Page 38

Arianna

Five thousand five hundred eighty-nine.

Five thousand five hundred ninety.

Five thousand five hundred ninety-one.

Arianna waited, keeping her breath and heartbeat steady as she counted in her head.

Five thousand five hundred ninety-two.

Five thousand five hundred ninety-three.

Five thousand five hundred ninety-four.

The door latch clicked. She let her eyes drift shut.

Five thousand five hundred ninety-five.

A female scent drifted over her. The same female who’d offered her water and seemed to be responsible for her care whenever Niall wasn’t around.

Now that she wasn’t in excruciating pain, Arianna recognized the scent. It was the same female she’d briefly met in Ruadhán. The one Niall claimed was his assistant because she didn’t possess magic of her own. Maybe that’d been a lie too.

Upon seeing her, the female cursed, likely due to the vomit all over the table, floor, and in Arianna’s hair. She disappeared again, the heavy door clicking into place.

Arianna just kept counting.

The female returned and immediately began cleaning the floor. Arianna listened to the water slosh as the female wrung out a rag. Arianna didn’t know why she expected the female to clean her up first. She assumed at least one person might possess a shred of empathy, but perhaps everyone in Ashling was rotten down to their core.

The female cleaned the table next, shoving Arianna’s hair aside as she wiped up the mess. The cold rag met her shoulder, but Arianna didn’t move.

The female left and returned again. Water sloshed onto the table as she began wiping the vomit away from Arianna’s hair. The puddle had drifted down her arm and under the iron clasp. The female cursed again then pulled out a key.

Five thousand six hundred seventy-three.

It slipped into the lock and with a small twist, the iron shackle popped open. The female lifted Arianna’s wrist and wiped the metal clean first.

Now.

Arianna’s eyes flew open and she grabbed the female’s shirt, yanking as hard as she could. The female’s body flew over the table, her face slamming into the wall. The female screamed and struggled, reaching for something in her jacket.

Arianna saw the flash of a knife, a thin instrument that was probably more suited for removing precise sections of flesh than it was for fighting.

Arianna released her grip and snatched the bottom end of the handle. The two wrestled for several seconds as the female fought to regain her balance. A knee dug into Arianna’s thigh. A palm into her shoulder. Metal bit into Arianna’s skin, but she refused to loosen her grip.

The female leaned forward, trying to force herself into an upright position, but Arianna headbutted her, sending her right back down. The female lost her grip on the tiny knife, then Arianna plunged it into the female’s stomach.

She did it again and again, tearing through flesh and clothes, refusing to stop. Crimson stained the female’s white coat and she cried out, frantic and desperate to escape.

She braced and tried to rise again, but Arianna sank her teeth into the female’s neck, holding her in place. The iron burned her other wrist, her ankles, her legs, and torso as her magic danced, ready to break free but held itself back.

It crackled beneath her skin, a raging beast as feral as she felt. Arianna plunged the blade into the female’s stomach again and drove it as deep as she could without losing her grip.

The female thrashed, but Arianna didn’t release her hold with either her teeth or the blade.

“Please,” the female pleaded. “Please, don’t kill me. I have a family. I have a youngling.”

Arianna released her neck, then slammed her forehead into the female’s again. She didn’t care how much it hurt.

“The key,” Arianna demanded, blood rolling down her chin.

“I—I can’t.” Arianna withdrew the blade and sank it deeper. The female cried out. “He—he’ll kill me.”

“And what do you think I’m going to do if you don’t?” Fear shone brightly in the female’s gaze, but Arianna didn’t waver. She was tired of the same excuses. She had people to protect too, and she’d kill to get to them if that’s what it took. “Your choice.”

“Y—You won’t make it down the hall. There are guards—” Arianna twisted the blade and the female cried out. “Unlock. Me. Now.”

“My pocket,” The female choked out.

“Get it.” The female reached down slowly, her hands shaking with pain, and withdrew a small silver key. “My chest first.”

The small round key entered the lock and twisted. Arianna threw the offending bar aside, then grabbed the key, popping it in her mouth before shoving the female off the table. Her body collided with the hard floor and Arianna quickly unlocked her other hand, sat up and freed her ankles.

Her magic exploded.

In seconds, ice coated the entire room. It’d spread from her body in a violent wave, crawling up the walls and covering the female’s body even as she tried to scramble away.

The female screamed, but Arianna reined the magic in, preventing it from doing more than coating her skin in a thin layer of frost.

She hid in the corner, her teeth chattering as she looked Arianna up and down.

“Will this key open the other doors?”

The female nodded, her body shaking violently. Maybe an old version of herself would have healed the female despite working for Niall, but Arianna felt no such compassion now.

She slid from the table, her bare feet hitting the ice. Anyone else might have recoiled, but warmth floated through her, wrapping her body in a pleasant embrace.

Her magic crackled in the air and creature within her hummed, ready, just as she was, to tear everything apart. Tiny spears of ice materialized around her head, floating as she crossed the room.

“You won’t make it.”

Arianna tilted her head back. “I will and I’m hunting down that piece of shit you all claim as a High Lord.”

Arianna turned away and peered through the small window at the top of the door. People were racing back and forth. Their voices were muffled, but she knew they’d likely heard the female’s scream.

Arianna yanked it open and stepped into the hall.

Five males and three females stood on the other side, some with shackles in their hands, others with vials that likely held some sort of concoction to render her unconscious.

She nearly smirked. As if she’d let that happen.

Arianna let the creature within burst free. Hundreds of icicles surged forward, impaling each one with enough force to send them crashing to the floor.

None rose again.

Her magic tugged Arianna forward, begging her to hurry, hurry, hurry. She took off running. Ice crackled at her feet with every step. It spread to the walls, seeping through the cracks, diving deeper and deeper as if it might reach its destination before she could.

More doors slammed open and Arianna ducked around weapons and magic fired at her. Arrows, flames, small balls of what she could only assume were iron.

None hit their mark.

She saw everything with unnatural clarity, as if her magic read the movements and relayed them faster than her brain could process.

She closed the distance. One male reached out with his hands and Arianna gripped his wrist, tearing the water from his entire limb before solidifying it into a spear and firing it at his companions. She ducked around fire as it spun toward her and froze the flames midair. They crashed to the ground, shattering into hundreds of tiny shards.

A vine lashed out next and Arianna engulfed it in ice, stopping it in its tracks before sending it right back at the female.

Arianna threw the remaining few against the wall then sprinted down the hall again, that pull tugging at her very soul.

She didn’t know what it meant or how to make sense of it. She just knew if it vanished, the world would fall and everything she’d been fighting for would cease to exist.