Page 22 of Cold Hearted
“Are you going to let me tell the story, little bird, or are you going to keep chirping back there?”
I groaned. “Go on.”
“When my brothers and I were born, we all looked alike, though we are not identical, and now there are stark differences between us. So in order to know which one my mother had fed, she wrote the first letter of our names on the bottom of our feet.”
I giggled. “That’s smart.”
“Well, one time after we’d all been bathed, my older brother Cal, Brienne’s husband, thought it would be funny to write an A under all of our feet. My mother thought we were all Adrien for an entire half a day until she figured out what Cal had done.”
I laughed. “Cal was a jokester.”
Zander nodded. “He wa—”
An arrow swished through the trees and passed right by my ear, nearly slicing into it. “Hold on!” Zander yelled.
One second we were trotting along peacefully and the next he kicked his heels hard and Omen shot off onto the dusty trail.
I held on to Zander with one hand and pulled my dagger from the sheath. The orange sunstone winked in the daylight, but Zander was too distracted to notice. Looking around frantically, I spotted half a dozen raiders, all dressed in black and masked like the assailants at the inn.
Half a dozen. My stomach dropped. Those weren’t the best odds, but we’d fought more than that at the inn. I was confident we could take them together.
“Tell me you have a bow!” I screamed.
“In the saddlebag, but you won’t be able to reach before—”
A body sailed through the air, attempting to knock us off the stallion, and I brought my blade up, slicing the man right in the gut. A killing blow, but his body still crashed into Zander and me, knocking us off our horse.
I hit the ground hard, my head snapping to the side and crashing into the hardpacked earth. I’d dropped my dagger in the fall, but I pulled on my magic instead of my blade, knowing that as long as I was breathing I was never without a weapon, even if I had no steel.
The sun was shining, and I could feel the power ripping through my body as I charged up my hands with light. Four bandits came for us at once. Two of them held rune spell wands, a glowing rune perched on the edge, as they prepared to touch Zander or my skin or clothing and render either of our powers useless.
Not while I was still breathing.
With a battle cry, I unleashed a torrent of sunlight through my palms, igniting two of the bandits immediately. They were engulfed in flames,running backward into each other screaming as Zander looked over at me with wide eyes and a slack jaw. I realized in that moment that I had shown that I was much more powerful than a simple Midland fae should be.
Two of the attackers had shaken off the shock of my powerful display and lunged for Zander. He looked conflicted for a moment before throwing out his hand, and I watched in horror and fascination as black shards of glass shot from him like arrows from the skin of his palm and impaled both men.
I guess I wasn’t the only one hiding my powers all this time.
The men clutched their chests, and now it was my turn to stare at Zander. Did all black bleeders have this power? Or was it because he was commander of the Northern Army? Or something more?
My heart hammered in my chest as we stared at each other, and at that moment I did a body count.
One bandit I killed on the horse, two by fire, two by black shards.
“Look out!” Zander yelled as the sixth assailant lunged for me, a rune at the ready. Zander leapt forward and grabbed me, throwing me to the ground, and took my place just as the rune attached to his chest. His body went slack, and I watched in horror as he crumpled before me. His eyes were still open, but he appeared paralyzed, unable to speak or move.
“My master wants a word with you,” the man stated, and hooked a pair of cuffs over Zander’s wrists.
I was fatigued from my little flame display back there but in no way drained. Pulling on my power,I thrust my hands toward the attacker just as the butt of a sword came down over the side of my head and everything went black.
* * *
I moaned as the throbbing at the base of my skull pulled me from unconsciousness. The memory of everything that had happened came rushing back to me and my eyelids flew open.
“Zander,” I croaked, squinting at the dying sun.
Dying sun?Oh no, it had been hours. I sat up quickly and regretted it as a wave of dizziness and fresh pain in my head washed over me. I quickly took stock of my surroundings. I was in the same place I’d been knocked out. Right on a side trail in the woods. Five dead bodies around me.
