Blackbird Broken (The Witch King's Crown #2) - Keri Arthur Page 0,112

gut churning and all but confirmed those dark suspicions.

“Yes,” he said. “We’re a very good team, he and I.”

“I take it you’re the consort to his king?”

He laughed. “That’s a fair summation. How did you guess, given you’ve never seen us together?”

I shrugged and stepped onto the ledge. Ten feet separated us; close, but not quite close enough. I couldn’t risk throwing the knife, not when there was a fire in my brain and I was seeing double. “Your expression was evidence enough.”

“He always said I wasn’t very good at concealing my emotions.” His hand came out from behind his back. In it was a gun. He smiled. “I’m not saying I don’t trust you, Gwen—but I don’t.”

With that, he fired. I swore and threw myself sideways, but my reactions were far too slow. Something tore into my shoulder, and I glanced down. It wasn’t a bullet. It was a goddamn dart. Fuck.

I wrenched it free and rolled upright. Became aware of an odd tremor in the earth and spotted demons flowing out of the cavern. I called to the lightning within me and flung it, with everything I had, at the tunnel rather than the demons. The twisting, tumbling streaks of light hit the wall and exploded with the force of a bomb. As the stone under our feet trembled and huge chunks of rock crashed down, hands grabbed me, pulling me sideways, pushing me down. A figure appeared in my vision, fist raised. I reached for the lightning again, but there was nothing left. Nothing except blinding, searing pain.

But this fight wasn’t over yet. I flicked the stone knife into my hand and stabbed upwards, even as that fist descended. Flesh met stone; the sheer force of his blow vibrated up my arm even as the blade sank hilt-deep into his hand. I twisted the blade sideways, sliced through muscle and bone, severing arteries. Blood spurted, and he screamed, the sound high and furious. But he wasn’t about to release me.

He dropped his weight onto me, one knee thumping into my gut and forcing an explosion of air from my lungs. With the other knee, he pinned the hand holding the knife. Then he wrapped his good hand around my throat and began to squeeze, his fingers digging deep into my carotid. If I didn’t end this soon, he would.

I bucked, trying to dislodge him. He chuckled softly, his expression cold. Hard. No matter what his orders were—no matter what Max or the dark elves might want—he was going to kill me.

And he was going to enjoy every second of it.

The black hole of unconsciousness roared toward me. I twisted and bucked, hitting him with my free hand, trying to gouge his eyes with my nails. He swore and ducked away from each blow, his grip unfaltering even though I clawed his cheeks and mouth and neck. My lungs burned for air, and my heart raced so hard it felt like one long scream. I had no idea if it was the drug or his strangulation, and in truth it didn’t matter, because I was dead if I didn’t do something in the next few seconds. Punching and bucking wasn’t working, which left me with only one choice.

To use what had already flamed out.

I stopped fighting, stopped sucking in air. Reached beyond the pain, beyond the fire, and past the depleted reserves of strength. For several, agonizing seconds, there was nothing but a curtain a gray.

Death, I thought.

Then the curtain moved, and I stepped onto the edges of another plane. It was a place beyond flesh—a place that was this world, and yet not. A place in which there were no demons or death or a halfling bastard trying to kill me. There was simply the earth and the air, and all the energies moved and existed between them.

In this place, Nex and Vita blazed, one gold, one a cold white. Life and death. I reached for death, saw Nex respond both within this otherworld and without. She shifted, rose, and cut through time and space, her blade comet bright, leaving a trail of sparks behind her.

Winter must have sensed something was off, because at the very last moment, he turned to face the cavern.

Nex plunged into his left eye, deep into his brain. He was dead between one breath and another.

As his body began to fall sideways, I reached up and withdrew Nex from his eye socket. Her blade still pulsed, but that shadowed world had retreated,