Page 66 of All's Fair in Lion and War
Thank you? She shouldn’t be thanking him for anything. He’d acted impulsively. Like a youngling. They were both going to die because he’d acted rashly.
His stomach turned and he tasted bile in the back of his throat.
“Bring me the other one. Bring me the other one. The little girl.”
A couple of warriors scurried.
“Stand him up, I feel like hitting him a few more times while she can still see him.”
The warriors standing on either side of him, lifted him by his arms and held him upright. The first punch came so fast.
His face snapped to the right. Blood filled the inside of his mouth. His lip puffed up a second later from the split right down the middle.
Barely a second later, the next hit came. This time from the other side and snapped his head to the left. The bastard could hit hard, but it was better he take the hits than let him get bored and hurt Lorelei again.
Saul held in a groan and then spit blood at Rivian, who wiped his cheeks with his sleeve, snarled—more enraged than before—and then sliced right through Saul’s shirt with his claws, digging long gouges in his chest.
Blood trickled down Saul’s body, soaking his clothes and pooling in his boots until his socks were drenched. It was colder now too.
Dalmeck.He couldn’t stop a shiver from running over his body.
Rivian grinned a pleased-with-himself smile and then punched Saul hard in the gut.
Saul doubled over and coughed hard, trying to suck in oxygen. Fresh blood appeared in his mouth, from somewhere, he didn’t want to know.
He needed to get loose.
He needed to save Lorelei.
And to do that, he needed to get out of these ropes and somehow get his teeth into Rivian’s neck.
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Lorelei
He’s killing him.
He’s going to kill him in front of me, just like Tallix. I’m going to lose him. And then he’s going to kill me this time too.
She was struggling to breathe.
There was so much blood.
It was so cold.
The magick-bender was huddled next to her on the snow. Lorelei couldn’t see the warriors, but she assumed they were on either side and behind them.
“I’m really sorry.” The words were so softly spoken, Lorelei almost missed them.
Lorelei tried to reply, but all that came out was a gurgle and a cough. She spit more blood onto the snow on the ground in front of her.
There was so much. The stain was so large.
And then there was Saul. He’d taken such a beating. He was hanging there between two guards and Rivian was hitting him over and over. The stomach. The face. Over and over. She couldn’t see his beautiful blue eyes any longer. They were completely swollen shut.
The deep gashes on his torso had soaked his shirt and pants with blood.
His hair had been sawed off with a knife and stuck out in strange places.
