Ruairi skidded to a halt at my side, a short sword in each hand. Rían appeared next to him, a dagger in his fist. His black gaze swung toward me. “Same as before?” he shouted.
These villains didn’t deserve a trial. They deserved death.
Icy darkness leaked into my veins as I focused my rage on those black cloaks and shifted a sword of my own. “No. Tonight, there is no mercy.”
48
RÍAN
I evanescedbehind a short man wearing the same damn black cloak as the rest of the bastards attacking the humans and dragged my dagger across his throat. He went down hard. When I glanced down at my weapon, no blood coated the blade…just like when I’d killed the men who’d set fire to The Arches. I went to kick the dead man lying on the ground when his hand shot out, catching my ankle and clawing at me like a feral animal.
I shifted a sword and relieved him of his head.
Only then did he finally fall still.
There wasn’t time to stop and think. I ran to the next man and cut him down in a similar fashion. His body and head thumped to the ground, one after another. Behind me, a woman shrieked. I whirled around to find her bashing a villain’s skull with a broom handle. The handle snapped, but the man continued coming for her…until she impaled him in the eye with the broken hunk of wood, and he collapsed onto the grass.
With burning eyes, I scoured the mayhem for another culprit, but there seemed to be no more.
If these were same monsters from The Arches, whoever had sent them would surely steal away their bodies like the ones in Gaul. I needed to ensure we had some evidence to study after this disaster was over.
So that was what I did.
To my right, a man in a singed tunic darted inside a flaming tent. He returned a moment later through the rolling black smoke carrying a small, limp body. I ran to him, my own thunderous heartbeat flooding my ears.
“Are there more inside?” I bellowed over the cracking inferno.
His blown-out eyes met mine as he settled the little girl onto the grass far from the flames. “My son.”
I handed him my sword in case any more attackers appeared and headed into the blaze. Heat engulfed me, doing its best to melt my skin clean off. Thick black smoke clung to the air, making it impossible to see. I made the mistake of inhaling too deeply and choked on the acrid air. “Hello?”
The toe of my boot collided with something solid. When I knelt, I found a small body curled beneath a wool blanket. I scooped the child into my arms, turning his head toward my shirt to keep the smoke from his face. Before I could evanesce, a tremendous boom rang through the air. One of the beams holding the canvas roof in place collapsed in a ball of flames. I barely made it out before it landed on top of me.
Outside, the screams had turned to soft sobs and quiet wails, punctuated by the fires still raging. I laid the boy on the grass next to the little girl. His father dropped to his side. “Dalis?” No response left the boy’s small lips. The man smoothed his hand across the boy’s blackened forehead. “No…No, please…”
I called magic to my palm and pressed it to the lad’s chest, but when the magic refused to leave me, I knew. I hadn’t been quick enough to save the little boy.
“I’m so sorry.” Such inadequate words to offer a man who’d lost his son. My nephew slept soundly in the safety of the castle, while this boy would sleep no more.
Tears tracked down the man’s ruddy cheeks. “He was a good lad. Such a good lad…”
I stood, having nothing left in me to comfort the grieving man.
The tents and everything in them had been lost. Countless bodies remained twisted in the grass, blackened and burned. Innocent victims caught in this war that none of us had wanted. Humans with no hope of winning in this game of immortals.
Bringing them here had been a mistake. Leaving them with only wards for protection, even temporarily, had been foolish. If I’d been here while the plans were being made, maybe I could’ve put a stop to it. I should’ve spoken up when Tadhg had told me. Instead, we’d gathered all of them in one place, ripe for the picking. And our enemies had taken every advantage. The smoke would clear, daylight would come, but the terror from this night would never fade.
Ruairi appeared at my side, sweat dripping down his forehead, his damp shirt clinging to his muscular frame. “Did yours bleed?”
“Not one.”
Tadhg made his way through the devastation, the shadows on his face having nothing to do with the lateness of the hour. The survivors began to gather where we met. Men with slumped shoulders, women with tear-streaked faces, and children clutching their skirts.
Ruairi drew his forearm across his brow. “What now?” he asked Tadhg.
“We can’t leave them here,” I said to my brother.
Tadhg heaved a weary sigh. “Bring them into the castle.”