Reign of Darkness (The Prince's Assassin #2) - Ariana Nash Page 0,120

its touch breathlessly cold.

“Did Maria tell you, hm?” Amir teased. “My treacherous aunt? Did she tell you how Bucland was found hanged from a familiar tree? I made sure she knew. She likes to collect secrets. Thinks I don’t know. Like the books with their missing pages. Your captain friend will find nothing but riddles in their pages, but they’ll keep him occupied while I fuck your head, heart, and body into submission.”

Niko’s heart thudded harder. He heard himself screaming, but the sound never reached his lips. His ice prison held.

Amir peered closer. “Hm, you all thought me the fool, didn’t you? My brother did too. He kicked me to one side in favor of chasing the flame. All this time… he had no idea I knew about you, about your bitch of a Yazdan mother coming all this way to find Bucland and form an alliance, how they hid you, their babe, in a blacksmith’s forge, thinking you’d grow to be strong in the shadow of the palace so that one day, you’d stop the flame.” He stroked both hands down the front of Niko’s coat. “I watched Vasili try and find you, watched him try and understand who and what you were. It really was so much easier to let my brother do all the work. He has no idea how he played right into my hands.” Stepping back, he clapped his hands once, his face lighting up with glee. “Come along then, my beautiful bastard.”

And Niko went.

Chapter 37

Words fell harmlessly from Amir’s lips, but the same words fell like hammer blows from Niko’s, building something, shaping it, pulling weight from the shadows and throwing it around them as though the night could be hammered and forged into a weapon. And that weapon was Niko’s.

Wrong, but so right.

Cold, dark flame rippled over the cobbled streets ahead of them, hungrily reaching outward. Niko could taste what it tasted. Blood and earth and death in the air. A feast for the flame to devour.

The clash of swords rang through the air.

And then the elves came.

Just three. The first of many…

They burst around a corner and kept right on running at them, blades free, teeth bared, eyes fiery with murderous intent.

Amir placed a weighty sword in Niko’s grip. “Kill them and feed the flame.”

Amir spoke more words, and Niko echoed them until they became a chant in his head, beating in time with his heart. The sword swung, and the dark consumed. And the elves lay dead, turning to ash at his feet. It was all so… easy. Alive then dead. A blink. Gone.

“More,” Amir barked, striding past. He raised his arms, skipped backward, and laughed. “More, Nikolas! Take this fucking city for me and everyone in it.”

The streets filled with rushing elves.

Niko looked through the flame and into their approaching charge. No fear. No doubt. The words on his tongue were so familiar now he didn’t need to speak them aloud. They were in his head, driving him forward. He swept into the first wave, cloaked in the killing night, cutting them down like they were nothing but falling leaves.

The wind picked up the drifts of ash and made it fall like filthy snow.

Beautiful.

Wrong.

Amir laughed his insidious laugh, and Niko killed, and nothing had felt more right.

Something burst out of the shadows and slammed into Niko’s side, crashing him against a wall. Jarred from reality, silence reigned over his thoughts. Blissful silence.

The beast’s eyes flashed. The beast that had plowed into him.

Vasili’s?

It lunged a second time.

Niko flung an arm up. Teeth sank into his muscles and yanked. It should hurt. His mind told him the blood was his. But nothing about the attack felt like it belonged to him. The beast thrashed its head and Niko coolly observed.

“Amir!” This new voice was real and loud and pissed. “Release him!”

The beast stopped its mauling and dropped back onto all fours. Blood and drool streamed from its mouth.

Niko lifted his gaze to the approaching figure.

All-black armor made his pale hair and skin shine under the moonlight. He stepped over the dead. Stains marked his face too. Red stains.

Amir laughed and clapped his hands. “Dear brother, did you think to have all the fun without me?”

Vasili pointed the tip of a dagger at Niko.

Amir lowered his hands and grinned. “You’re the fool, Vasili.”

“I swear by Etara, if you don’t immediately release him from your binding, I will kill you where you stand, brother.” Hate burned through that last word, and the flame burned