Page 47 of Blood Oath
“One. I don’t want anyone to rescue me. Ever.”
She struggles underneath me, twisting her other arm back frantically, but I snag that one, too, breaking her wrist and pinning it behind her in one smooth movement. She chokes on pain and fights harder beneath me, but it’s futile.
“Two. Humans are not weak, and they can be just as monstrous as legacies.”
I move my foot from her upper back and land a kick to the side of one of her knees at precisely the right angle, moving the bone out of place and fracturing her patella.
Snap.
Satisfied with her scream tapering off into hysteria as she writhes, I finally let her go, wiping my gloved hands on my shirt. She rolls over, sobbing when she can’t move her arms right to get up, and her knee bone slips to the side under her skin. With her in this state, it’s easy to lean down and snag the flag hanging out of her pocket.
For a moment, killing her is a real temptation. If I don’t, she’ll come for me again. She’ll end up telling others that I’m not the weakling I’ve been pretending to be. I could also use the buzz of a kill.
But I learned from a young age what taking a life means. As annoying as Sierra is, she’s just a jealous legacy who has no idea who she’s been pissing off. She doesn’t deserve death…yet.
“And three,” I sigh, looking out at the misty trees. “There is one person who will mourn me. She’s a real softie and would probably tell me to make nice with you. So, in her honor, you get to pick. Either get the fuck up, walk it off, and never speak to me again…or try me one more time so I can put you out of your jealous misery.”
She gives up on her attempts to get up, glaring at me with a beet-red face as she hisses, “I can’t get up and just walk it off. You fucked up my knee!”
“Be grateful I left one intact. Either limp out of here or pray someone comes looking for you before a manticore has you for dinner.”
I start to walk away, ignoring her curse-filled shrieks behind me. Turning my back on her turns out to be a small mistake, since she finally manages to lurch up to a semi-sitting position. Just as I glance over my shoulder, she flops one of her arms towards me, crying out from the pain of the broken arm as she finally shows what House she’s in.
Elemental. Fire.
Shit.
The blazing inferno that encompasses me is powerful enough that even though I dive away in record time, it still catches on my pants. I scramble to pat them out, but elemental fire isn’t like normal flames. It’s similar to Greek fire, quickly spreading.
Along with the flare of panic flooding me is exasperation. This bitch just had to wait until the last moment to surprise me with this. Why couldn’t she have whipped this attack out sooner? I never would have engaged with her if I’d known this was her element.
Taking off in a dead run, I don’t give myself time to hesitate before plunging into the nearby raging river.
Immediately, the fire singing my skin is snuffed out—but the subzero temperature of the water shocks my body into near paralysis. The rapids are far stronger than I’d anticipated, and I feel myself getting swept downstream and sucked further down, the cold and pressure making it nearly impossible to hold my breath.
Dying right now would be so inconvenient.
Just as water finally fills my mouth and nose, the swirling river calms enough that I can kick hard, breaking the icy surface with a raw, painful gasp. I’m so distracted with treading water that I barely register the shouts ringing out—until someone dives into the water beside me.
Strong arms encase me, and within seconds, I’m pulled onto the rocky shore. Someone is trying to cradle me, but that is absolutely not fucking happening, so I scramble away, blinking up in surprise…
At three legacies who look utterly pissed to find me in a river.
Silas is the one who pulled me out, and he looks ridiculously good sopping wet, with water droplets clinging to his dark curls and his red eyes a beautiful contrast against our wintry backdrop. He reaches for me again, brows pulled down in a severe frown, but I wave him off as I cough up the rest of the water.
Baelfire is agitated. “Fuck. Just breathe, Maven. There you go. Just?—“
He cuts off in a choking sound when I finally get to my feet, and when I hear Silas swear on a harsh exhale, I realize all of their stares have gone from furious to ravenous because...
I’m pretty much naked.
My dripping clothes are in tatters, my pants practically gone, and the little left of my baggy sweatshirt barely holding together. The massive burn holes in it expose most of my body, even though my black sports bra and panties are intact. Although I know the sports bra is covering the center of my chest where it is, I still instinctively lift my arms to cover that area.
The one part of me that hints at what I truly am.
“Fuck me,” Bael groans, voice hoarse. He reaches down to grip his erection in his pants, looking pained.
I’ve worn anything and everything to disguise my figure since the day I got to Everbound. I made sure everyone thought of me as a frumpy, forgettable wallflower. And now this. The gods really do have a wicked sense of humor.
