Page 40 of Cold Hearted
A war horn blared through the dark night, penetrating the small room. Alarm bolted through me at the sound, and all thoughts of Dawn fled my mind. I crept to the window, where a four-inch gap of the curtain was open, and observed what was going on.
I knew the hour was still late, yet fae were running up and down the alleyway outside my hideaway as horns periodically blared. Yes, I had to go after Dawn, but something was happening in the city, and I needed to find out what first.
Packed and armed, I cracked open the door, my mood thawing a little when I realized she’d made sure it was locked before she’d left me drugged on the floor.
My little bird still cared and didn’t leave me to get my throat slit in the middle of my slumber.
“The rondak is dead!” someone in the distance yelled, and my heart stuttered as I staggered backward a few paces.Could that be true?
I tested my powers, reaching inside myself, probing my magic. I felt it flare to life in response, stronger and more potent than ever before.
It was true! The rondak, the beast who took everything from me and tortured my people for nearly a year, was dead. I should have noticed it right away, but I’d been preoccupied with Dawn’s disappearing act. I could feel that the curse that had weighed me down since the moment my brother was killed, and the mantel of leadership shifted to me, had lifted. I was back to full power, and finally free to unleash on my enemies without fearing harm coming to my people in the form of a plague.
Swinging the door wide, I stepped out of the hideout, uncaring for the first time in a year who saw me in the streets of my city. I was unstoppable and itching for a fight.
Down the street, a contingent of the rondak’s soldiers kicked in a door and rushed into the house, pulling out a young couple. The wife clutched a wailing baby as she was shoved forward.
“What have we done?” the husband asked as his hands were bound behind his back. His wife tried to go to him, but she was roughly grabbed and held against the wall with the screaming baby in her arms.
“A murderer is on the loose in the city. You may be harboring him,” one of the soldiers growled. “We’re to search each home in the city until we ferret out the traitor.”
My blood began to boil through my veins like heated tar. I recognized their garments. They weren’t innocent city guards, forced into service by the rondak. These fae were part of his personal guard, ones who’d sided with him and rose up against me for their own gain.
How convenient, I thought,an outlet for my rage only steps away. A wicked smile stretched my lips as I moved toward the group, but before I reached them one of the soldiers slammed a fist into the fae male’s gut. His wife screamed at them to stop, but they ignored her.
My fury and outrage grew until they became a maelstrom, fueling my dark power.
I heard myself say in a deadly voice: “I’ll give you this one chance to flee before I run each and every one of you through.”
The soldiers stopped what they were doing and looked over at me, a shadow of fear passing over their faces—all except one stupid soul who was dumb enough to sneer at my threat. “Do you know who we are? I’ll remove your tongue for speaking to us like that.”
“I know exactly who you are,” I answered as my smile sharpened. “And I was hoping you’d say that.”
Perhaps Dawn hadn’t been completely wrong about the Ethereum lords. Threaten or hurt someone who was ours and our darkness emerged. The young couple that the rondak’s soldiers were harassing were citizens of Noreum, and therefore were mine to protect.
These soldiers were about to find out just how dark a lord I could be.
My power swirled around me, pulling shadows from the night and solidifying them into narrow glass spikes in my palms.
When they saw the spikes, there were gasps of surprise, and the soldier’s eyes in front of me went wide.
“Lord Roan!” one of his companions yelled, and tried to flee, but with a flick of my wrist I sent one of the spikes at him, piercing him right through the skull. He was dead before his body hit the ground.
The alleyway broke out in pandemonium after that. The couple was released as the soldiers rushed me, and I saw the husband usher his wife and child back into their home before the first of the rondak’s loyal fae reached me.
Seeing that the citizens were now safe inside, I focused all my attention on the traitorous fae, killing three of them immediately with my spikes. The remaining four soldiers swung at me with swords, but I easily dodged their attacks. I could have hurled a barrage of projectiles at them with a flick of my hand, but at the moment craved the physical release of a battle too much to end the fight quickly.
With my power at full strength again, four against one was child’s play, so although my rage wasn’t assuaged I quickly grew tired at the lack of challenge and ended them one by one. I slammed the first one’s head into the wall, and he dropped immediately, his skull caved in. The second I pressed my hand to his chest and punched a spike through his heart and out his back. The third I decapitated with his own blade after quickly disarming him.The last still standing was the soldier who’d threatened to cut my tongue out. He sat below me, cowering against the wall, smelling of the urine he’d just released on himself.
“P-p-please, my lord,” he pleaded, but it produced no mercy in my heart. I would have made their deaths slower if I’d had the time and didn’t need to take back my castle and find Dawn.
“What happened here tonight?” I barked.
“The rondak was attacked in his bedchamber. They’re saying that he’s… gravely injured.”
He was lying. I could see it in his eyes. He didn’t want to admit his master was dead because he feared what I’d do to him.
“Only injured?”
