Page 208 of The Forbidden Dragon King
That’s why the fanged fucker chose tonight to ambush me.
Was Lanlin always this ruthless?
“I never believed that Lan would attack on the Night of Shadows,” I mutter. “It’s sacred.”
Daire’s laugh is bitter. “Why? You used the same trick, attacking me during the Unseelie Spring Rite in our sacred ash grove.”
My stomach lurches. “That was different.”
It wasn’t.
Maximinus insisted on that ambush.
I’m a fucking hypocrite.
“How?” Daire insists.
“We don’t have fucking time for this,” I snarl.
All of a sudden, an eclipse of white moths flutter across the sky, devouring the moon.
My heart speeds up, as the streets are plunged into an unnatural darkness without even moonlight.
Shadows seep tar-like over the streets, grabbing people by the ankles and dragging them underneath the sudden swarm of large, oval scarab beetles that have risen up from the soil beneath our feet.
“To holy hell with this.” Daire hops up and down, paling. He stumbles, booting the beetles with clubbed antennae away from Freya who is panting hard now. “I bloody hate the Bloods’ beetles.”
Desperately, crowds run or scramble to climb onto the top of collapsing stalls.
I slip two hidden daggers out of my robes, turning to pass one to Daire and another to Freya.
“Thanks.” Freya gives me a shaky but brave smile.
She raises the dagger between her hands, determinedly.
Daire weighs the dagger like welcoming an old friend.
Despite everything, my lip curls up. “Don’t stab me in the back.”
Daire slashes at a shadow, which is getting too close to Freya. “Don’t make me hard, when I’m trying to fight.”
I glower, pulling out Hadrian’s Dagger, which vibrates and hums.
I take out my rage on the shadows that are slithering at my feet. “Just don’t get in my way.”
“As long as you don’t get in mine.”
I never thought that I’d be fighting alongside a fae. It doesn’t feel as wrong as it should do.
Vicious winds closer with Wraith behind her.
“I am going to capture Lanlin tonight.” Vicious’ ice blue eyes are the coldest I’ve seen them. “I will show him pain that he has never known as I take him apart for this. He has desecrated our sacred carnival. My Guild will make him pay for that.”
I give a curt nod.
The fucker doesn’t know what he has done. He’s made enemies tonight who will make him suffer.
Wraith gives me a knowing look, however, which makes me glance away.
