Page 203 of A Touch of Poison
I grabbed the iron ring on my finger. If I could get it off and land a touch or let out my misting poison…
At the same instant, his foot slammed into my stomach.
Blinding pain burned through me. The next thing I knew, I was on my back, blinking at the ceiling.
Fight back. Fight.
I shook off the daze.
Go for the soft bits—that’s what Faolán had told me.
I lashed out with one foot, aiming for his balls.
His roar was a reward, momentarily outshining the agony of my arm. He bent over, clutching himself.
Good. I hope it fucking hurt.
Joints—they were easy to break.
A kick to the knee felled him, and I huffed my relief as I dragged myself away.
Then he was on me, snarling with inhuman rage.
I tried again to wrench off the ring, but it was already a tight fit and my fingers must’ve swollen from the break. Pain bloomed in my face, pale against the sharp agony of my arm.
He was going to kill me.
One-handed, I managed to block some of his strikes, but my brain rattled and I couldn’t remember Faolán’s training. Wasn’t sure I remembered my own name.
“You always thought you were better than me,” Robin spat as the blows stopped. “We’ll see how great you are when I put you in the ground.”
His fingers closed around my throat.
75
Kat
Ifroze.
Every moment of terror I’d ever known slammed into me with horrible clarity.
Papa shouting and smashing plates. Avice locked in a cupboard as I snuck her food.
Uncle Rufus snapping Fantôme’s neck. Dangling above the grave she shared with Dia with his grip around my neck in a reenactment of her death.
My wedding night. The nights after.
The highwayman pointing a pistol at my head. Later, being the one with the pistol, heart hammering as the Wicked Lady stopped her first victim.
The moments stretched on and on, each one clamping me in ice.
But then as I wheezed, my mind reached for something else.
Riding Vespera. Her fur tickling my face as I hugged her.
Ella’s laugh as she teased me about my name at our first meeting. The brightness of her smile, and its fragility after unCavendish hurt her.
Dancing with Bastian. Being found by him in the maze and in the library, and all the many encounters after.
