Page 85 of The Eye of the Fifth
No longer laughing, Sekun backed her into the corner of the bar, roughly slamming her against the shelves. Bottles tipped and rained down, the smell of sweet mead filling the air as the glass smashed on the hard ground at their feet.
‘Where is he?’ Sekun growled.
‘Get your handsoffof me-’
Sekun slammed her again, harder this time. More bottles fell and smashed around them. ‘Where is he?’
‘Go! Get out!’cried Sunsi, and Gedeon knew that the order was meant for him.
But he would not run. He would not leave her behind. Sekun’s voice dropped as he lowered his mouth to her ear. ‘Even now, drenched in fear… you areirresistible.’
Still invisible, Gedeon moved out of the shadows and unsheathed his sword, the sharp blade ready to swipe across his brother’s ankles, ready to slice through bone like an axe to a tree-
It was not to be.
Sekun heard the movement and spun, drawing his own sword and clanging it against Gedeon’s in a clash of metal. The foreign touch against the blade instantly rendered the illusionist’s spell on Gedeon’s body void.
A wide grin split the crown prince’s face as he beheld his younger brother before him. ‘The elusive, traitorous Prince of Fire, finally found squatting in a shithole tavern, and being protected by awoman.How the mighty have fallen.’
Gedeon warned quietly, ‘Let her go, Sekun.’
‘Ah,’ said Sekun before chuckling. ‘You are still a righteous cunt, I see.’ He took a step back, grabbing Sunsi and forcing her in front of him. His thumb stroked deliberate circles at the centre of her throat, just above her collarbones.
Right where her windpipe lay beneath.
Gedeon dared not move. ‘Let. Her. Go.’
‘It seems a pity…’ Sekun began, giving a great sigh, his head side by side with Sunsi’s. ‘To waste a woman such as this. But alas, the Empress will not allow for such deceit and disloyalty to go unpunished… I predict she will be dead before the sun can slip over the horizon.’
His thumb pressed against the soft dip at Sunsi’s throat. Not enough to stop the air from getting to her lungs, but hard enough for the fear of death to flash in her hazel eyes. ‘Go, Gedeon,’ she rasped.‘Go.’
Sekun’s answering laugh was a living, taunting thing. ‘What will you do, brother? Burn me where I stand? Shroud the room in your darkness to escape?’ Gedeon’s spine tingled at those words, and Sekun was smiling as though he knew. Knew the damned curse still gripped his magic. ‘Lower your sword, you fucking fool,’ his brother sneered. ‘You have nothing. And I…’ Sunsi tried to gasp as his thumb pressed harder into her throat. ‘...have everything.’
One squeeze of his hand, and Sunsi would be dead.
But she was no damsel in distress.
His brother would never expect it. Would never expect awomanto outsmart him.
The flash of the small blade gripped in her hand caught Gedeon’s eyes just a moment before. She relaxed her body against Sekun’s, as if she might have fainted, and then she flung her arm up, the tip of her blade embedding itself in Sekun’s eye in a spurt of blood.
His cry was one of rage and imminent pain, and his grip around Sunsi’s neck released immediately as his hands flew to his face, frantically trying to pull the blade from his bleeding skull.
Gedeon struck.
His sword tore through Sekun’s shoulder, the same place the Eternal’s arrow had cut through his own skin just a few weeks back. His brother cried out again, throwing Sunsi’s small blade to the ground, glowering at Gedeon with unfathomable hate in the eye that was not punctured.
Over a hundred years of feuding had passed and he had allowed Sekun to bully him to submission, never truly fighting back, never letting his brother’s loathing for him get under his skin. But now…
‘I said,’ Gedeon murmured, twisting his sword and relishing in the grunt of pain his brother let out. He revelled in his own deliverance. Thrived in this overdue vengeance. ‘You will not touch her.’
He withdrew the sword and Sekun roared.
‘Gedeon!’ Sunsi exclaimed, and as he followed her terrified gaze, he understood why.
Tanwen. Tanwen, I need you. Now.
The commotion had awoken the sleeping city. Heads peeked out of doors, curious faces approached the tavern windows, peering in to locate the source of the noise.
