Page 39 of Realm of Crows (Wings of Ink #5)
Twenty-Eight
Herinor
They heard the crash of steel on glass. Of course they did. They are Crows, just like me. Just like Silas and Royad and Myron. Even Ayna is a Crow.
The only one not having access to the particular magical skill set of Crows is Kaira, who’s still sprawled in the corner where Kabulakhi tossed her after pinning her to the wall with ties of silver magic.
I used to trust Kabulakhi. He used to be the closest thing to a friend one could have in Carius the Cruel’s court before Myron took over.
“So are you going to willingly tell us what the Fairy King is planning, or do we need to remind you that the half-breed over there can probably take two more rounds before she’ll be completely useless.”
I don’t look at Kaira, don’t allow myself to take notice of her shallow breaths or the blood leaking from her nose, or I’ll do something rash that will be the death of both of us—and I can’t let that happen. It’s bad enough that she’s stuck here with me, where they can use her against me.
At least, she lost consciousness just after the noise in the room behind me, informing all of us that the King and Queen of Crows must have found a way around the fucking silver wall Kabulakhi knitted from his magic together with Lebius and Frenius.
All three of them I’ve known for millennia, and all three of them were among the first to join Ephegos.
With a glance at the thick shield, I shake my head.
“There is nothing to tell. You already saw that he was moving against Erina’s troops at the border.
He isn’t stupid. He knows what’s going on in his kingdom.
” Or at least now he does. He wasn’t as informed when Ephegos snuck into his capital to kill off an entire district to get to an ancient temple and make a bargain with a god no one should have woken.
“That’s not what I asked, Herinor. Answer the question.
” Kabulakhi cocks his head, hands turning into claws once more.
His short brown hair is hidden under the gray headpiece of what has become the Tavrasian standard armor, and his pale features don’t give away a hint of compassion when my features twist with an onslaught of nausea.
By Galloris, how I wish I had my powers. How I wish sacrificing my powers by shielding Kaira from an attack with the magic-nullifying serum would have been enough .
But they have enough of the drug to bring down all of us. If Ayna and Myron aren’t careful, they’ll end up just like Kaira and me—powerless and at the mercy of the people we once called family.
I retch onto the worn floorboards, clawing at my stomach and pondering the merits of simply giving up. At least, then they might leave Kaira alone.
Since I can’t speak and vomit at the same time, the three Crows watch me empty my stomach, discussing under their breath.
“What do we do about Myron?” Frenius asks, his black curls bouncing into his face as he leans closer to Kabulakhi and Lebius.
I pretend not to hear them. It’s the one thing I learned while I was strapped to a table at Jeseida’s estate during those tests. The less they believe you are aware that they’re talking at all, the more they’ll let slip, and I need something—anything—that will help us get out of here alive.
“I doubt he’s standing idly in the hallway while we are ready to torture his friends.
” Lebius flexes his claws like he’s getting tired of waiting to use them.
“Knowing the stubborn male and his pretty little mate, they are already trying to get in from another side.” He jerks his head at the door I’m pretending not to care about while effectively blocking access to the room behind me.
Of course, there is the silver shield they pulled up the moment of the suspicious noise, but they can choose to drop that shield whenever they want, and I need to be ready to protect the people now surely in that room .
The crash must have been the window—even through the silver wall, I could tell it was the breaking of glass—and I doubt it was a cat or a random bird. More like a very specific type of bird, black-coated and magically gifted. I hide a grin in a fake gag.
“Let them try. It’s what we want, letting them work off their reserves before we face them again. That way, there won’t be any challenge once we let them in.”
Just as Kabulakhi finishes speaking, the silver layer covering the door turns from a dark shade of silver to the illuminated sparkling of starlight, and by the outlines moving behind the threshold, I know we’ve run out of time.
“I guess it’s time,” Frenius drawls with a shrug. “Not that I’m to ever again face the creature calling herself our queen.”
I’m ready to rip out the male’s throat, but my hands are shaking around my blade as I lift it.
“I thought you’d had enough, Herinor,” Kabulakhi barks, ribbons of silver power streaming past me to Kaira’s corner, and my breath freezes in my lungs. “Not one move, or I’ll peel her skin off in narrow strips.”
How I wish right now Crows could lie. It would leave doubt he means what he’s saying.
But the tips of his ribbons have already shaped into small, sharp blades pointing at Kaira’s cheek. He’ll start right there, in her face, mutilating her, not just for pain but for humiliation.
I hold still. “I won’t fight.” I’m fully aware that my statement is open to interpretation, that it could mean I won’t fight them or I won’t fight my own people, or simply that I won’t fight at all, but what I mean is that I won’t lift a finger if it means Kaira gets hurt. I won’t put her in jeopardy.
Unfortunately, the three Crows know it, too, and they don’t care to be subtle about it when they tell Kaira what a weak bastard I am to lay down my weapons for a half-breed.
“Get out of the way.” Frenius stalks toward me, stepping over the corpse of one of his fellow Crows.
I’m trying not to focus on how close we got to defeating them all.
Only five were left when they put up the wall, and two of them Kaira shot with her magic-nullifying arrows.
They went down like rocks, but Kabulakhi, Frenius, and Lebius were smart enough to rip the bow out of her hands after they sprayed her with the serum.
And now, Frenius is shoving me aside, taking up my spot with the only difference that he is facing the silver blockade while I stumble a few steps, purposefully letting myself veer toward Kaira.
If I can put myself in the path of Kabulakhi’s power, perhaps I can at least spare Kaira the pain of being skinned alive if I can’t save my king and queen from what awaits them inside this little pocket of the world.
She’s still breathing, her eyes closed and her skin dangerously pale.
If I didn’t know better, I’d say she has lost a lot of blood, but I didn’t see any injuries on her. It must be the drug.
“Lower the shield.” Frenius lifts his claws and opens them in front of him.
I barely see it from where I’m still inching closer toward Kaira, but a shimmering silver mist peels away from the shield. Lebius joins Frenius by the threshold, claws opened and directed at the silver wall just like his companion .
Kabulakhi seems to be the only one who remains hesitant, his blue eyes darting back to me every other heartbeat. Right of him not to trust me. I’ll do anything to protect Kaira, no matter how foolish—even when I said I wouldn’t fight. There are other ways to protect people.
“Lower the shield before they start looking for another way in. He told us to trap them here at the inn.”
I don’t get to figure out who Lebius means by he , for the shield dissolves into a cloud of silver fog that is whipped away on a phantom breeze, sweeping straight over Ayna and Myron as they appear on the threshold.
No.
“It’s a trap. Run.” I barely get the words out before Kabulakhi swipes his silver magic blade over my neck, drawing just enough blood to remind me he can do the same thing with Kaira—and so much more.
Swallowing a gasp of pain, I stagger toward my king and queen. “Run,” I repeat.
Myron’s vigilant eyes scan the room in a heartbeat, noting the three opponents, Kaira unconscious in the corner, me a few steps away from her, barely able to remain on my feet.
He knows we were drugged the second he lays eyes on the pool of my vomit next to the door, a few inches from Frenius’s boot.
He marks the unblocked hallway where the silver wall has disappeared and the corpses piled on the side, where the three Crows pushed them aside to make more space to torture Kaira to get me to talk.
I’m not sure I should be glad they didn’t get far, hurting her with Ayna and Myron figuratively knocking on our door so fast or if I should be terrified the King and Queen of Crows didn’t take the chance to save themselves.
Before I can decide, Kabulakhi redirects his little blades to the threshold, slashing at Ayna, and no matter how much I’m aching to help her, the deal I made with Ephegos locks me down.
So all I can do is use the moment the Crows launch into combat to save the one person I can’t afford to lose.
Biting back a groan, I sheath my sword and slide my arms under Kaira’s shoulders and knees. The drug makes her weight affect me more than it should, but I don’t make a single sound as I lift her into my arms and inch along the wall to the stairs a few feet away.
The moment I’m out of sight, I bolt down the stairs, taking three steps at once and nearly stumbling into the tavern area where I stop dead at the sight of the innkeeper’s body nailed to the wall.
And when I say nailed , I mean literally nailed to the wall.
Iron bolts a few inches long stick out of his wrists and his shoulders where he’s hanging next to the counter.
His heart has long stopped beating, his eyes staring unseeingly into the empty room.
If this is the Crows’ work, Ephegos has trained his followers to be even more ruthless and evil than I could have imagined.