Page 103 of Brimstone

“Here they come,” Carrion called. “I hope you have a fucking plan.”

I’d had one: Put the bastards down as quickly and quietly as possible. Try not to cause a scene. But I wasn’t liking that plan very much anymore.

No. That plan was no longer viable.

Because boy oh fucking boy, was I going to cause afuckingscene.

I didn’t need a god sword for this. I only needed my rage.

The second the guardians ran into the square, I leashed my magic and called on it. Every last drop. It roiled below the surface of my skin, angry as a rabid dog.

There were fifteen of them. That’s how many trained soldiers they’d thought they’d need to bring us down. They were going to regret that choice. It wouldn’t have mattered, though. They could have brought ten times as many men with them and it still wouldn’t be enough.

The men hesitated a second, taking in the scene, realizing that we were just standing there waiting for them—

“I don’t like this,” Hayden whispered.

“Get him out of harm’s way, Carrion.Now.”

—and then they charged.

Swift took my mate’s brother. They ran. I didn’t see where. Didn’t care.

These fuckers had rounded up Saeris and brought her here, too, once. I knew her. She would have stared them down and spat in their faces, just like that girl had a moment ago. She would have cursed them as they stole her choices from her. She would have raged.

When I drew on my power and set it free, I didn’t make shadows.

I madeknives.

The blades weren’t made of metal. They were magic itself. Corporeal, shimmering magic. Like my shadows, they were black. Their edges were sharp, and when they hurtled through the air and found their targets, they pierced armor, flesh, and bone alike.

The guardians dropped like flies.

My vision sharpened, the square coming into focus. More guardians were arriving from the square’s south entrance. The two who were dealing with the girls had noticed what was happening now and were running straight for me. They were dead before their bodies hit the ground.

Blood soaked the sand.

The world was all crimson and death. More guardians thundered into the square, their armor clanking over angry shouts and the frightened screams of the young girls. I was deaf to it all.

Madra’s men appeared in droves, and as quickly as they came, they died. My senses weren’t my own. Arrows raineddown from the rooftops—my instincts had been right. They’d sought higher ground in the hopes of making a kill box out of the square. ButIwas the one who’d made the kill box, and it was piling up withtheirfucking dead.

I brought them down with ropes of shadow. I lashed them around their arms, ankles, torsos, and dragged them to their ends.

They had brought Saeris here.

My mate.

They’d hurt her. They’d taken something sacred from her here, in this awful place. Not her right to have children. But her right to make such an important decision for herself.

I made them pay, and I did not stop. Not when the new guardians who arrived turned and tried to flee. Not when they scrambled on their hands and knees and begged for mercy.

The men of this ward treated their women like chattel. Like possessions, without minds, dreams, or hopes of their own. They used them for sex, or else violated their bodies and stole their rights. They had murdered Saeris’s mother. They didn’t deserve tobreathe. . .

“Kingfisher! Stop!” The voice was near. Distant. It echoed around the square. The haze fogging my mind cleared, and I found Carrion twenty feet away, holding up his hands in a placating gesture. “We’re good! It’s okay. They’re gone. They’re all gone. We have toleave, Fisher.”

There were bodies piled high all over the square. Too many bodies to count and still not enough. This was just a small percentage of Madra’s troops. The fire burning in my soul demanded I claim all of them for their cruelty, but Carrion was right. We needed to get the fuck out of here. The ground shook, the sand vibrating as the sound of an approachingarmyfilled the air.

“Wehaveto go,” Carrion urged.