Ruins of Chaos (Legacy of the Nine Realms #3) - Amelia Hutchins Page 0,13

before it reached me, and the warrior fell to the ground in several bloodied pieces. I blinked slowly. My rattle grew in volume, unable to prevent it from escaping as dark shadows covered in armor encircled me protectively.

“I think you have my girl, asshole,” Knox growled, peering over his shoulder through his visor to look at me. His eyes narrowed as the noise I made filled the area relentlessly.

“Your days as King are numbered!” Lord Andres snarled, taking a fighting stance. “You will die!”

“Not today, and not by you,” Knox laughed soundlessly. “You touched my woman, which means you and your men’s lives are forfeited.”

Knox turned, deliberately dismissing the lord while his piercing blue eyes locked with mine. A warrior rushed toward him, and he lifted his blade, pushing it between his arm and body, impaling the man who had thought to stab him in the back. Knox turned, lowering his head, and swung so quickly that my eyes couldn’t follow the movement. Body parts hit the forest floor, painting it crimson as a river of blood coated it.

More power entered the clearing as Knox’s men drew their blades around me. Lord Andres’s warriors closed in from the surrounding forest. Knox, Killian, and Brander chuckled, soundlessly watching them circle us. Dark witches with sightless eyes joined the warriors, building a barrier to prevent our escape.

Relief washed through me at the sight of Killian, hope flaring in my chest that the others may have also survived. Yet Lore was absent, which terrified and worried me. If he’d lived, wouldn’t he have been here too?

A blade swung toward me without warning, but Brander intercepted it, slicing through a warrior that rushed forward with his sword lifted. The man’s obsidian eyes marred his face as ugly spider webs covered his flesh. Brander leaped into the air, cutting through another male without stopping until he was on the ground. Brander used his arm to swing his blade wide as he severed the head, sending it bouncing across the forest floor.

Killian angled toward a group of warriors, his blades swinging precisely and adeptly. His swords met and crisscrossed against the other male’s blades, unhanding them before he swung, severing the body at the waist. Killian moved to the next, blindly swinging, or what I assumed had been blind, only to remove heads and limbs from more warriors.

Knox stalked toward Lord Andres, who wielded dual blades. Andres snarled, cursing the king for being weak, goading him into anger, yet Knox didn’t take the bait. Knox said nothing; his anger radiated from him silently as he held his swords at his side. He stared at Andres with death exuding through the skull visor he wore.

Andres lifted his blades and swung, and Knox countered, sending one of Andres’s arms to the ground, still holding the sword. I hadn’t even been able to follow the speed of Knox’s blade as it moved.

Andres howled but still lunged, intending to catch Knox off-guard with his attack. Knox sent his blades into the air, coming down in an X before he lifted them, slicing both through Lord Andres’s throat. His body cut into sections and slid to the ground. More warriors came from the forest as if they’d intended to be a second wave of attack, but Killian and Brander dispatched them as Knox moved to me, dropping to his knees in front of me.

He turned as more men escaped the woods and whispered a single word, which caused the men rushing forth to turn to ash, as the wind caught and carried it through the air. Slowly, he turned back, staring at me as the pained sounds continued escaping my throat.

Knox cupped my face between his thick gloves before shifting his attention to my mangled shoulder. I didn’t stop the sounds. I couldn’t. My entire body shuddered from the rattling wail escaping me.

“Aria, you’re okay,” Knox whispered, his eyes dipping down my body to the soaked dress covered in mine and everyone else’s blood. “I got you,” he swallowed, his throat bobbing as he studied me.

I could see Knox, but I couldn’t process him. My mind refused to allow the fear to slide away. Everything within me was repelling against the feeling of Lord Andres’s bite. His mark on my flesh was vile, detested, and offensive. The wrongness of it consumed me.

Something touched my hands, and I screamed over the rattling wail. My hands broke free, rushing toward the shoulder to rip the mark from my flesh. Knox noted their direction