Page 96 of The Iron Hex

Eira closed her eyes and willed the Flow to do something, anything to make him let go of her. She felt the surge of power, shocking and intoxicating, running through her fingers. Eirainstinctively pressed her hands against the lord general’s sides, and she felt the lightning leave her all at once.

“Argh!” Lord General Kerrigan yelled, doubling over and dropping Eira, her hood slipping off of her head as she got up and ran out the open tavern door toward Hugo and Evangeline.

As she stepped into the clearing, she saw Hugo and Evangeline running to her, and the Iron Retinue soldiers turning to face her. Her dagger had fallen, but she had another strapped to her waist. As she reached to grab it she felt a vicious tug on her braid.

“You bitch, you shocked me,” Lord General Kerrigan snarled, spinning Eira around by her braid and looking down at her, features contorted with seething hatred as Eira screamed from the agony ripping through her skull at the force of the pull.

“Leave her alone!” Hugo yelled.

Lord General Kerrigan stopped dead in his tracks, his jaw going slack before he let Eira’s hair go.

“Eira?” he breathed shakily, steel-gray eyes that matched hers full of so many questions and waiting for a response.

How did he know her?

“I’m sorry, I d-don’t...” Eira stuttered as she slowly pointed her dagger out at him, eyes she’d only ever seen in the mirror staring back at her.

“Her memory is gone, Lord General,” Hugo shouted.

Fury filled the man’s eyes,Eira’seyes, as he looked to Hugo. “What did you do to my daughter?” the lord general said, unsheathing his sword.

Daughter?Eira felt faint, sick. What did he mean? She looked at Evangeline, whose face softened as they looked at each other, and Eira knew the truth in an instant—they’d both kept this from her.

“She cast a memory spell on herself,” Hugo said, circling Lord General Kerrigan and Eira as she was frozen in place, unable tomove as she tried desperately to process what was happening. “Trying to get away from the hellish worldyoucreated.”

“Eira, is this true?” Lord General Kerrigan whispered.

Eira opened her mouth to speak but didn’t know what to say.

“I’m going to kill you, Venton,” Lord General Kerrigan snarled, looking at Hugo before turning back to Eira. Silence enveloped them as, for the briefest moment, the fighting stilled as the soldiers tried to fathom what to do in the face of Lord General Kerrigan’s daughter appearing in front of them. But it only lasted a moment as Evangeline began swinging at the remaining soldiers, only a single Soulless Knight and the lord general focused on Hugo and Eira.

“I did all of this for you,” Lord General Kerrigan said to Eira, ignoring the battle for the moment as his eyes swam with some untold emotion. “I’ll fix this for you. I thought I lost you forever, my beautiful dau—”

“Why would she want anything to do with you when you ordered the execution of everyone like her?” Hugo interrupted in what was a clear bid to get the lord general’s attention.

“Not everyone. I kept potions witches like her safe!” Lord General Kerrigan snapped.

“So you knew she was a witch? You knew, and you killed her people anyways?” Hugo shouted back.

“Apotionswitch!”Kerrigan screamed before turning to his soldiers. “Don’t fucking touch her. Not a hair on her head. Kill the others.”

Eira stumbled toward the mouth of the mines as Evangeline and Hugo fought, hand to her mouth as she panicked. This couldn’t be real. She knew she needed to help. She knew this was a death sentence of a fight without her magic. Hugo swung at a Soulless Knight and Lord General Kerrigan, keeping them occupied as he blocked their blows and fought scrappily with both his sword and his fists. Eira watched a punch connect with Lord General Kerrigan’s face as the hilt of a sword knocked intoHugo’s side before he lifted his sword to block a swing from the Soulless Knight.

Evangeline fought well, but less efficiently than Hugo. Her moves were frantic and more random, which was keeping the four soldiers focused on her confused. Eira willed herself to move, to help the princess, but she was rooted in place, a shiver running through her as she tried to process what she’d just found out.

Her father was the arbiter of the Iron Empire. Her father had killed the royal family. Her father had ordered the execution of Eira and every witch like her. Her father didn’t know the true extent of her magic. Her father was a monster.

Her father was alive.

A part of her had hoped that when she’d gotten her memories back that, somehow, she would have been able to find her parents. Hugo had told her that the Viscount Westcotte hadn’t died, but he’d never said what the viscount was doing... Apparently, it was leading the empire. Why had she fled from him? There had to be a reason.

Eira vomited on the ground, suddenly and intensely as she continued to panic.Breathe, she thought.

“Agh!” she heard Evangeline yell as she was knocked onto her knees, one hand pressed to her gut and the other to the ground. Eira could see blood seeping into the snow below the princess as one of the Soulless Knights positioned itself to finish her while she was on the ground. She watched Hugo shove the butt of his sword into the other Soulless Knight, who rebounded too quickly, Hugo’s face bloodied and his armor all but destroyed.

They were going to lose this—and then Eira would have no one.

No.