“I’d appreciate it if you could take a step back and stop breathing down my neck,” she spoke with gritted teeth, his hand still above hers as she held the hilt.
“I only do what’s best to help my apprentices become the best warriors Heldraine has ever seen.” Eldric winked, and she grunted.
He is so full of himself…
Alissa moved her leg to the side, adjusting her weight in her favor. She took advantage of the proximity of their bodies and grabbed his leg in both of her hands. She pulled him forward with all her strength, and his back hit the ground hard when he fell. She rested her right foot on top of his chest, holding him in place, his sword pointed at his face.
Their eyes locked for a moment. The world became silent around her when his green eyes glinted with something resembling admiration. His grin would have made anyone who hadn’t been watching believehehad just surrendered an opponent, not the other way around. Eldric was hypnotized by the joyous glow that ignited in Alissa for the first time, acknowledging the way his gaze refused to leave her eyes and the smile lingering on her lips.
“Good job, Kriegen,” he whispered.
She laughed then, a true, honest laughter, and the sound made Eldric’s heart pound.
Alissa beamed with pride. “Did you just see this, Frey?”
When silence was the only one to answer, Alissa glanced around to find that Freyah was nowhere to be seen.
“Where’s Freyah?” she asked, heart beating slightly faster.
“She was right here,” Eldric answered.
They stood up, eyes scanning their surroundings, looking for their friend.
Seconds and minutes stretched, and Freyah was still missing. Alissa and Eldric decided to split up to cover more ground in the search. As time passed, her worries grew inside her like a weed. Her heartbeat had already reached the same racing pace it did when she exercised—or when Eldric was close. Sweat drippeddown her forehead nonstop, but this time, it was a response to the thought of her friend being in danger. It came from all the tragic scenarios she pictured in the few minutes when Freyah’s whereabouts were a mystery, all due to the anticipation of not knowing what happened that weighed upon her shoulders.
Sadly, for her, when Alissa’s gaze drifted through the rich wheat field that painted the ground in yellow, she saw her dearest friend—her sister—lying on the ground. Her cheeks were damp from the tears that desperately escaped her eyes, and the strong, hairy hands of a man covered her mouth. Freyah’s body was completely restrained by the weight of the stranger above her as he held her still. Luckily, from what Alissa could tell, there were no signs of violence aside from the aggressive way he pinned her to the ground.
The man was enormous, his stomach so bloated it looked as if he were thirty-seven weeks pregnant, if not for the fact that he was a man. His white beard glowed in the daylight. He was not alone; two other men watched him: one held a rope in his hands, intended to tie Freyah up, she realized. His dark blond hair was longer than Alissa’s, cascading all the way down his back. The third attacker, on the other hand, had hair as dark as a raven, thick and straight, meticulously groomed. His small, dark eyes observed the beautiful woman kicking and screaming with a blank expression.
Alissa watched from afar, feeling as if her heart might leap out of her throat. The bile in her stomach threatened to rise along with it. Rage consumed her, a fiery wrath she had only felt twice before: when her father died and when Dhalia was marked with Senectus Subita.
She looked around searching for Eldric, hoping with his help she would be able to defeat Freyah’s captors, but he wasn’t there. Alissa knew it was dangerous, but there was no time to consider the risks. Her hands flew to her back, searching for her bow andarrows, but they came up empty. She cursed under her breath. She had left their camp in such a euphoric state that the only weapon she managed to bring along was the dagger she always carried inside her boots.
Blessed be that life-saving dagger.
Without another moment’s hesitation, she ran.
Alissa sprinted across the field with a desperate urgency, driven by the need to save Freyah. Her lungs burned, her heart pounded like a war drum, and her gaze was locked onto her sole focus, deciding who would be the first to die.
The first man didn’t see her coming. She came behind his back and buried her dagger deep in his neck. When she yanked her blade free, his dark blond hair was stained by the blood that seeped from the fatal injury and poisoned the wheat field beneath them.
Alissa looked down at the weapon in her hand, her eyes wide, her legs trembling as she froze in place, realizing what she had done. That man left this world without ever knowing who was responsible for ceasing his miserable existence. His life, gone in a breath. Like a fly, suddenly caught inside a frog’s mouth, asking itself, ‘How did I even get here?’
The sound of the heavy body hitting the ground warned the second man of her presence. He seemed ruthless, but so was she when she fought to save the lives of her loved ones.
The man jumped in her direction, his fist heading straight to Alissa’s face when she dodged. He wielded his sword, the blade orange from rust. She tried aiming her dagger at his heart, but he was faster and more agile than she; his movements with the sword were far from Eldric’s level but still better than she was capable of becoming after only a few weeks of training.
Oh, how she wished she had her bow right now.
The man managed to knock her down with a trip. Alissa fell to the ground, the impact on her back was sharp as needles. Herdagger escaped from her grip, flying out of her reach. The man pinned her to the ground, his hands holding her wrists tight. Alissa tried to move, thrashing against him, but she couldn’t. He was too strong. She cast a quick glance out of the corner of her eye and saw Freyah also immobilized by the disgusting creature above her.
“Look, Kiurn, we got the other one!” The black-haired man chanted in celebration. His smile was wide and malicious. He leaned down and whispered to her ear, “Before we hand you over, I’m going to enjoy using you two.”
Alissa didn’t know whether it was his voice or his words that were the most disgusting thing she had ever experienced, until he leaned down and licked her cheek.
She spat on his face instinctively.
It was a mistake. The man reached his left hand to her throat, choking her until her sight began to darken. His right hand moved, sliding the tip of his rusted blade into her leg. The pain felt like a sting at first, then as if her limb was being torn into two. He dug the blade a little deeper. Alissa tried to scream in agony, but the hand squeezing her throat didn’t allow it. She shouldn’t have been surprised to realize the more she wanted to scream, the more the man’s smile widened, and the more visceral he became. A tear finally slid down her cheek.