Page 57 of Wicked Enemy

But before I could take so much as a single step, cold steel pressed against my skin.

I immediately tried to slap my hands together, but the knife that someone was holding across my throat from behind dug in deeper, stopping my movements.

“You’ve hidden all of your people,” Christian White’s voice came from behind me. “Clever.”

“Can’t kill what you can’t find,” I said, keeping my tone arrogant and completely unaffected.

“Indeed. Terribly inconvenient, that.” He pushed the blade harder against my throat, breaking the skin and making a few drops of warm blood run down and mix with the rain dripping down my neck. “Maybe I should just kill you instead, then.”

“Go ahead. But then you’ll never find the healer.”

“I could just torture it out of one of your men once you’re dead.”

“You really think I told anyone where I hid my healer? How stupid do you think I am?”

He said nothing for a few seconds, as if mulling over my words. Then he clicked his tongue. “No, I suppose you wouldn’t. I certainly wouldn’t have done it if it were my healer.”

I didn’t reply. There really was nothing else to say. He could kill me with one flick of his wrist, but if he did, Gemma’s location would be lost to him forever. His only choice was to keep trying to force me to give it up by other means.

“Hiding a single healer is one thing, Arden. Hiding an entire court full of people is quite another.” He drew the knife up higher, pushing the flat of the blade up underneath my chin. “It’s only a matter of time before I find them. And when I do, I will start slaughtering them again. When you can’t take it anymore and you’re ready to give me your healer, I will accept your surrender at that spot outside the gate where we were supposed to meet the first time. See you soon, dark mage king of Malgrave.”

Before I could reply, the knife disappeared from my throat. I whipped around, my magic at the ready, but White had already worldwalked away. Releasing my grip on the magic, I raked a hand through my soaked hair instead, pushing the wet strands out of my face, while I cast a quick glance in the direction of the bridge. I couldn’t see it from here between the heavy rain and all the buildings in the way, but I knew that the white boots would be here soon.

Sucking in a deep breath, I took off down the street again.

Dark mage king of Malgrave.If he only knew what I really was right now. Just one of four gang leaders fighting for control, except all of my battle mages were currently behind bars and I was one mistake away from being completely annihilated.

Thank hell that he didn’t know anything about the political situation in Malgrave. Because if he had teamed up with the other Houses, my corpse would already be floating down the River of Souls.

Pushing the rain out of my eyes, I darted around the next corner.

Pain shot through my body as I slammed right into a block of stone. Or rather, a block of stone slammed right into me.

I stumbled backwards from the force of it, barely able to keep my balance on the wet street. But my instincts were screaming at me to move, so I blindly threw myself sideways.

A second later, lightning crashed into the block of stone where I had just been standing.

Slamming my hands together, I yanked up a metal wall right before a mass of shadows could crash into me. Then they disappeared. As did the block of stone.

I lowered my metal wall and scanned the street around me while instead building up a metal sheet below my feet.

Dread curled around my spine like a cold snake.

Aaron Reyes and battle mages from the House of Onyx were blocking the road on my left. On my right, Connor Bale and his people from the House of Lightning did the same. And through the small opening into the side street halfway between them stood Wilhelm Stenborg, the leader of the House of Stone.

Fuck.

My chest heaved as I tried to formulate some kind of plan. But there was no way in hell that I would survive a combined assault from all three other Houses. Not when I was alone. And not when I was already so exhausted that I could barely stay on my feet.

A boom vibrated through the ground underneath me. I snapped my gaze to Wilhelm. His blue eyes narrowed in annoyance as he flicked a glance down at my boots.

He had tried to use his magic to manipulate the stone ground I was standing on, but because I had already spread a sheet of metal below me, the strike hadn’t been able to go through.

Lightning shot through the air.

That broke the spell.

At once, they attacked from all three sides. It was all I could do to keep raising and lowering shields from the metal I had spread across the ground.

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