Page 74 of Savage Crown
As I neared, I took him in fully. Like before, in the tavern courtyard, there was a wrongness that came from the eyes. They were the bright gold of wolves, but flat, like coins with black threaded through.
“You have caused quite a mess,” he said conversationally. “My favorite concubine escaped. My men are heaped unconscious in the hallways for no good reason. You could have just asked to see me.”
Without warning, Valkaryn shot off a stream of green magic right for his throat, and I watched as Mind Render swallowed the magic whole. A black tentacle burst in front of the green killing blow like a shield and engulfed it.
‘Just checking,’Val told me, and I froze, unsure what Harrow would do about that.
He was completely still at first, but then, without warning, he burst forward and closed the distance in a breath. Mind Render came down hard, and I brought Val up to meet it. Steel met something that felt like striking black ice. A shock ran up my arm and rattled my teeth. I moved Val in an effort to cut toward his ribs. He turned, caught my strike, and smiled again, as if this were all a dance he had mastered long ago.
We circled. He pressed in, and I gave ground, not because I could not stand, but because I wanted him between me and theopen night where the city loomed down below. Harrow guessed my aim and tried to edge the other way. I feinted right, then darted left. Our blades collided and stuck, not metal on metal, but something deeper, like two rivers trying to occupy the same channel.
Shadows gathered around his sword. Light rose from mine. The clash sent magical sparks skittering along the marble. He bared his teeth, and I set my jaw, unrelenting and fully prepared to die.
“Drop the weapon,” he said, calm as a man asking for salt.
Pressure pushed at the side of my temples, and I felt my head squeeze.
‘Hold the anchors,’Val breathed.‘Hold Kaelric’s laugh. Hold your mother’s hand on your cheek. Hold the first time you chose to be brave.’
I held all of it and felt the pressure in my head ease. Mind Render’s shadow faltered, and Valkaryn’s light surged so brightly it saturated everything for a moment. For a heartbeat, his eyes widened, and Harrow stepped back to put space between us. Then he came again with a flurry meant to overwhelm.
I met him step for step. He fought like a wolfkin taught by an Elite, quick and ruthless, but with habits learned inside a palace.
He slashed at my hand, probably hoping I would drop Valkaryn. I let him get close with his blade and used the proximity to graze his knuckles. Then I pulled him forward with my free hand, grasping his shoulder. His breath left his body in a shocked gasp, but I didn’t wait for him to react. I kicked out at his knee, hard. He staggered backward and recovered with an ugly grimace that told me we were about to really go at it.
Valkaryn shot off another killing bolt of light, but Mind Render swallowed the illumination like it was nothing.
Damn.
“Enough play,” Harrow growled, and Mind Render pulsed, filling half of the balcony with dark shadows.
The world tilted as I felt that pressure at my skull again, this time so crushing that warm wetness dripped from my nose. I reached up to touch it and came away with blood.
KNEEL!he bellowed into my mind.
Not the hush of a single command this time, but the deep pull of a tide that wanted to drag my soul out and lay it at his feet. For a moment, I was somewhere else. A road. A door. A hand beckoning kindly.
‘No,’Val said, and her voice came not from the sword, but from everywhere at once. ‘You are mine, and I am yours. You will never belong to him.’
Light shot from Valkaryn and met the shadows of Mind Render head-on. There was a crack like thunder ripping across the sky. The floor buckled, and one of the windows behind me shattered from corner to corner.
Harrow staggered backward, and his face twisted.
“Die,” he said, and the word was a blade, piercing my head as I felt Valkaryn bolster her shields to deflect it.
“Not today,” I said, and stepped forward.
Harrow met me blade to blade. The first strike rattled my bones, and Valkaryn burst bolts of more light at Harrow. Mind Render drank the light from the air, and every time our edges kissed, there was a crackling like glass being cut by iron. Harrow fought close, ugly, and efficient. He wanted my wrist, my throat, my knee. I gave him none of them.
He lunged for my throat again, but I dropped my shoulder and drove Valkaryn’s hilt into his ribs. He grunted and countered with a hook of the blade that would have opened my belly if Val had not jerked my wrist in a motion that was not mine.
‘Pivot left. Now,’she breathed, and I obeyed without thinking.
The slash of his blade took only cloth. I slid past him, and he spun, facing me. We circled across the polished floor, my boots squeaking, his silent. A far door opened, and guards shouted, then halted, as if an invisible hand had pressed their mouths shut.
“Drop it,” Harrow bellowed at me, his eyes on Valkaryn, his knuckles bleeding where I had grazed them.
The command hit like ice-cold rain. My fingers twitched.
