Page 52 of The Forsaken Heir

brIELLE

F or a single moment, everyone in attendance stared in horror at Jolon as he lay on the stone floor, his blood oozing from the wound at his neck. Even from here, I could smell the reek of silver emanating from the arrow.

Then, a high-pitched and heartrending scream came from one of the fae at the side of the room. A young woman rushed toward Jolon and fell to her knees beside his lifeless body, running her hands over him and muttering spells, but it was already too late.

“The dragons!” Bastien shouted, leveling his finger at our group, his face contorted in a mask of rage, but I didn’t miss the glee in his eyes. “They did this! They knew that thing with my sister’s face was an imposter. They killed the fae before he could reveal their crimes.”

“How dare you?” Aurelius yelled, rising from his chair.

The other wolf shifters had risen from their seats as well, lobbing angry shouts in our direction.

To the left, the fae dragged Jolon’s body toward the exit.

The tension in the room was so thick, I thought I might suffocate.

We were standing in a tinderbox soaked in gasoline, waiting for someone to toss a match inside.

“Your Highness?” Octavian said, stepping in front of the prince and me. “What are your orders?”

As soon as the fae were out of the conservatory, a dozen of House Laurent’s men took their places at the door, blocking our exit, each holding a crossbow with silver-tipped arrows, their hands clad in thick gloves to prevent the metal from hurting them.

Fuck, we were going to die.

Bastien stepped down off the platform. “Kill the assassins!”

With that, he shifted into his broad-chested brown wolf that stood nearly to my shoulder in height. Chaos erupted—most of the others followed suit.

Aurelius shoved Rasp and Vince toward me. “Guard Elle with your lives!”

He and Octavian shifted to their dragon forms, massive reptilian shapes that twisted and roared in the confines of the conservatory.

Aurelius’s onyx black dragon stood taller than Octavian’s maroon dragon, but both were impressive, yet the wolves weren’t intimidated.

Instead, they surged forth, snapping at their haunches and trying to bite their tails.

Rasp pushed me behind him as a Laurent wolf dived between Aurelius’s legs and lunged toward me, its jaws snapping the air a foot in front of my face.

Rasp kicked it aside at the last second.

The royal guard drew their weapons and fired on the approaching wolves, but it was no use.

The wolves simply shrugged off the bullets.

A stipulation of the meeting was that no silver weapons would be allowed, but my family hadn’t followed their own rules.

Octavian swung his massive horned head around and tossed six wolves to the side, sending them crashing against the wall.

With their bullets ineffective, the quarters were too tight for most of the guard to fully shift as Aurelius had, so they resorted to partial shifting.

They slashed out with their claws, and the wolves did the same.

Claws, teeth, and talons, swiped and bit through the air.

I gasped in horror as a wolf tore out the throat of one of Aurelius’s guards. The man tumbled to the ground before me in a writhing and bleeding mess, clutching his ruined throat. Another of the guards flew backward, a silver arrow protruding from his chest.

“You’ve got to move!” Rasp shouted. “Where’s another exit? You grew up here. How do we get out?”

“I don’t?—”

“Fuck.” Two wolves descended upon him, biting and clawing at his body.

“Rasp! ” A voice bellowed behind me, and an instant later, Vincent appeared in his full dragon form. He closed his jaws around the wolf’s midsection, slicing it completely in half. Blood sprayed through the air, and I covered my head with my arms to keep from being drenched.

Rasp managed to fight off the other wolf, then he half-shifted and dived into battle with the others, pushing the advancing wolf away from me.

Something hot and wet splattered across my face, and I looked down to see another wolf flailing on the floor, bloody stumps where its forelegs used to be. Vincent raised his head, dragon lips bloody, and let out a roar of victory that rattled the glass around us.

A silver arrow flew through the air like a blur.

The tip would have slammed into my chest were it not for the magic bound in my leather armor.

Instead of piercing my heart, the arrow shattered like glass.

Unfortunately, the arrow must have depleted the magic, because the armor now felt empty, like an engine that had run out of gas.

“Imposter!”

Turning, I found a half-shifted wolf stomping toward me, looking as terrifying and menacing as the ones who’d tried to kill me in my apartment. It sounded like it was talking with a mouthful of gravel, its voice warped and twisted by its half-formed mouth and tongue.

I glanced around. Rasp was busy fighting two other shifters, their claws slashing at him, their teeth trying to tear at his arms and legs. Vincent and Aurelius were deep in the battle as well—it looked like more of the house staff had arrived and shifted to join the fight.

“Bitch ,” the wolf before me growled again.

I grabbed a chair to my right and swung it at the beast, surprising it with my speed and power. The heavy wooden chair connected with its lower jaw. The bone gave way as it shattered, and the wolf staggered back, clutching his mouth and howling.

Rough hands pawed at me from behind, and I slammed my elbow back. There was a meaty, satisfying crunch as I made contact with a nose, followed by a feminine shriek of agony. Turning, I found Sasha kneeling on the floor, her hands cupped around her mouth, blood flowing freely down her chin.

My terror faded, and shame overtook me at having hurt her. As unpleasant as she had been to me, this woman had been used and twisted by my brother. For all I knew, she was only helping him out of fear.

“Come on,” I said, kneeling to help her up. Perhaps we could both get out of here.

“Don’t touch me,” Sasha hissed and shoved me back.

I crashed to my knees as she leaped to her feet and rejoined the battle. So much for trying to be nice.

I scrambled to my feet, but was struck down almost immediately as four ragged lines of fire traced down my back. I screamed in agony as hot blood soaked my shirt. The pain was so overbearing that I collapsed to my stomach, cursing myself for taking the time to try and help Sasha.

Sensing a large form moving toward me from behind, I rolled to the side just as a heavy boot crashed down where my head had been. Bastien stood above me, his hands twisted into claws. Although he had shifted back into his human form, he still looked like an animal.

“Always a fucking pain in my ass,” he snarled as he lunged for me.

Aurelius’s tail slammed into Bastien’s midsection, sweeping him off his feet and through the air. Bastien landed on a group of fully shifted wolves who’d been trying to bite Octavian’s legs.

Aurelius shifted to his human form and helped me to my feet. A silver arrow whizzed past his head, missing him by inches, but he didn’t even flinch.

“Get out of here,” he shouted, pushing me toward the back. “I saw your sister and aunt run that way. I think there’s an exit. Go.” He gave me another shove.

“Not without you!”

“I said go, Elle! I’m not important.”

Before I could argue further, he shifted again, swatting away a werewolf who had pinned down one of his men.

All around me, chaos and ruin flourished like some mad dream.

For a moment, I thought I might still be in that strange spirit walk, but no, this was real.

This was hell. Blood painted the walls, men and women lay dead and dying on the floor, I’d never experienced anything like this.

The dragons were losing. Their number had already been cut in half.

Doing as Aurelius commanded, I sprinted toward the back of the conservatory, away from most of the fighting, willing myself not to slow down. Every roar, howl, and scream sent a shudder of terror through me as I ran.

For a moment, I really thought I would make it.

The stairwell some of my family had used to escape was visible, a mere twenty feet ahead.

Relief and excitement coursed through me at the possibility of escape, but then three large, slavering wolves leaped in front of me, blocking my path.

One half-shifted, two fully shifted. They all looked at me with greedy, hungry eyes.

The half-shifted beast pointed a taloned finger at me. “ Skinwalker ,” it croaked.

At his word, the two others bounded forward, ready to tear my flesh from my bones.

There was no time to run, and no way to fight off three shifters.

This was it. Unwilling to die, I clenched my hands into fists and shrieked in defiance, daring them to come.

If I died here, I’d make sure they remembered what it was like to do battle with Brielle Laurent.

Choosing the left wolf, I reared back and swung my foot forward, catching it beneath the jaw.

Its teeth clacked together with a gunshot snap , and it tumbled aside.

Before the other wolf could pounce upon me, though, a massive form slammed into it from the side, sending it tumbling away with a yelp of pain.

“Aurelius?” I gasped the first name that came to my mind.

Instead of the dragon prince, Freddy rose from the pile, shoving the wolf aside, his hair mussed and blood oozing from his bottom lip.

“Run, Elle!” he yelled before shifting and leaping toward the half-formed shifter. The two of them fell into a tumble of claws, fur, and teeth.

Terror and fear for my brother licked at my soul like a finger of flame, but fear for my own safety won out. Inwardly, I cursed myself for cowardice, but Aurelius had ordered me to get away. Besides, no member of the Laurent household would actually harm Freddy.