Page 43 of Court of Wolves

Her heart faltered. He didn’t call her Maia. Not once, not ever.

“Enough of this,” Heweryion sighed.

Something hard hit the back of Maia’s head, and then the whole world went dark.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

“So… funny story,” Isak laughed nervously to the woman bedecked in the black and gold uniform of most guards, soldiers, and peacekeepers of Sainsa. There were little swirls on the sleeve and lapel of her jacket, a ribbon of gold streaming down the outside of each leg. A very jaunty outfit that Isak liked immensely. He’d have liked it even more if he wasn’t being dragged across a paved courtyard towards the looming building of a gate tower. At least he hoped it was a gate tower. It could have been a prison and he wouldn’t have been surprised.

“You take your filthy fucking hands off her or I will use my fingernails to pull your brain out through your nostril,” Anzhelika snarled, struggling against the three peacekeepers who hauled her behind Isak. He was a little miffed to find he warranted fewer guards than his new friend. He only had one, as did Sunny, who was currently sighing in disappointment at the silver-haired man who shoved her into a faster walk. Isak was a lesser man than the guard; that sigh would have killed him.

“Actually,” he continued, returning to face his guard, his feet dragging over neat cobbles as he was frog-marched, “it’s not a funny story at all. It’s terrifying. A true end-of-the-world tale.”

“Shut up,” barked the stoic guard—a middle aged woman with a severe braid and shoulders that made Isak look like a kid.

“May I inquire as to where we’re being carted off to?”

The glower she turned on him made Isak laugh again, a nervous habit. “To the general enforcer.”

“Oh, that doesn’t sound good.” Isak craned his neck to make out her other hand, making sure she wasn’t manhandling Isak’s walking stick. “Hey, careful with that. It’s been with me through thick and thin.”

The guard holding him rattled his arms until his head shook on his neck.

“I’m serious,” he said with a little slur of dizziness. “That stick’s been with me through torture, death, rebirth, and a whole buttload of dark saint stuff you would never believe.”

“You’re right,” she said flatly. “I don’t believe you. Get inside.”

Oh good, the Hold’s grey tower rose above them, its roof made of the same crystal as the wall around the city. It was too pretty to be something as ordinary as a prison, right?Right?he asked Viskae.

Keep your wit about you,was her uplifting reply.

You mean wits.

Assuming you have more than one seems generous.

Wow, she was in rare form today.

“This was all my idea,” Isak said in a rush of altruistic heroism. “The lovely ladies behind me had nothing to do with it. They don’t even know me.”

“Youalltried to break into the Hold, so you’ll be punished as one.”

“Fuck,” Isak hissed, regret pinching his heart as the peacekeeper shoved him through an open door and into a circular stone room where a man already waited. This one woretealand gold. Not good. Isak wasn’t an expert in Sainsancustoms and military by any means but even he knew this was a high ranking member.

The man was in his mid-twenties but with a hard gleam to his eyes that told Isak he’d fought in battles. The fact he was still standing assured Isak he’d won every last one of them. He was ruggedly handsome, with moon-silver hair pulled into a ponytail, baring sharp fae ears, and facial hair that roughened features that would probably be quite pretty and feminine without it. The teal uniform stretched across his shoulders and large biceps, his body comically broad on top and slim on the lower half. Isak might have whistled if he hadn’t been so worried for the fate of his new friends.

He could use his magic against this general enforcer, but it would be a crying shame.

The peacekeeper shoved Isak with a rough hand on his back, sending him stumbling across the grey stone tiles. By sheer luck he managed not to collapse into a heap at the general enforcer’s feet. When he regained his balance and looked up, he found the man watching him with a steady, unsettling calm. He wasn’t a man to get easily ruffled, Isak guessed. That was worse than guards with hot tempers; he never quite knew what types like these were capable of.

“These are the three you found trying to break in?” he asked, his voice low and gravelly but quite lovely, his eyes cutting towards the guards as they brought in Anzhelika and Sunny.

“They broke through the rear gate,” the stern woman who’d manhandled Isak informed the general enforcer.

“That’s what she said,” Isak muttered.

Anzhelika laughed.

Both their smiles were wiped from their faces when the dangerous gold eyes of the general enforcer landed on them. There was a gravity and weight to that look that made Isak’s heart quicken, a sense of doom crushing all levity from his chest.

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