Page 33 of This Vicious Dream

I barely suppress a smile as he jumps from the horse. I slide down, sidling away. Calysian gives me a warning look, but I’m not stupid enough to run.

I have other plans in place.

He ponders the troll, which takes another step, the ground shuddering beneath us.

The troll angles his head, clearly confused when Calysian doesn’t retreat. Its beady eyes narrow, and it takes another step, out of the forest.

I slam my eyes shut.

The troll is a male. And it’s naked.

It lets out another roar, and I trip backward, falling on my ass. Calysian holds his ground, raising his hands. A strange crackle fills the air, as if lightning is about to strike. The hair stands up on the back of my neck, and I wiggle to my knees, cursing the chains holding my arms behind me.

Calysian turns slightly, and his face is grim, feral. For the first time, he looks truly dangerous. Heat rolls off him. Heat, and something darker.

My stomach churns. He really is a god. To the gods, even the fae are expendable. And hybrids? Our lives would be the equivalent of an ant, carelessly crushed beneath their feet.

And still, even knowing how dangerous he is, how he could ruin this world, ruinme…I can’t take my eyes off his wide shoulders. I can’t stop watching the way he carelessly swings his sword, warming up his wrist.

Clearly, the moment I free myself, I’ll need to find a man so I can release some of this tension.

He watches the troll with idle resignation, as if this is a training exercise he wasn’t planning to complete today…and now he needs to get it out of the way so he can do something more interesting.

I awkwardly get to my feet, my wrists aching.

“Two lumbering oafs,” I muse. “I know which one I’d rather spend my time with.”

Calysian sends me a quelling look and I scowl back at him.

The troll lumbers forward once more, and a silver ward appears between them.

Ignoring the memories that itch at the corner of my mind, I keep my gaze on the ward Calysian creates between him and the troll. Evenhecan’t hold that kind of ward forever.

The troll leaps, hitting the ward with its face. The sound it makes is somewhere between a howl and a scream so loud, I wish I could slam my hands over my ears.

Calysian keeps the ward in place, and the troll hits it again and again. Calysian winces, the ward flickering, and I smirk.

It’s a smart choice, letting the troll wear itself out. It doesn’t understand why it can’t get to Calysian, and the ward enrages it, distracting it from Calysian as he waits.

The ward flickers once more, until Calysian is forced to drop it. The troll stumbles forward.

Calysianmoves.

Lunging toward the troll, he thrusts his sword into its thigh. The troll lets out another howl, lashing out with his fist, but Calysian has already leapt back, raising his ward into place once more.

I blink. The entire thing happened within moments, his movements blazingly fast.

I almost feel sorry for the troll as Calysian repeats his technique over and over. By the time the troll slumps to his knees, it’s bleeding from both thighs.

“Leave it,” I order. The words are out before I can stifle them, and Calysian spares me a single glance.

“You know I can’t.”

Because the next people who stumble across the troll might be a young family.

I glance away as Calysian takes the troll’s head. He stalks toward me, pausing to wipe his blade on some long grass, and I step backward.

His shirt is painted red, drenched in enough blood that it squelches as he moves. I wrinkle my nose, and he glances down with a sigh.

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