Page 17 of Married By Treachery

“I am.” Jake smiled. “She tried to slit my throat just now.”

Rian blinked, clearly not expecting that response. “She…what?”

A vision of her face suddenly appeared in Jake’s mind, cheeks blotched with indignation, blue eyes bright with fury, wisps of sun-gold hair floating defiantly about her face, and he grinned despite himself. But then that vision morphed, drifting to the picture of her full and heaving bosom bursting within that skin-tight corset.

In the distance, another shriek echoed, but Jake was so consumed by that vision of her that he hardly heard it.

“Uh… Jake?” Rian studied him.

Jake promptly turned from the door and his indignant bride and strode for the stair while Rian hurried to keep pace beside him. “Sowhy, exactly, am I needed at the gate?”

Rian glanced behind them. “Should I send someone to guard her door?”

“I thought we were short on resources.” Jake looked sideways at his man, who flinched at the reprimand. “Forget the girl,” Jake continued, waving a dismissive hand in Raquel’s general direction, and then they jogged down the stairs as another shriek echoed through the night. “There had better be a hundred of those bastards, or else you—”

“Closer to two hundred.”

Jake stopped so abruptly at the bottom of the stairs that Rian nearly bumped into him. “What?”

Rian gave him an emphatic look. “Sienne’s arrived—”

“Yes, I figured that much!”

Jake’s cousin, Sienne, had professed loyalty to him, and she’d further proven it by her generous donation of twenty warriors, including two elite. She’d never cared for her uncle—Jake’s father and Canna’s king—and she liked Edom even less. So when Jake had divulged his intentions seven years ago, shortly after he failed to abduct the last bride, Sienne had not hesitated to join his cause. She had, however, hesitated with Jake’s logistics. So many kith moving through the forest would certainly drawthem.

Which was why Jake had ordered not one, not two—not even three—butfiveof his elite to stand over that gate. Well, four. Rian was currently beside him, and, as if the Fates themselves intervened to confirm Rian’s claim, the night suddenly erupted in monstrous shrieking.

Jake punched through the door and into the night. Little Mignon was wide awake, everyone bolting down the streets, in and out of doors, rushing for the gate where—

Jake’s jaw dropped and a curse fell out of it. Above the gate, winged black shadows swarmed like hornets, trying to penetrate the invisible magik barrier that protected them within this little outpost. It was a barrier Jake had constructed himself, and he’d been quite proud of it too; however, as he watched those enormous swarming demons, he began to wonder if he’d overestimated his abilities. It was a rare occurrence, but it did happen.

“Where in hell did they all come from?” Jake said, aghast. Both he and Rian were now sprinting for the gate.

“No idea! But it’s all we can do to keep them off Sienne, never mind open the gate…”

Jake’s kith fought at the watchtower and along the wall’s inner walkway, trying to hold back those Depraved that managed to reach through the barrier. Light flickered in the mist beyond the wall—undoubtedly Sienne and her warriors trying to clear a path so that they could open the gate without letting the Depraved flood Little Mignon.

But Fates have mercy, Jake had never seen so many Depraved at once.

It was getting worse. The curse was growing stronger.

Jake and Rian were almost to the gate when Rian yelled, “Jake, your sword!”

Jake cursed and skidded to a halt, and Rian stopped beside him. He couldn’t believe he’d forgotten to grab Lightbringer! That wasn’t like him at all. He’d been entirely distracted by that stubborn, idealistic,beautiful—

“Should we go back?” Rian asked.

Jake looked at the wall. More light flashed, Depraved shrieked, and Corval—one of Jake’s warriors—screamed as his body was pulled from the wall and into the mist, where it disappeared.

Jake ripped one of Rian’s swords from its sheath.

“Hey!” Rian exclaimed.

“You never use this one anyway!” Jake sprinted on and ripped another sword right from the hands of a guard.

“Give that back, you—!”

“Thanks, Aimes!” Jake called over his shoulder.

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