Page 181 of The King is Dead
I snarled.“No!Stop equating fear and power. We canruleand rule with ease—in trust, and strength and peace—”
“What the fuck nonsense is this? Has she befuddled his mind?”
“She took him—what did they do to him!”
“Don’t be fools!” I roared. “I am the same General who led you to victory, who crushed our enemies under your feet—”
“Then stop bowing to the Fetch!”
“There is nobowing,”I snarled.
“He’s going to bring us women!”
“He’ll turn us into puppies!”
“No, you idiots—she is mine. Truly mine—she is my mate! She will be your Queen!” I snarled and the entire crowd rippled with shock… then the slow rumble of growls and suspicion.
“Listen!” I ordered. “We will no longer be a tribe ruled in fear. With a Kinganda Queen we will grow from strength to strength!”
But that rumble of unease was growing.
“Oh, God,” Yilan breathed from my right side.
I took her hand and shook my head, never taking my eyes off them. “Just… pray,” I muttered. “We can’t allow them to—”
A shout rose from my left and I turned to look, my stomach dropping to my toes when I saw a cluster of Nephilim snarling and fighting, shoving each other, wrestling—
Fuck!“Stop! All of you, listen—”
“Melek is King! Long live the King!”
“We won’t serve a King who shares his power with aFetch!”
I stood back, hands in my hair, roaring at them, but they’d stopped listening. Another group further out, closer to the tents fought, snarling and snapping like feral dogs. Then another.
The crowd began to boil, and to my dismay…
Frenzy. It was a frenzy. Mindless, cruel, and driven by bloodlust.
But even worse, it wasn’t Nephilim fighting for a prize, or known factions challenging each other for power. This was brother against brother. It was civil war. And none of them knew who was aligned with whom.
“BROTHERS! LISTEN!”I roared, but Jann appeared at my shoulder, tugging me back and away as the mass of Nephilim in front of me dissolved into the frenzy.
“You can’t win this, Mel,” Jann said sadly. “You know they won’t stop until they’ve—”
He grunted and jerked, and I hissed, whirling, pulling Yilan behind me as a warrior appeared from the narrow hollow between the outcropping and the rise of the land below. Cursing and clawing, punching, the male leaped straight for me—through Jann. I jumped to help Jann who’d been taken completely off-guard, but just as I did so, a fist of Neph that had followed the first appeared, grabbing for him.
My attacker was dragged back, his fingers clawed into Jann’s back and pulling my brother. But Jann yanked free and turned, all of us watching as the group dragged the attacker below the outcropping, back down into the crowd… who literally tore him limb from limb.
Yilan screamed at the sight, her hands flying to her mouth to stifle the sound as soon as she made it.
I stared at her, weighed down in grief and failure. But before I could reassure her, there was another Neph leaping out of the crowd below the outcropping and tearing up the path towards us.
Yanking Yilan behind me, I leaped to the bottom of the outcropping and dropped to a defensive crouch, my weary body still responding, but slower now. Still, I was a far more experienced fighter, and not in the mindless frenzy of this fucker. When he made it to the rocks and leaped for my throat, I dropped under him, coming up when he tumbled onto me and throwing him to the ground in a thud that must have broken bones.
Yilan darted forward and took hold of his hair as he laid there, coughing. She gave me one brief look, and when I nodded, she slit his throat.
We shared a bare second—eyes locked, the bond humming, both of us grieving, and then the fight was upon us. The hollow below boiling with fighting, murderous Neph. And as we strode towards it, all I could think was that I had to get her out of here. I had to make her safe.
