Lucia and Damien nodded, and she looked at me. “Can you fight?”
“Arden poisoned me with Aethersbane,” I said, hating how weak I still felt with it in my system. “I can’t shift, but that won’t stop me from tearing them apart.”
23
THE GIRL WITH STORMY EYES
It was a bloodbath, bodies wedged together tightly as they fought in the cavernous tunnels. Blades narrowly collided against one another, guards and warriors crying out as blows were delivered.
And Kish was nowhere in sight.
Rhyas growled as he pulled his sword from the gut of a fae guard, the blue tint of his skin turning a sickly gray before he collapsed. I watched from the corner of my eye as Lucia held her hand out toward a group of guards charging at her. They stumbled to a stop, grasping their throats as their bodies seemed to crumpled in on themselves before disintegrating into piles of dust. Water collected around her hands before she sent a wave of droplets tearing into the crowd.
Her warriors were skilled, cutting down Arden’s men left and right, but there were too many of them, too many pit fighters forced to fight and too afraid to stop. Even Lucia looked as if she was beginning to tire.
“Kish!” Rhyas shouted but received no response. Had they gotten out? Had they been captured by Arden’s men?
“Looking for your friend?” I twisted at the sound of Santor’s voice, narrowly catching his blade before he could slice me down my back.
“What did you do?” I growled, shoving him back before slicing the head off another guard charging for me.
“Wouldn’t you like to know?” he said, his smile curling my stomach as he stepped back, allowing other guards to rush us.
“You bastard!” I shouted, slicing through the guards. “Cowardly bastard!”
“Thalia!” Rhyas yelled, and I turned to him as I took down another guard.
He came to a stop, his gray skin pale, his breath ragged.
“Santor’s here,” I said wearily.
“Where?” he asked, searching the crowd.
“I just lost him in the crowd,” I said, panic clawing its way into my chest. “He knows you’ve been helping us.”
His eyes flashed to me, the same panic I felt reflecting in them.
“He said Arden knew and had plans.”
Rhyas turned, yelling as he grabbed the shoulder of a guard who was fighting another before running his sword through the guard’s stomach. I rushed to his side, cutting down guards, fighters, I didn’t care. If Santor had Kish or was trying to capture her, I didn’t care who stood in my way. I would get to her, and I would skin him alive.
Whatever the cost.
Her voice echoed across my thoughts. That couldn’t have been the last time we would speak, the last time I’d hear her voice. I’d lost my parents all those years ago. I couldn’t remember them—their faces, their names. Kish had become something of a mother to me, had cared for me, taught me everything she knew. I couldn’t lose her too.
Terror flooded my system with each second as I took down one guard after another, blood painting my skin in streaks of crimson, onyx, emerald. So many I’d once shared cells with, so many who didn’t deserve to die.
Air whistled sharply in my ear, and I flinched away from it. I scanned the crowd, finding Santor across the sea of fighters at the mouth of a tunnel. He lowered a bow before handing it off to one of the guards despite having missed me. He tipped his head to me with a smug grin and disappeared from view once more. Rhyas grunted at my side, and I turned to him, freezing at the sight of the arrow protruding from his neck. His lips parted, his body locking up as he gasped for air, his hand rising to the shaft.
“No!” I caught Rhyas before he could hit the ground. “No, no, no!”
He grabbed onto me, pulling and tugging on my tunic as he gasped and choked, blood bubbling from his lips before pouring out onto his armor.
“Shh, shh,” I whispered, tears blurring my vision.
His lips parted and closed, his bloodied teeth clamping together as he tried to speak, each movement only causing him to bleed out faster.
“Don’t talk,” I begged, looking around for anyone who might be able to help as Lucia’s warriors pushed the guards back, leaving us in the sea of lifeless bodies.
