Page 114 of What did you do?

“Noooo!” I bellowed into the wind, falling to my knees. I couldn’t watch any more animals die for me.

“Grab the Artemi bitch! Kill her while you still can!” someone yelled from behind me.

A forearm as solid as a metal pipe wrapped around my throat, lifting me from the ground.

My nails tried to dig into their flesh, but it was protected by armor.

A growl I’d come to love rang out from behind me. Walter had shifted to his wolf form but, from the sound of it, was also being restrained.

“Don’t fight me, or I’ll cut a smile into that Artemi face that you can wear in Tartarus,” the guard warned as he scraped a severed dragon claw down my cheek. I winced in pain as the sharp, hooked claw snagged on my skin.

The realization hit that this might be my last fight.

Light shifted in the sky as Eli dove for me, but the guards had been one step ahead in expecting the prince to do just as he had. At least fifteen men restrained him, but not before our eyes latched together like magnets.

This would be it—the end of both of us.

The large man who gripped me stumbled back, tightening his forearm across my throat as he gripped my hair tightly and pulled me against him.

I closed my eyes and prayed Eli and Walter could escape.

Anger began to pulse softly in my system. I refused to see one more animal slain at my expense.

A thundering roar sent a shiver up my spine as a large dragon crawled down the rocky ledge in our direction. I could only hope he fought with us and not the Seelie guards, but he looked so terrifying, a part of me doubted the dragon was even from Seelie.

Emerald-green slits watched us as the guard turned our bodies to face the serpentlike creature.

“Move another claw and her blood spills!” the grating voice shouted.

It was too late.

Shrill laughter skittered up my spine like roaches as my old trainer came into view on the platform. Commander aimed an odd-looking gun at the dragon and fired, sending a golden ball of light the size of a basketball hurtling at the creature.

MOVE!I silently urged him.

The orb exploded into his shoulder, destroying half of his body as the rest of him tumbled down, crushing at least fifty more creatures beneath it.

Including the eval.

His sad, round eyes held mine as he dropped beneath the dead dragon.

“NO!” I cried out in despair over the commander’s laughter.

The commander’s stride ate up the space between us. I had sworn if I ever saw him again, I would kill him.

Anger pushed through my veins as I looked into his familiar face. The same face that taught me never to give anything away with my expression. He kicked away one of the dead animals with his black boot. The same kind of boots that taught me never to leave my ribs or my face open. The commander laughed his arrogant laugh. The same laugh that taught me to never let on how good I was because I might have to use it against them.

My eyes remained on the commander as he took the last steps forward, placing the cold barrel of a gun against my forehead.

“She should have killed you the minute she found you,” Commander Von growled as he moved his finger over the trigger and pulled.

Nothing happened.

My breath stalled as I waited for Mendax to leap from the shadows and save us all.

Nothing.

The longer I watched the commander, the more my darkness leached to the surface. What did it matter if I let it take me over now? There was no way Eli and I could get married in time anyway. Especially if we both died right now. For the first time in twenty-one years, I let the darkness out to play.

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