Page 84 of Throne of Ice and Blood
I drag my gaze back up to the source of all this carnage.
The Shadow of Death stands there before me, his massive black wings spread wide and his sword stained with blood. His golden eyes burn with such fury and vengeance that it stops my heart for a second. But he’s not looking at me.
Dark clouds gather around him and white lightning crackles down his arms as he shifts his gaze between my two remaining assailants.
Blondie cuts and runs towards the door.
Orange Eyes drops to his knees.
With barely more than a glance, Draven yanks out a knife from his thigh holster and throws it at Blondie. It hits him straight through the back of his neck. A gurgle sounds. Then he crashes to the ground, his body spasming.
Draven slides his gaze to my face.
I suck in a sharp breath at the furious intensity of his stare.
Then he sees the blood splattered across my cheek, and his expression darkens into death itself. The storm clouds whip around him like thrashing snakes, and lightning cracks into the floor.
“Please,” Orange Eyes begs on the ground, still desperately clutching his bleeding stump. “Please, don’t?—”
Draven cuts his head off.
It hits the floor with a wet thud and rolls halfway before it comes to a halt next to Silver Hair’s severed head. His body tips forward and crashes down as well. The dark clouds disappear and the lightning stops.
Then everything is dead silent.
My heart pounds as I just stand there on the blood-soaked floor and stare at Draven. Across the room, the fire in the hearth still burns brightly, casting dancing light across the pale wooden walls.
In one fluid motion, Draven wipes the blood off his sword and slams it back into its sheath while he closes the distance between us.
I tense up, bracing myself for… For what? For him to grab me and handcuff me? For him to yell at me? For him to threaten me and demand to know what the hell I’m doing here?
He does none of those things.
Instead, he cups my cheeks with such heartbreaking gentleness that I almost sob.
Turning my head from side to side, he studies my face with those intense eyes of his. “Are you hurt?”
Out of all the things I had expected him to say, that hadn’t even been on the list. I thought he would be furious. Instead, he’s asking if I’m hurt.
“Selena, look at me.” Worry pulses in his eyes as he wipes something off my cheek. “Are you hurt?”
I blink again, still trying to wrap my head around this whole situation. And then I finally remember that there was blood splattered across my face. Draven is still cupping my cheeks, but I shake my head as best as I can.
“No,” I finally reply. “The blood wasn’t mine.”
Relief washes over his features. For another few seconds, he just holds me like that. Then he drags in a breath and lets his hands drop from my cheeks. Taking a step back, he gives his head a quick shake as if to clear it.
“We need to go,” he says as he strides over to Blondie’s corpse and yanks his knife out of the guy’s neck. After wiping off the blade and sticking it back in his thigh holster, he turns back to me. “Now.”
Pulling myself out of my stunned stupor, I give my own head a few quick shakes to clear it as well and then hurry across the floor towards where Draven is. He sweeps his gaze around the room one more time, presumably to check that no one witnessed what he did, and then he stalks out onto the street. I follow him.
But instead of continuing away from the tavern, he comes to a halt right outside on the street. It’s so sudden that I slam right into him after exiting the tavern.
His hands shoot out and grab my arms to steady me. I quickly pull my arms out of his grip and take a step back. But I’m only met by an unreadable expression when I tilt my head back and look up at him again.
“Do you trust me?” he asks.
The question catches me completely off guard, and I shock myself by replying, “Yes.”
