Page 76 of Betrothed to the Emperor

Bringing my blade up, I sliced it across his neck. The blade had been dulled, but the skin there was sensitive, and he choked, loosening his grip just long enough that I could bring one of my legs around, kneeing him hard in the side.

He whimpered, screaming when I rammed the blade into him again. Even a dull blade hurt when shoved directly into your stomach.

Then I was on top of him, elbowing hard against his throat. He choked, and I didn’t have time to check if I had crushed his airway. Instead, I was up on my feet, ready when the hawk dropped on me.

He wrapped an arm around my throat, pulling me back and off-balance, but that was also his weakness. I let my body go lax, and he stumbled forward at the sudden weight. Holding my breath again, I waited until he tried to right himself, tried to get his feet under him, and then I shoved upward, the top of my head slamming directly into his chin.

I saw stars, my vision dancing with them as I turned and sliced the blade across his throat before using it to drive him back.

It was his turn to stumble, and the rage in his eyes built when I blocked his punch and kicked easily with the flat of my blade, knocking them aside like children’s toys.

Normally, a hand-to-hand session against someone capable of wielding a wolf’s claw would have been quick work. As it was, it was hard for me to break the habit of crouching down, slicing across the back of his leg. With a real blade, that would have severed his tendon. Then I brought it back up, stabbing backward into his spine.

It should have pierced him through, but this was a pretend blade for my very real murder.

I turned at the same time as the hawk. The glint in his eye told me that he was far from done with me.

Blood dripped from the corner of his mouth—he must have bitten through his tongue when I headbutted him. Then, he lunged forward, and I saw a second too late that he had a coil of electricity in his hand, ready to find its home in my chest.

My eyes widened, and I glanced at the throne, where I expected Tallu to be smirking. What a perfect revenge. He had fulfilled the bargain his father had made with the Northern Kingdom—he’d married me. Now, he was going to watch me die.

Only Tallu wasn’t there.

I blinked, stumbling down to one knee, my vision spotty, my back still barely able to move. Tallu stood in front of me. The hawk gaped, his bolt of electricity flying true. It was going to hit me in the chest, except Tallu plucked it from the air.

His hand made contact with the bolt of lightning, and he spun his hand in a slow circle before closing his palm, absorbing the enormous shock like it was nothing.

The hawk dropped to his knees, mouth hanging open, eyes wide as he realized that this was going to be his very last action. In the Imperium, one did not try to kill the emperor, even by accident.

The Emperor’s Dogs swarmed him, and I smelled blood when Tallu turned to me. Looming over me, I couldn’t see his eyes, his entire face in shadow.

“General Kacha,” Tallu said slowly. “I was under the impression this was no more than an exhibition. Why did your men not yield when my consort made contact with his blade?”

“Your Majesty—” General Kacha’s voice trembled before he swallowed, shoulders going back. “Obviously, they were merely answering Consort Airón’s incredible military skill. They never would have?—”

“Leave.” Tallu’s word was sharp, his own blade across General Kacha’s throat.

Tallu finally looked away from me, and I felt the relief of it enough that my whole body collapsed forward. His eyes swung around the room.

“Leave!” Now, his voice was a roar, a tsunami that swept the entire court into motion. For a few moments, it was pure chaos, and then the room was empty except for me, Tallu, and two of his Dogs.

“So.” I panted, sitting back on my heels. “Am I finally going to get my answer about what the wedding gift meant?”

The light that came in through the windows was a bright orange. Sunset. It cast Tallu in deep shadows, and I had to squint to even see a hint of his face.

“Bring him to my rooms,” Tallu said to his Dogs. He turned away, and I smelled blood coming off him. “I have need of your services, Consort Airón.”

Twenty

Asahi bent, but before he could lift me into his arms like I was some fainting maiden from a long-ago tale, I struggled to stand. My knee almost gave out again, and Asahi wrapped my arm over his shoulders, keeping me upright.

We stumbled past the table of gifts, and I had a brief, brilliant thought. Letting my knee give out, I crashed into the table, sending gifts flying. The Dogs reacted to the noise, and I used the single moment of distraction to grab what I was after.

The diamond blade that Lady Dalimu had gifted us fit neatly up my sleeve. It was an assassin’s blade, and what did that say about Lady Dalimu and her intentions toward the emperor?

Asahi turned back to me, carefully lifting me back to standing. He didn’t ask if I was fine.

From this angle, I could see the barest sliver of his skin behind his mask, just the side of his face, nothing to give me a hint of his expression. Well. Either he was annoyed at being treated like a pack horse, or he wasn’t, and either way, I didn’t have the strength to fight anymore.