Shades of Avalon (44 page)

None of us wasted any time—we knew what we had to do. We stepped up behind Guinevere, swords drawn.

Amanda pulled a metal contraption from her quiver, and without a word she extended and snapped it out to the length of a full bow. Her deft movements made it seem she’d been handling weapons all her life. She readied an arrow to fly before her heart began to scramble, and her eyebrows drew down. The tip of the arrow moved left to right. “I’m going to hit one of them. They’re too close to the guards.”

Emma appeared by her side, a similar bow in her hands and an arrow aimed. “I won’t,” she said steadily and loosed the arrow with a ping. It soared over the crowd and struck home, right where the guard’s heart would be. He collapsed, clutching at the aluminum spike sticking from his chest and slithered down the wall. Meanwhile, Emma drew a second arrow and let loose. It sliced through the air and pierced his hand, pinning it to his chest. The guard went still. He was dead. She’d destroyed his heart.

Emma wasted no time in releasing more arrows but the guards had seen their fallen comrade and moved out of their path.

“Keep them busy,” Triona whispered across to Amanda.

Amanda nodded and inched the tip of her arrow higher before she released it with a whoosh of breath. It sailed through the air and struck the wall. But not before it forced one of the guards to jump out of the way. She smiled and reached for another arrow.

Guinevere moved Excalibur in a wide circle, illuminating the room with a ribbon of light. “Oh, come now,” she addressed the people immediately before her, “you didn’t think it would be that easy.”

Arthur took his place beside her, relief apparent in his bright eyes. Whatever she and Merlin had cooked up, Arthur knew nothing about it.

The man with the green mask whipped away the metal covering. “Help us,” he begged, terror evident on his handsome face.

Triona didn’t answer straight away, and I glanced sideways at her in surprise, wondering if maybe her mind was already someplace else. She pulled in a deep breath through slack lips.

“You should remember this,” she warned loudly. “Remember the day you stood together and lived. Remember the only thing that can destroy us is our own fear.” She flicked her head to the side. “Eila, Joshua, get as many out of here as you can.”

The order was followed by smashing glass and splintering wood. I glanced back in time to see Joshua launch a table through a second arched window. Glass tinkled onto the ground outside. The fresh scent of grass and flowers filled the air.

The people didn’t need a second invitation. They swarmed around us to get to the opening, the humans not caring we were on the second floor. To them, the risk must have seemed a better option than certain death. Some began to pour through the broken windows to escape. Emma and Amanda remained on either side with their bows, ready to release an arrow at any guard who got too near. Guardians jumped with humans in their arms at Eila and Joshua’s instruction as we pushed headlong into the sea of people.

Most of the guards weren’t giving up and perhaps that’s why Zeal chose this particular band of men. They were the emotionless automatons they appeared to be. A few edged away out of the main path of destruction. One struck out at a screaming human woman. Her body arched away from him, and her face took on shocked disbelief. Four angry red slashes crept outward over the white satin of her dress before she collapsed to the floor.

When he came at me next, I swiped out with my blade. He vanished in mist and reappeared an instant later unharmed. The movement reminded me of Arthur’s instructions to use all my advantages. When I lunged again, he blocked the blow with his long stick and swirled around, his cloak lifting like great wings. The stick snapped in two, but he’d avoided the blade again. However, he couldn’t get close. Just as Arthur said,
Lasair
prevented him from getting close enough to use his talons. Around me, blades flashed silver and reflected the light given off by the overhead lights and Excalibur’s radiance.

I reached out to my opponent with ribbons of thought as he crouched and swiped with his claws out. His mask muffled vicious growls. I hoped he would be susceptible to my influence. Nothing happened. He didn’t back off in the slightest—if anything his attack grew fiercer. I backed up, letting him come closer. I wanted him to believe he stood a chance at getting to me. Triona crossed my line of vision behind my opponent. The mask of the man she was fighting hung off his face and was stained with scarlet.

Lewis and Carmel fought one guard in unison. An angry gash on Lewis’s stomach left droplets of blood on the floor as he moved, and he appeared to be favoring his left side. They needed help, and everyone else was busy. Their guy was playing with them.

Adrenaline coursed a rampant path through my body, and my heart battered the inside of my ribcage. All I could do was still my mind to remain calm. I waited until my opponent had me backed up to the wall and there was nowhere to go. His entire body appeared to relax as though sensing my defeat. I raised
Lasair
higher, knowing it left my torso wide open to attack. Just as I expected, he drew back his arm.

I called up everything Merlin had told me. For the briefest moment, time seemed to slow and then pause. The guard’s hand had come toward me and froze a hair’s distance from my chest. His razor-like nails angled to rip my heart out. I thought about where I wanted to be, and the room blurred before my eyes. My limbs pulled outward. My insides stretched like elastic bands. It didn’t hurt as much as it had in the beginning, but it wasn’t comfortable. Everything darkened as though the colors of the world washed out.

All of a sudden, everything snapped back into place, and I faced the guard’s back instead of his front with my sword still raised. Without hesitation, I brought the weapon between his shoulder and elbow, carving though meat and bone with ease, intent on making him suffer. He screamed and tumbled into the space I had just vacated. Blood pulsed from the mangled stump and sprayed over the floor and wall when he waved it about in horror. Wet flecks landed on my hands and the cuffs of my shirt. Pearly white bone peeked out of the fleshy mess. I didn’t allow the disgusting sight to distract me, knowing he would have done the same to me.

When he turned, I lashed out with
Lasair
and slammed the tip into his chest. It went all the way through, catching in the wall behind him, and our eyes met for the first time. Wide topaz eyes framed in fair eyelashes stared at me though the round holes in the mask, and I saw the reflection of a person I didn’t recognize. My face wore an alien expression of wild hate and power. I felt the heat of it in my blood, pounding in my ears. I wanted to torture this man, tear him apart while still alive. The animal in me wanted to bathe in his blood.

I hissed in a breath through gritted teeth and twisted the blade, splintering the wall behind him before wrenching it out. It would destroy his heart beyond healing and finish him quickly. I wasn’t Zeal. I refused to allow myself to take pleasure in the suffering and death of another for the sake of revenge. It could so easily turn me into the thing I hated.

The guard slid to the ground, his dead eyes still watching the room from behind the skewed mask. The cumbersome thing had to have gotten in the way.

“Hey,” a male voice called behind me. He had Amanda trapped in his arms, her back to the guard’s lower chest, and his long fingers wrapped around her slender neck.

“I’m sorry,” she mouthed and jerked, showing no fear for herself.

The pair inched toward one of the locked doors, and his long curved mask grazed the side of her face.

“If you try to stop me, I’ll rip her throat out.” Each word vibrated with fear.

Samuel came to my side, watching my back while this guard distracted me from the fight.

I inhaled the coppery air of the room and listened carefully for Amanda’s heart. It fluttered like a small trapped bird. Dark notes of excitement laced her usual scent. This was my worst fear, and my body battled conflicting desires to stand down and attack. The only thing I knew for sure was they were not leaving this room.

He rattled the handle of the door but it wouldn’t budge. It must have been reinforced on the other side.

Ice slithered down my spine when Amanda began to inch the fabric of her dress up her leg. My head shook without my intention. She was going for the dagger strapped to her thigh, and it would get her killed. The air in the room grew so thick I couldn’t suck it into my lungs. Fear and rage trembled through my body. Hot breath forced its way through my flaring nostrils.

“Just let me go,” he begged somewhat desperately, and I noticed his voice broke. Contrasting the others, this guard was terrified and young. It made him more dangerous.

“You don’t want to die here,” I warned him.

“I want to go home,” he said, and his hand tightened around her neck. His long nails scraped her skin.

“Let the girl go, and we can talk,” Samuel assured him, holding up his free hand.

Amanda’s fingers trailed up the sheath of the Druid Blade when he jerked.

“No, she’s coming with me.”

“She’s not going anywhere with you.” The words emerged rumbled and deep. My fingers tightened on the hilt of
Lasair,
and the metal pressed into my palm.

“It’s okay, Ben. I’ll go with him.”

“No,” Samuel said.

My eyes flickered to her hand, and I shook my head, hoping she’d stop this madness.

Her fingers wrapped around the handle of the dagger and adjusted unnoticed by the boy guard.

“He doesn’t want to hurt me. Trust me, Ben,” Amanda murmured and in one swift motion withdrew the dagger and slammed it into the guard’s leg.

My heart leapt into my mouth, and I dove toward them. He tossed Amanda aside, but I was there to catch her as Samuel grabbed hold of the guard, wrenching off his mask.

“It’s okay,” Amanda assured me, her palms pressed to my chest. One crescent indent marred her smooth skin. “He didn’t want to hurt me,” she said back to Samuel, who was holding the boy against the wall with his forearm wedged at his throat. He couldn’t have been a year awakened, if even, probably more like months. Sweat plastered the boy’s raven hair to his head, and tears streaked his narrow face. He didn’t even try to get away from Samuel. Instead his hands hung limp by his sides.

“You don’t know that.” I said to Amanda.

“I do. His heart was a jackhammer, and his hands were slippery. He’s just scared.”

Samuel pulled the Druid’s blade from the boy’s leg, and he let out a howl of pain.

“Don’t hurt him!” Amanda yelled.

Samuel frowned but nodded.

“I’m okay,” she assured me. “I’ll stay with Samuel. Go help the others.”

I didn’t want to leave her. Apprehension sat as curdled milk in the pit of my stomach, and my grip tightened on her upper arm. I tugged her to me and kissed her forehead, only moving away when Amanda pushed me.

“Lewis needs your help,” she insisted.

I didn’t think any longer. If I did, I wouldn’t have been able to leave her side. I spun lithely into the air. With all my strength I brought my bloody sword down on the collarbone of the guard cornering Lewis and Carmel. His body parted to his stomach with a gut-twisting squelch. I had spilt his heart in two. When he remained standing, I reached into his chest cavity with my left hand and tore one half of his already papery heart from his chest, tossing it aside. Carmel released her sword. It landed on the ground with a clatter, and she turned her attention on Lewis who was drooping sideways.

I couldn’t pause to think about his injury or the second guard I’d dispatched. As the broken body of the guard dropped, I stepped on his shoulder and summersaulted backward into the mêlée.

Several minutes later we stood amid carnage in the previously elegant room. Disemboweled and dismembered bodies lay scattered on the floor, both humans and Guardians, guests and guards. Only three of the guards, two of them hardly past puberty, surrendered. They included the boy who’d held Amanda.

We assessed our own injuries. Lewis needed medical attention despite insisting he was fine. His lacerations weren’t deep, but they would be difficult to stitch. Carmel had escaped with a few scrapes and a nasty red mark across her cheek where she’s been slammed into a wall. Arthur’s right eye had swelled shut, and Guinevere had caught a blade at the top of her arm, near her shoulder. She was healing, but slower than Guardians did.