Page 128 of Promise of Darkness
I duck below it, grabbing the hilt of my sword and wrenching it from the goblin’s chest.
Eris snatches the end of the chain and hauls her opponent toward her. The bastard staggers forward, where she smashes the hilt of her sword into his filed teeth. Blood sprays and he screams, and then she’s driving her boot up into his face.
The goblin hits the ground, and Eris barely glances at him as she stabs him through the throat, then wraps the chain around her fist and punches a bane in the face with it.
“Are you laughing?” I gasp, as I scramble to keep up with her.
Blood flecks her face and her eyes are wild and triumphant. “That prick shit his pants when he saw me. You should have seen his face, before I removed his head. Here.” She pushes me into Thiago’s arms. “Look after your wife while I clean up this mess.”
And then she’s gone, howling with glee as she wades back into battle.
I was wrong. Eris does know how to smile, and it’s the most terrifying thing I’ve ever seen.
“Are you all right?” Each breath I take ravages my lungs, but he’s covered in blood.
Thiago grins. “Not mine. Here. Watch my back.”
He sets his back to mine and we face the oncoming onslaught of more banes.
There’s nothing but the fight ringing in my ears, as blood splashes across the floor of the Hallow. I feel Thiago’s back against mine, and it gives me a confidence I’ve never known. I’m not a princess, protected by her guards. I am Death, and every blow I strike, every spray of arterial blood that drenches my tunic, only makes the blood in my veins pump harder. There’s something exhilarating about this dance of steel. It’s so very simple. You move and you live. You stop and you die. You focus only on the next move, the next foe.
I’ve never felt so alive.
Back to back we fight, with Baylor covering the left and Finn to our right. Eris is out there somewhere, a one-woman killing spree with a maniacal laugh. For a moment, I think we’re going to survive.
And then Finn staggers, going to one knee as an arrow protrudes from his thigh. It’s a critical breach in our defenses.
“Get up!” Thiago snaps.
Finn pushes to his feet and snaps the arrow in half with a wince, but it’s clear he can’t balance.
“Eris!” Thiago bellows.
“Coming!”
I’m crushed between fur and flesh, the stink of a bane’s raw breath hissing in my face as it slams me back into Thiago. It’s all I can do to drive my knee up into vulnerable flesh to gain some space. My sword is trapped between us and the second it winces, I slash back the other way, right across its abdomen. My sword is so heavy my arm aches, and the blow is sloppy.
As it falls away, it grabs my wrist.
Kicking it in the face, I try to hang on, but the fight is taking its toll. I can’t feel my fingers.
“Vi!” Thiago yells, and I turn just in time to see a fist driving toward my face.
It’s like being hit by a runaway horse. My sword is gone, my ears ringing, and then I’m bundled into someone’s arms.
“Got her!” grunts the goblin that hit me.
He slings me over his shoulder, and the world jolts around me.
“Vi!” Thiago yells, and then he’s leaping over a pair of fallen banes, his cloak seeming to grow larger, to spread into amorphous wings.
A dozen goblins intercept him as though they were waiting for this moment. I catch a single glimpse of his eyes as our gazes meet, and then he’s buried beneath monstrous flesh.
Hitting and kicking, I try to free myself, but the goblin is immovable.
I bite its throat, and it tastes utterly fucking wretched, but all that earns me is a slap across my ears.
“Be still, little fae. Or I’ll break your fingers.”
