“What do you suggest we do?”
Another pooka fell victim to the axe to the delight of the cheering crowd.
“I don’t know,” she cried. “But it’s so wrong that they should be killed for no reason at all.”
“Saving a handful of us won’t change anything.” The problem was bigger than those ten creatures. And saving them . . . Even with Rían’s help, we couldn’t be everywhere at once. “This is all part of a systematic extermination that’s been going on for centuries, and it won’t stop until magic is wiped off the island.”
I heard a Danú prayer cut short by the axe—the abcan.
His head rolled across our path, stopping next to Keelynn’s boot. Before I could get rid of it, she started screaming. Everyone turned toward us. I clamped a hand over her mouth and dragged her toward the inn. “Be quiet. You’re drawing everyone’s attention.”
Dammit.
In our path were two soldiers beating the shite out of a grogoch.
Grogochs knew better than to come out on execution day, with tensions high and army presence even higher. Had this one honestly thought he could hide what he was beneath a feckin’ cloak?
He collapsed onto the cobblestones. The two soldiers pummelled him with their iron-tipped boots.
“He didn’t do anything, did he?” Keelynn whispered.
“Most likely not.” I swore and scraped a hand over my face. I was exhausted and hungry and hungover and so far beyond angry. Of all the feckin’ days. “Keelynn, listen to me. I need you to—”
“GET OFF HIM,” she shrieked.
Before I could stop her, she sprinted for the soldiers in a useless attempt to stop the assault. One of the men knocked Keelyn to the ground, signing his death warrant.
Even fighting her hardest, she hadn’t a hope of winning. I evanesced to her side. The man didn’t see me coming before my fist slammed his temple. He slumped to the ground. The soldier on top of her muttered something, but I could only focus on knocking him away from Keelynn.
“Of all the feckin’ days for you to want to commit treason.” I lifted the beautiful, infuriating woman off the ground. Why couldn’t she have let me handle it? “Get to the inn.Now.”
I threw her my bag and drew my sleeves to my elbows. If I was going to fight, I didn’t want to be weighed down.
Heavy boots stomped the cobblestones as more soldiers came to join the fun.
Keelynn’s face paled. “Tadhg! Come with me!”
God, I loved hearing my name on her lips.“You need to run.”
There was no time to make sure she did as I commanded before I bent to the grogoch. “Take this and go to my castle.” I pressed Rían’s cufflink into his hairy hand.
“Y-yes, my prince. I’m s-sorry. My son, he—”
The boots grew louder. They were almost here.
“Go now.”
Seven soldiers formed a perimeter around me. I gave one of the bodies on the ground a kick. The man who had touched Keelynn groaned. I crushed his windpipe beneath the heel of my boot, ensuring the satisfying gurgle would be his last.
Two soldiers lunged.
I could’ve evanesced.
But after the day I’d had, I really, really wanted to kill every last one of them.
Bones crunched beneath my fists. Blood sprayed. Not a moment later, they fell on top of their comrades. My shredded knuckles were already healing by the time I broke the next one’s nose. They got smarter, three of them coming at once. The fist to my abdomen barely registered. The one that smashed my jaw stung a bit. Shackles closed around my wrists, searing and hissing. Feckin’ iron burned like feckin’ fire. They dragged me toward the dais. I found a pair of wide gray eyes watching from among the onlookers.I smiled so Keelynn wouldn’t worry, letting her know before she turned away that everything would be all right.
My boots scuffed across the bloodstained wooden platform.