Then both their eyes flicked to the room behind me then back to me.
Then, to my shock, they smiled, one turned to the other and, to my shocked delight, stated, “Lund appears to be a good teacher.”
They were Frey’s.
“You are Frey’s,” I whispered.
“Balthazar,” the dark one said.
“Quincy,” the fair one said.
I’d heard of both though never met them.
“Hey, I’m Finnie.” I was still whispering.
“We know,” Quincy said while still smiling.
I smiled back.
“So, Finnie, you think we could rescue you rather than loiter chatting in a wounded king’s room with his murdered lover still bleeding on the carpet?” Balthazar asked.
“That’s probably a good idea,” I answered then thought quickly and told them, “But before we do the whole, um… rescue thing there are a couple other things we need to do.”
They looked at each other.
Then they looked at me.
Then my heart flew to the sky when Oleg stomped through the door and grunted, “Yup, and I know one of them.”
“Oleg!” I cried, never in my life thinking I’d feel complete and utter joy at the sight of Oleg but I did in that moment, I totally did but Oleg, being Oleg, didn’t even look at me.
He walked by me. Unsheathing the sword from his back, he walked to Broderick, stood over him and right in front of my eyes, he ran Broderick through with his sword, straight through the belly, yanking up.
Broderick’s body jerked what I had to admit was sadly on the floor as his cries of pain were muffled by his gag and Oleg pulled out his sword, sheathed it and walked to me, stopping in front of me and meeting my wide eyes.
“Raider rule, my princess, do not leave a job undone,” he grunted then grunted again, “Lunwyn.”
“Lunwyn,” I whispered then felt a hand on my arm and that hand was pulling me to the door.
“Let’s go,” Balthazar, who had hold of me, said and we went.
But at the door, I turned back and saw the carnage, Phobin motionless and dead at my hand, Broderick’s head turned, his face pale and awful in his pain, eyes on me.
And I knew in that moment I would remember that scene, the blood, the gore of exposed wounds, the look on Broderick’s face, and I would do it until the day I died.
But for the life of me, I couldn’t find it in me to care.
Then I hurried out with my men and whispered, “Okay boys, somewhere close, there are two women…”
Chapter Thirty-One
Dragons
One month later…
“Finnie, Apollo requests your attendance.”
I looked from cleaning the wound to Lund and nodded. “Let me finish here, Lund, and I’ll go directly to him.”