Page 67 of Empire of Flame and Thorns

For a moment, everything is still.

I try to move. To fight. To run. To do something. Anything.

But all I can do is to lie there on the ground. Blood wells up from the cut across my forearm and the wound in my thigh.Agony pulses through my chest as every labored breath disturbs my shattered ribs. My head throbs and the room spins. My vision is starting to go black at the edges.

Above me, Jeb and Tommen flash me a cruel smile.

Then Jeb raises the knife.

Desperation and hopelessness crash over me. So intense, so cold and all-consuming, that I want to bawl my eyes out.

This is how it ends. After a lifetime of sitting on the sidelines. A lifetime of accomplishing nothing. A lifetime of being treated like crap. This is how it all ends.

Jeb rams the dagger straight towards my eye.

A violent wind crashes through the room.

Broken wood from the already shattered door shoots through the air and smacks into the white stone walls with a loudcrack. The knife is ripped from Jeb’s hand by the wind and clatters against the wall behind me as Tommen and Jeb are thrown backwards several steps.

Cries of alarm tear from their throats and echo between the stone walls.

They whirl towards the door, crouching into attack positions, right as a shadow of death stalks into the room.

No, notashadow of death.

TheShadow of Death.

Draven Ryat stalks into my room, looking like vengeance and fury itself. He is only wearing a pair of black pants, leaving the rest of his lethal body on full display. His imposing black wings loom behind his broad shoulders, and black storm clouds billow around him.

Pure rage burns in his golden eyes as he comes to a halt on the floor.

Then his gaze flicks down to me, and that rage darkens into something not of this world. Something so terrifying that ice skitters across my skin at the mere sight of it.

Draven slides his gaze back to my two attackers.

All color drains from their features.

Jeb opens his mouth. But he doesn’t have time to so much as beg before Draven summons a literal storm. Black clouds whirl inside my room as another violent wind crashes through it and hits my attackers. From almost point-blank range this time.

I hear the loud cracks of thunder as lightning flashes through the churning clouds. It zaps into Tommen and Jeb. Thuds sound as they slam into the wall behind them, but I don’t see it, because the darkness at the edge of my vision has spread almost completely over my eyes now.

Agony pulses through my whole body. I just want to close my eyes and sleep.

The last thing I feel before oblivion drags me under is a pair of strong arms lifting me up.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Soft sheets caress my skin. Blinking, I rub a hand over my face and heave a deep sigh. I haven’t slept this peacefully and this deep in ages. I feel completely rested, and my body is filled with renewed energy.

I jerk upright in the bed.

Rested. Filled with energy. My body.

Memories of last night crash over me. The shock as Tommen and Jeb broke my door down. The fear as they attacked me. The pain as they hit me and stabbed me. The hopelessness as they were about to kill me.

And then…

Draven storming into my room like the Shadow of Death.

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