Page 55 of The Shard and the Serpent (Shard Daughters #1)

Loyalty Is Wealth

Warrick

ATTENTION: CURFEW IS NOW IN EFFECT, a speaker booms between high-rises. ALL CITIZENS WILL BE DETAINED FOR QUESTIONING.

A scream cuts short down the street, someone dragged from a tent, spine bent, wrists cuffed in chain by a Chrome Guard.

MASKED INSURGENTS WILL BE KILLED.

Perfect, bow-calloused fingers slide between mine. Our boots smack through moonlit, flooded streets, my stride one with the Daughters.

AMONG THEM: THE SERPENT HEIR.

Rain licks down our masks.

Chrome Guards thrust children into caged wagons. If I had to guess, it’s a last stand by Vandem and Russell to steal product and start a Bossdom elsewhere.

Not a fucking chance.

DO NOT APPROACH. DO NOT ENGAGE.

Rayze lifts my knuckles to her lips, her kiss an oath. A promise to die together or not at all.

OR BE EXECUTED.

Red and Fangs flank us, spear glinting among the rain and whip clinking across the asphalt as they walk arm-in-arm.

REPORT ALL HEIR SIGHTINGS.

Faces press to windows, eyes watching through sheets of rain as we walk. Unhurried. Weapons ready.

OR BE EXECUTED.

My smile hitches behind my mask.

My angel’s hand slips from mine to pluck an arrow from her coat.

LOYALTY IS WEALTH.

Silver armor swivels in our direction.

I cock back my arm. Then I slam my blade forward.

Serpent steel flings through the air. Hilt over steel.

OR BE EXE—

And slams through a skull.

Rayze

Blood drenches chrome. My arrow in a throat, then Warrick unsheathes a second Serpent blade and severs their head. Our backs press together, breaths synced, the string of my bow pulled taut against the rough scratch of my mask.

His fist cracks against steel plates.

My arrow plunges through a mouth.

Lightning flashes across bodies.

Aleksi spears through a thigh. Sonya’s whip drives poison beneath every inch of exposed skin.

Warrick

“Every Daughter is bound to serve Fate,” Rayze whispered against my cheek as I came.

I rip my blade from an ear. Brain matter sloshes onto the pavement.

“Destined to strike.”

The street runs red beneath flashes of lightning.

“Fated to win.”

I shift and slice across a neck, catching Rayze by the elbow as she spins past, her arrows flying.

Gods, she is the most beautifully violent woman. I can’t look away. The way she laughs. The way she fights.

Months of fucking her proud. Fragments of us stitch and break in my mind.

A carve through armor—and I remember how I found the ways she bends without breaking.

A stab between ribs—and a thousand of her smiles flit across tangled memories, the best after she comes, her skin a soft pink and her makeup smeared.

I grunt and twist my blade through tatted flesh. A scream gargles and dies.

Rayze , I whisper across the Bond, and the broken, bruised magic binding our souls tightens and warps. It feels the strain of all we’ve forced ourselves to endure.

But it holds on.

And we will, too.

Left . Her command rattles between us, and I plunge my blade to the left before I swivel and slice its serrated edge through muscle and bone. A scream bubbles from a Serpent’s throat as his arm lands among the flood street.

Then Rayze’s arrow pierces his vocal chords, pinching off his cry. Blood spurts and splashes my face, its heat driving me forward.

I cut through torsos, grunting when a slice bears down on my arm. I shake off their grip on my shoulder, turning in time to find an arrow through each of their eyes.

That’s my woman. I grin and spot the flash of her silver bow as she dances through the massacre, leveraging the Threads of Fate to leap and spiral over Chrome Guards.

Tonight isn’t about hiding. It’s the opposite. We want Synlon to see us. To see me . It’s time the city puts their faith in a new Boss, Blood Betrayer or not.

Two snakes fall at my feet, their skulls split with arrows.

Then her sisters. Aleksi and Sonya. Red and Fangs. Fucking unstoppable. They move with the same tenacity and grace Rayze does, taking out cronies without breaking a sweat. It’s beautiful and incredible, and damn it, I’m a lucky man to be part of this. I know I am.

You’re bleeding , Rayze’s voice slips across our Bond, sultry and dark. Only I’m allowed to make you bleed, my snake.

I flash a daring smile in her direction. I love you possessive. How will you punish me?

She shoots an arrow at my feet, and I jump to the side with a laugh, her green eyes dancing. Moonlight and rain bathe her silhouette, her dark hair dripping around her mask. Her smile is so bright as she looks at me.

Yeah, I’m definitely fucking lucky.

Then an arrow thunks into her back.

We freeze, our smiles vanishing. Pain ruptures across her expression, electrical blue veins spasming across her skin in waves, but still neither of us move. It’s almost like we think if we don’t, then the arrow will vanish, that time will simply pause.

Warrick? she whispers through my mind, her hands trembling around her bow.

I lunge forward in the same instant her sisters realize what’s happened.

Rayze reaches for the arrow. Blue leaks from its tip, rolling down the back of her trench coat.

Volt.

Another lodges deep beside the first, and Rayze chokes.

Aleksi, Sonya, and I throw ourselves before my girl like a shield, scanning the rooftops.

“Get the arrows out, Ivor,” Aleksi orders. “Now.”

“I got you.” I drop to my knees and drag Rayze toward me, her breaths ragged.

“I’m fine.” She convulses as I grit my teeth and yank the two arrows free. “I’ll be fine.” She sucks in a trembling breath and forces us back to our feet.

“You’re not.” My voice cracks. I toss the arrows to the ground. “You’re—”

A third drives into her bicep.

Motherfucker.

Rayze falters with a grunt, blinking fast. She wrenches it from her skin, her coat keeping the heads from digging too deep. Still, she leans into me with a harsh breath, and I hold her, wrapping my arms tight.

“There.” Aleksi juts her chin above.

I crane my neck back, my rage zoning in on the balcony of The Dredge.

Sparks glinting off his skin as if he’s made of lightning, a crony lets another arrow loose.

I stumble back with a harsh breath, steel wedging into my mask between my brows. If it weren’t for the jeweled surface, I’d be dead.

With a snarl, I rip off my mask and chuck it to the ground.

“All of you, stay the fuck here,” I snap.

But the bastard lowers his bow, takes a long drag from a pipe, and disappears into The Dredge.

Rayze grabs my wrist, her face pale and fingers trembling.

“Angel?”

Her breath stutters. “He isn’t responding,” she whispers. “His threads,” she bites out, her gaze hardening. “The Volt is interfering.”

A roar tears from the alley, and we whip toward the sound. Another round of Chrome Guards pour into the street. They cage us. All of us.

My throat works.

This set of guards are more heavily armored, all of their eyes ringed blue with Volt. Electrical currents of blue spark over their bodies.

“None of them,” Rayze hisses. Her eyes are wild, sparks sputtering across her knuckles. “I can’t command any of them.”

The Bond flares.

Never. In all these months, I’ve never felt that from my vicious.

Fear .

Then an arrow cuts into my bicep. Volt crackles up my arm, neon blue oozing down over my elbow with my blood. I shout, heavy static drowning out Rayze’s voice, arcs of voltage zapping through my weakened memory threads.

Hands grasp my face. “Warrick!”

My brow furrows.

Frantic green eyes. “ REMEMBER—”

She flickers.

Mine.

Mine?

“ REMEMBER. US. PLEASE— ”

Never.

Always?

She’s screaming. “ GODS, PLEASE, WARRICK—”

Then chrome-plated arms wrap around her waist and yank her away from me.