Page 115 of Realm of Thieves

Fly backward until I’m on the carpet.

Stare up at the Harbringer as she aims her bolt thrower at me, a crackle of shimmering light between us before it disappears.

A ward.

She has a magicked ward for protection, the very thing the rest of Esland would be killed for.

“You think Magni wouldn’t protect his best disciples?” she says, the arrow aimed at my head.

Her finger twitches on the trigger.

I’m about to die.

It squeezes.

This.

Is.

It.

I love you, I can’t help but think, projecting my thoughts at Andor. At Lemi. At my family.

But the room brightens from behind the Harbringer, the air changing, popping my ears.

There’s a snarl.

And before the Harbringer can pull the trigger, she turns around to see a large black shape leaping up at her, knocking her to the ground.

“Lemi!” I cry out.

Lemi ignores me and bites the Harbringer’s neck, tearing into the skin, tearing out her throat in a bloody mess before she has a chance to scream. He wolfs down her jugular, jaws snapping, and looks at me briefly, enough to wag his tail, before he goes back for another strike.

He bites the Harbringer’s face and I finally look away. I stumbleto my feet, picking up the bolt-thrower that has slid across the room, the arrow still unfired. I carefully unhook the arrow, tuck it where the lock-picker is, then slide the device into my boot before I pull my sword from the bedpost.

I glance down at Lemi, who has left a bloody mess. The Harbringer’s face is an unrecognizable pulp.

He notices me looking and stops, about to come over to lick me, but I hold his bloody mouth back. “How in damnation did you do that, Lemi?” I ask him, scratching him behind the ears. “I thought you couldn’t shift where you hadn’t been before?”

He just wags his tail in response. I guess I had only assumed that.

I’ve never been so glad to be wrong.

“Good dog,” I tell him, kissing the top of his head. “Now how are we going to get out of here?”

He looks up at me with liquid eyes and while I’m staring down at him, so grateful for my best friend, a movement catches the corner of my eye.

The Harbringer twitches.

Then sits upright.

Chapter 32

Andor

“Do you think she’s allright?” Kirney whispers to me. We’ve been standing behind the creepy dragon statues for what feels like forever, waiting for Brynla to appear. With every veiled Sister who makes her way to their private chapel, I keep hoping one will stop before us—that Brynla will pull back a veil and reveal her beautiful face.

But that doesn’t happen.

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