Page 53 of To Wake a Kingdom

Mare took a few steps closer, cocking her head. The movement was supple and fluid, with nothing comforting or natural about it. Every angle, every plane seemed wrong, like she’d been pieced together with leftover parts.

“Did you like my present? They screamed so loud. It was the most delightful sound. I play it over and over in my head when I need a boost.” She cackled, and I squeezed Ronan’s hand so hard I felt his bones creak.

Hot tears bit my eyes, but I willed them not to fall.

“Perhaps another demonstration is necessary to quell this endless ennui as I wait.” She fluttered a hand to her forehead and then trapped me with her fiery golden gaze. “I picked out your cage today. You’re going toloveit.”

Before I could think about what I was doing, I launched myself at her. My soul existed outside my body, no longer in control of itself. She would not take another life from this castle.

Caught off guard by my sudden movement, she stumbled as I rammed into her, my shoulder pounding into her chest. The hours I’d spent circling the ballroom with Ronan as my teacher came to me now, nearly as natural as breathing. Long skirts getting caught around her ankles, Mare tripped and almost lost her footing.

The bored smirk had been wiped from her face, and the only thing left was loathing and unfettered rage.

“You littlebrat.” She spat the words with such vehemence a line of spittle dripped down her chin. With a shaking hand, she wiped it away, and I realized she was as much a slave to her emotions as anyone else. She was controlled by her hatred, too.

As she lifted her hand to retaliate, another shape flew past me. I blinked, and she was trapped under Ronan. His large hands circled her narrow wrists, holding her hands to the floor.

Screeching, she thrashed under him, but he was too strong. She flicked her hand, caught in his fist, but nothing happened. She let out a piercing cry of rage, so loud the foundations shook. Somehow, she flipped Ronan off her, but I didn’t give her the chance to rise. Instead, I crashed into her from behind.

She spun, her hand buried in the fabric of my shirt, and a fist came flying at my face. When Mare’s knuckles connected with my cheek, my head snapped back before light burst in my eyes. My vision swam as a wave of warm heat bloomed where her claws had broken my skin. My knees slammed to the floor.

In that split second, Ronan leaped on her again and the two rolled to the ground. Ronan let out a grunt before blood spread, bright and red, across his white shirt, soaking his entire side. I screamed, and Ronan clamped onto Mare’s wrists, trying to hold her hands back while she aimed her sharpened claws at his face. Blood was everywhere, and I couldn’t tell whose was whose.

Ronan wrestled Mare into a headlock and, though she kept flicking her hands to call her magic, still nothing happened. Ronan’s shirt was a crimson stain, his black pants shiny with blood. Mare finally writhed from his grasp, squeezing out of his hold. She shoved him, and Ronan slammed against the wall.

Footsteps stormed from the other direction as Noah, Em, and Gideon all ran up, fully armed.

Caught between all of us, Mare’s eyes flashed as she focused her rage on me, a sneer gracing her lips. Blood slipped from the razor-sharp points on her fingers. More was smeared on the milky white skin around her mouth and dripping down her bony chest. She wiped her nose with her forearm, brimstone burning in her gaze.

“Tick tock, Thorne.” With a bloody claw raised, she bared her teeth and snapped her fist shut. “When you are finally mine, I will tear you apart and crush your very soul until it’s nothing but a memory. I will make your heart fuckingbleed.” Her words were spiked in a thousand needle-sharp pins, and if she’d hated me before, it was nothing compared to what she felt now. In a pooling whirl of blackness, she disappeared.

With a shout, I lunged for Ronan, who lay motionless, blood pooling beneath him where he’d slid to the floor. “Someone get Kianna. We need Kianna.”

I tried to staunch the bleeding, tearing a long strip from my tunic and holding it up to the wound.

“It’s going to be okay,” I said, not sure which one of us I was trying to convince.

Ronan was awake but weak, his eyes fluttering.“That fucking witch. I’m going to cut off her head and feed it to the demons of hell,” he groaned as I smoothed the hair from his face.

My throat was tight as I nodded, tears stinging my eyes.

Kianna kneeled next to me. “Let me see.”

I pulled away the soaked bit of reddened cloth as she examined the wound. Four long gashes sliced from above his hip and across his ribs.

“It doesn’t look like she hit anything important, but they’re deep. I don’t have a strong affinity for healing.” She bit her lip, wringing her hands.

“Kianna, look at me.” My hands gripped her shoulders, and I stared her in the eye.“You can do this. You’re stronger than you think. Your sisters were wrong about the kind of Faerie you are. I have every faith in you and your power.”

Kianna’s watery gaze reflected back at me, and she nodded. Ronan was blinking hard, trying to resist unconsciousness. He was pale as ice and I ran my hands over his head, trying not to look as scared as I felt.

Lips held in a thin line, Kianna pressed a hand to his side as a small yellow light flared. Her nose scrunched in concentration while she maintained the connection. Our collective breaths held, we all watched quietly as she worked.

A few minutes later, the light winked out as Kianna wiped her brow with a forearm. “We should get some stitches in him. This won’t hold for long.”

Ronan had fainted, his skin clammy to the touch. As Noah and Em lifted him, I clung to his limp hand.They carried him to the unused dining room table while Gideon left to ransack the infirmary. It was truly a miracle that we hadn’t needed it before today. He returned with an armful of supplies and began preparing a needle and thread.

“How does he know how to do that?” I asked Em.

---