Page 96 of Throne of Ice and Blood
With his confusion now blown out of proportion, his movements are slow and uncoordinated as he tries to evade Draven’s very real weapon while I stop my attack with my fake one.
Spinning around, I shove at the worry in the other four people’s chests while the tip of Draven’s sword makes contact with the first guy’s throat. Blood streams down his skin and stains his purple armor as the guy drops his own blade and reaches towards his throat. But Draven’s cut was too deep, so his knees buckle while wet gurgles spill from his mouth.
Then the stunned moment breaks, and the other four attack all at once. Three of them go for Draven. The last one lunges at me.
I dive to the side as he swipes his sword at me. Steel whooshes through the air over my head as I roll into a crouch. Twisting around, I find Draven trying to fight three people at once while the fourth whips back towards me.
The one behind Draven rams a knife towards his spine.
Panic blares inside me.
While leaping to my feet, I blast the worry that the guy is feeling into a huge wildfire. It makes him hesitate instead right before his knife can strike, giving Draven the second he needed to whip around. Draven cuts the guy’s head off with one powerful strike. Relief washes through me. But it’s short-lived as my own attacker swings at me again.
I suck in a sharp breath through my teeth as I find him much closer than I expected. His sword glints in the gray light as it barrels straight for my neck.
A blast of wind slams into his side.
The sword is knocked off course right before it can hit me as the guy stumbles to the side from the force of Draven’s wind. I scramble out of reach while Draven sends lightning strikes at his own two attackers. They leap back to avoid it.
But right as it strikes, I shove my magic at the bone white sparks of fear in their chests. Pouring a furious torrent, I blow it into sheer blind terror.
They scream, stumbling over themselves to get away. Draven knocks one of them down with a blast of wind while he rams his sword through the other’s chest. Then he whirls towards the one he knocked down, but I don’t have time to see what he does, because my own attacker has recovered. And he is furious.
Rage burns in his green eyes as he swings at me hard and fast.
Switching tactics, I latch on to that already raging flame of anger and make it even bigger, which makes him put even more force into his swing. I duck, and because he put too much blind anger behind his swing, the missed strike forces his entire body off balance. I dart to the side, aiming to get out from between him and the boulder. But he recovers quicker than I expected.
Alarm blares inside my skull as he thrusts his sword towards my side. Diving forward, I barely manage to escape the sharp edge. Air explodes from my lungs as I hit the ground hard. I try to roll over on my back so that I can see where he is, but a boot slams down on my cloak.
A choked huff makes it out of my mouth as the clasp digs into my throat when the cloak stops while I continue moving. I gasp in a breath and try to yank the cloak out from underneath his boot.
Steel glints above me.
Panic pulses through my veins as a sword speeds towards my chest.
Metal clangs against stone as the sword flies from the man’s grip and slams into the boulder next to me at the same time as he staggers to the side. The blast of wind forced him off my cloak, and I suck in a deep breath as I yank the fabric back and roll out of reach.
Black clouds twist around Draven like thrashing demons and lightning crackles through the air as he advances on the remaining soldier from the Purple Dragon Clan. The soldier staggers a step back, his gaze flitting to his dead comrades around him.
I pour a massive torrent of magic into his fear.
A bloodcurdling scream rips from his throat, and he drops his blade.
Draven just rams his sword through the man’s heart.
The scream is cut off by wet gurgling. Then a sliding sound as Draven yanks his sword back out. Pieces of purple armor that cracked from the insane strength in Draven’s thrust fall to the ground and hit the stones with faint clinking sounds. They’re drowned out by a loud thud as the man collapses to the ground as well.
Then everything is silent.
Draven turns to me and holds out his free hand. I take it and let him help me to my feet. He keeps hold of it for another few seconds while he flicks an appraising look up and down my body.
“Azaroth’s flame,” he says, sounding both surprised and impressed. “For someone who has spent her life avoiding conflicts, you sure know how to read a battle.”
A surprised laugh erupts from my chest. “I have?—”
Black smoke explodes across the mountainside. It’s blown away as another strong fall wind sweeps over the landscape.
Dread seeps through my veins like ice as the smoke clears to reveal six more members of the Purple Dragon Clan standingon the mountainside a short distance away. Except these are no longer in their human form. They have shifted into dragons.
