Page 95 of A Tongue so Sweet and Deadly

The man took a step back.

Chest heaving and forehead creasing, Lessia watched himturn toward Zaddock instead, sneaking up on his unguarded back as he fought the other two men.

Her heart skipped a beat.

“Watch your back!” she screamed.

Zaddock had a second to spin around, but he caught the man who’d backed away from her by surprise, and with one blow to the chest, the man crumpled to the ground, the sound of his body hitting the hard stone echoing around them.

Zaddock didn’t waste any time.

As quickly as he’d turned around, he was back fighting the other two, but they were skilled at wielding their swords, and soon they’d driven him into a corner.

Clenching and unclenching her fists, Lessia watched a strike hit true, and blood from Zaddock’s arm began to pool on the floor beneath him.

When one of the men grinned and lifted his sword again, she didn’t think; she just sprinted toward him and threw herself into him.

Lessia went down with the soldier, her head slamming into the ground with a crack, sending excruciating waves of pain through her body.

Shaking it to drive away the dizziness that fought to take over, she forced her eyes to fix on the man’s and urgently pulled on her magic.

“You don’t want to hurt me. Give me your sword, but make it look like I won it,” she whispered when the familiar warmth of her magic sparked in her veins.

The man’s eyes glazed over, and with a scuffle that almost had her vomit from the pain that shot through her head, his sword was in her right hand.

Making her way to her feet and pushing her magic back down, she pointed it to his heart.

Lessia didn’t dare turn aroundas the scuffling behind them went quiet, and she nearly flew into the air when a hand landed on her shoulder.

“Thank you, Lessia.”

Zaddock’s voice was low, and there was a hint of surprise in it. “You saved my life.”

Arm shaking from holding on so tightly to the hilt, she turned to him. “Surprised yet again that I am not as coldhearted as you believed?”

Zaddock offered her a sheepish grin. “I guess I deserved that one.”

As she returned his smile, steps thudded in the stairway ahead, and they stiffened again, but it was the two guards who were usually stationed outside her room that came into view.

A gurgling sound had her shift her gaze back to the man at the same time as Zaddock yelled, “No!”

White foam formed around the attacker’s mouth, his face paling so fast Lessia thought her eyes might be fooling her.

With a final wheezing rise of his chest, his eyes closed.

The sword in her hand clattered to the ground as she backed away, guilt and anger swirling inside her: she hadn’t thought to ask him what Stellia was after.

Swearing loudly, Zaddock followed her, his arm wrapping around her back as he barked at the guards to take care of the bodies, then quickly guided her to her room.

Inside, she sank down on the chair she’d been sitting in all day and once again opened the doors to the chill night. Her head still pounded, stars flickering before her eyes, but her mind wouldn’t let her rest.

These men hadn’t just come after nominees today.

And why had the man let her be when he realized she was part-Fae?

Chapter

Forty-Three

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