growls as he advances on me. “They were forced to humiliate themselves and our entire family line because of your mind-control and your fucking dragon steel. And half of them died in the Liberation War.” His eyes gleam with malice as he stares me down while stalking towards me. “I should do the same to you.”
The back of my neck prickles.
On instinct, I duck and dive to the side right before Blondie can grab me from behind. His arms whoosh through the air where I used to stand while I roll to my feet two steps away. But Silver Hair was already moving.
The moment I leap to my feet again, he is already behind me. Panic pulses through my body when he grabs my arms from behind. Kicking blindly, I try to hit his shin or his crotch or anything I can reach. A hiss rips from his throat as my heel slams into something. But his grip on my arms only gets harder.
Reaching for my magic, I try to think of something that will help me. Some kind of emotion that will make them release me. But before I can even come up with something, pain spikes through my cheek and my head snaps to the side as Orange Eyes backhands me across the mouth.
The sudden hit makes my ears ring, and I lose the grip on my magic. Blinking furiously, I yank against the hands keeping my arms trapped while I kick blindly at anything within reach.
But then I stop suddenly when cold steel presses against the base of my throat.
When my vision clears, I find Orange Eyes standing in front of me with his sword at my throat. The other brown-haired man and the blond one have taken up position next to Silver Hair. Cold malice pulses from their entire souls as they stare me down.
Orange Eyes presses the tip of his sword harder against my skin. “This is going to hurt.”
Terror freezes my whole body. I can’t think. I can’t fight. I can’t flee. I can’t do anything other than stare at the sword before me while my heart is threatening to crack my ribs. He’s going to kill me.
A scream of agony splits the air. In the dead silence, it’s so shockingly loud that it makes my ears ring. For one second, I fear that the scream might have been mine.
But then the sword that Orange Eyes is holding starts moving.
It falls straight down to the floor.
And so does his hand.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Utter shock clangs inside my skull as I watch his severed hand fall to the floor. It lands with a thud, which is drowned out by the metallic clattering as the sword hits the pale wooden floorboards. And by the scream that comes out of his throat too, of course.
A grunt sounds from right next to me.
I flinch as blood splatters my left cheek.
The hands gripping my arms disappear as Silver Hair yells something while whirling around towards the other brown-haired shifter who was standing on my left. His quick movements as he releases my arms while turning makes me spin in that direction as well.
My eyes widen as I come face to face with the brown-haired shifter. His mouth is open in shock. And a sword sticks out of his throat.
A wet sliding sound fills the single second of dead silence as it’s yanked back out. The shifter collapses to the ground right before my feet. I stare down at him while Orange Eyes continues screaming his lungs out and clutching his severed wrist.
In the brief pauses between his screaming, I hear a whooshing sound. While I’m still staring dumbfounded down atthe dead man before me, a head thuds down on the floor beside him. Not a body. Just a head. The head of a male shifter with silver hair.
Then the body hits.
And more screaming starts.
