Page 24 of A Touch of Iron
“Doubtful.” He stepped closer and I inched back from his towering frame. “Are you nervous, Aurora?”
I snorted. “Of course not. I’m perfectly fine,” I lied. In all reality, his closeness was indeed making me nervous. I just wanted him to leave.
“Liar,” he growled.
I stumbled backward. “Excuse me?” I tried to regain my balance, but my knees were wobbly.
“You’ve been fidgeting ever since I met you on the mountaintop, almost like you couldn’t sit still. You’re hiding something, and I think I know what it is.”
I edged backwards toward my front door when he grabbed my upper arms, hauling me toward him forcefully. Force he’d never used on me before.
“Give it to me!” he demanded.
“Let go!” I gritted between my teeth. I tried to pull away, but his grip only tightened.
“Not until you’ve given me what I want,” he seethed.
“I don’t have it!” I lied again. He yanked my arm and shook me harder, his crushing grip undoubtedly leaving bruises. Snarling, I used air to blast him several feet away. He was about to charge toward me again when we were interrupted.
“Creed!” Calypso’s voice vibrated with the power of her element. I took my eyes off him long enough to see her standing behind him, full of indignant rage. “I suggest you keep your hands off of her.”
He scoffed and turned around to face the leader of Air Village. “She has something of mine. I want it back.”
I watched with bated breath as they faced off against each other. Night had descended in earnest and the normally raucous cricket song stilled as if sensing the tense standoff at my cottage door.
He growled. “I don’t have time for this!” Creed turned back around to face me and started my way again.
Calypso’s eyes glittered defiantly. “I don’t think so.”
She stretched her hand in his direction and I watched in horror as she cut off his air supply. Creed’s eyes bulged and he dropped to one knee, gasping like a fish out of water.
Calypso approached me, her hand still extended toward him as she looked over at me. “Are you okay?”
I nodded, feeling a twinge of relief that she’d arrived just in time. But before I could say a word, Creed slid a dagger from his boot and stabbed Calypso in the stomach. I shrieked and watched her eyes widen in surprise, her arm falling to her side limply as she stumbled back. Creed remained motionless, the dagger pulling out of her in the process.
With his oxygen restored, Creed darted to his feet and slashed the leader of the Air elementals across her throat, killing her instantly in a spray of crimson gore.
It was my turn to gasp like a fish out of water as I watched her collapse to the ground, her wide eyes fixed in a horror-stricken stare. My anguished scream could probably be heard all the way to the village.
Creed, the fae she’d warned me away from on several occasions had just killed her.
Because of me.
His face contorted into something evil that had long simmered on the surface, but one I willfully refused to notice.
I struggled to breathe, scrabbling toward the bulge in my pocket, my only thought to keep the necklace away from him at all costs. I now knew his motive for the necklace was a sinister one I wanted no part of, though the realization was too late to save my mentor. Tears streamed down my face as I stared down at the only person in this damn world who had helped me lying in a pool of her blood.
I looked around wildly, searching for a weapon to arm myself, but my thoughts were scattered and I couldn’t focus. Defeated, I dropped to the ground and crawled toward Calypso, crying as I attempted to stop the bleeding with my hands, even though I knew it was useless.
“You—You killed her!” I said in disbelief. “Why?”
“She was standing in my way,” he said coldly, without a trace of emotion.
“She wasn’t in your way ofanything!” I screamed. “She was just protecting me … like always.”
He laughed and shrugged, unconcerned by my outburst. “Maybe you should’ve listened to her when she told you to stay away from me. Then you wouldn’t be suffering like you are now.”
Just then, my head was pierced by a stabbing pain and I gasped. I clutched my head, convinced it was splitting apart. My ears rang and my vision blurred. Within seconds, black pinpricks covered the edges until everything was dark. I screamed in agony as a rush of emotions pummeled me like a ton of bricks and memories I’d long forgotten swam to the surface in a painful stream of consciousness.
