Total pages in book: 247
Estimated words: 235897 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1179(@200wpm)___ 944(@250wpm)___ 786(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 235897 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1179(@200wpm)___ 944(@250wpm)___ 786(@300wpm)
She dodges as expected, and the blade flies by. I take the opportunity to rush her, swinging my right fist toward her torso to slice across her chest—no stabbing here.
I don’t want her to die, just to yield.
Someone shouts beside me, but I keep my gaze locked on Marlis. Dain can handle himself. He has to.
Marlis dances backward with a bemused smile, avoiding each of my swipes. Faster. I pour my energy into speed and lunge, finally making contact along the side of her ribs—the one area that isn’t protected by her chest plate. Blood stains her silver uniform as I draw back, but I’m not fast enough on the retreat. She hisses at the same moment she strikes with her own dagger, stabbing into my side with so much force I hear my rib crack.
Her blade glances off my dragon-scale armor, and I stumble sideways from the blow, drawing controlled, deep breaths to try and block the nauseating pain that erupts under my left arm. No mental trick in my arsenal can contain the waves of star-bright agony, but I manage to stifle the scream that fights its way up my throat as steel clangs behind me. I will not be Xaden’s distraction. Adrenaline kicks in, coursing through me like power.
Marlis glances at her blade in confusion, then lifts her gaze to mine, staring at me with macabre fascination and a small glint of what I think might be appreciation. “I’ll remove my armor if you do, too,” she proposes in the common language, giving me precious, necessary seconds to breathe through the worst of the pain.
“I’ll pass.” She’s too tall for me to chance a leg takedown and too strong for me to expose myself any more than necessary. All I have is leverage, and that means getting closer to destabilize her. I crook two of my left fingers at her as rain begins to fall in earnest.
Her eyes flare, and she cocks her wrist back.
I’m already dropping to the ground when she throws.
The blade passes overhead so closely I can hear it whistle, followed by the rhythmic pounding of boots on the wet stone. Careful to keep control of my blade, I shove myself up with every ounce of strength in my arms and force my feet beneath me an instant before she arrives.
She slices for my throat, and I leap backward as I hear Xaden hiss in pain.
I fight every instinct to check on him and throw my right forearm up to block Marlis’s next assault. She hits with bone-rattling strength and cuts into my forearm.
Now.
I drop my blade, using every second I have before the pain hits to follow her downward swing with my bloodied arm, reaching for her wrist. Rain slickens her skin, but I grab hold and throw my weight with my shoulder, driving her hand toward the ground and dragging the rest of her body along with her own momentum.
She stumbles and I take the opening, wrenching my torso upward and grabbing hold of her knee. I lock it against my chest, lacing my fingers, then quickly ram my shoulder into the pocket between her upper thigh and hip.
“Faster! Aetos is already unconscious!” Andarna warns as Marlis swings for me, her blade flying toward my face.
Fuck.
I hold tight to Marlis’s leg and barrel my weight downward into her joint, throwing her completely off-balance and forcing her backward.
Her blade clatters against the ground and she falls like a toppled statue, her back smacking into the stone. She shouts, but I keep hold of her leg, and only when she tries to twist out from underneath me, flipping to her chest, do I let go, diving for her hands.
I wrench her wrists behind her back as the metal of her chest plate scrapes stone, then sit, locking her arms in place with my thighs. Light flashes in the sky above us, and rain comes down in sheets.
“No!” she screams, arching upward to buck me off.
“Yes.” I draw a dagger and press the tip to the side of her neck as thunder rumbles. “Now, yield.” A quick glance to my left confirms Andarna’s assessment. Dain is unconscious on the ground, blood pooling around what I can see of his shoulder, and Palta’s boot is against his neck.
“Never.” Marlis tenses under me.
“I have you!” Blood runs down my arm with the rain, turning her tunic a mottled shade of pink.
“Perhaps,” she admits, turning her face to the right and laying her cheek against the ground. “But Costa has him.”
Holding my blade against her neck, I chance a glimpse to the right, then do a double take.
Costa has Xaden pinned to his back, his dagger inches away from Xaden’s face. Xaden’s fighting, both his bloodied hands wrapped around Costa’s wrists to keep the blade from plunging, but it slowly lowers under Costa’s weight.