After Darkness Falls: After Darkness Falls Book One
Page 21
Some among the prisoners were prey, and others, hunters. The boy Caim had noticed, because of his youth, fell in the first lot.
The smell of blood and the clash of blade against blade awakened something dark inside him, making him want to join in. This was what they were. Wildness.
But the boy wasn't fair game. Destroying youth was where he drew the line. His eyes followed his progression. He would not enjoy seeing him die, but if he spoke up against it now, he would be undermining the authority of a lord of Iron, likely to become regent, on their land.
The boy stumbled on his feet, missing a blade by an inch. He crawled away, hands around his head, crying, trying to get out of the massacre.
He hit a bare leg. Caim lifted his gaze to the would be murderer of the child.
It was a woman, and she had no weapon in hand.
Caim watched her bend over, extending her hand to the boy, whose eyes widened.
He took it, carefully. She pulled him up to his feet.
The woman was emaciated, with dark circles under her eyes. Yet, she was beautiful. Striking. Memorable. Among a crowd of fae ladies in silks, she stood out in her rags. Her golden skin and dark hair. Her eyes.
Her voice.
It was but a whisper.
"I warned you I could not protect you," she told the boy, letting go of his hand. "So stay close."
That she'd survived five minutes without any weapon had surprised him. Now, it didn't.
Tired and spent as she was, her every move was fluid and precise. A Gaian darkling came from the side with a blade; she tilted her pelvis forward, and the blade hit air. She reached for the attacker's hand and pushed it back to his skull, all the while avoiding another hit on her left shoulder.
Water.
She moved like water.
If she'd had a sword in hand, Caim knew she could have made short work all the prisoners, and most of the lords, no doubt. But she seemed content to let them murder each other, simply defending herself—and the boy holding on to her like the lifeline she was.
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