Page 84 of Fated for his Flame
I hit him with two more rights, then a vicious elbow to the jaw that rocked him backward. He was reeling, and the mass of shifters seemed to inhale as one as they realized the fight was in its end stage.
Grabbing Seth’s other arm, I wrenched, snapping the bones in his forearm. He shrieked. My foot kicked out and through his knee. The signal didn’t reach his brain in time, and as he tried to set it back down, the joint crumpled, and he went down.
“You were never fit enough to lead your house,” I growled.
Then I marched over to where he’d dropped the knife and picked it up.
“No,” Seth pleaded, his eyes wide. “No, please. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it. I’m sorry. Just let me live. Please. Please! I don’t want to—flechh”
The knife bit deep as I sawed through his neck in two swift motions before parting the head from the body. Casually, I rolled it across the floor like a bowling ball until it landed at Vicek’s feet.
“Mission complete,” I said, turning to face the crowd. “Leave.”
There was a hesitation.
Which ended when my father plunged down through an open skylight, followed by many more palace guard, all of them spoiling for a fight.
The crowd wavered and then started to retreat out the doors they’d entered.
It was over.
Chloe ran to my side, and I embraced her heartily.
“What now?” she asked softly.
“Now, we go back to the palace,” I said. “And you tell the sovereign and me everything we didn’t ask you before. Then we see what happens. Will you do that?”
There was no pause. “Yes.”
“Good.” I crouched, my wings spreading wide, ready to launch me up through the skylight, even as the guard spread out to retrieve the bodies.
“Silas?” she whispered, snuggling in close to my side. Where she belonged.
“Yes?” I rumbled.
“I was serious, back there. I love you.”
I looked down at her as I leaped into the air, my wings propelling us up through the shattered window and into the afternoon sky, replete with oncoming storm. “And I was serious when I said you’re mine, Chloe. I want you. Until the end of my days, I only want you.”
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Silas
Fast as I was, my wings beating a furious tempo away from Caine’s house and the carnage we’d wreaked, the rain was faster. It caught us halfway, the first few drops our only notice before the skies opened up.
“This is not the right outfit for this type of travel,” Chloe mumbled in my ear as the first chill ran through her body. “I’m going to freeze before we get wherever we’re going.”
“To the palace,” I said, letting heat and fire flow through my body, warming the skin, transferring as much as I could to Chloe.
“The palace.”
I clenched my jaw. “Chloe, I want nothing more than to hold you in my arms and fly off into the wilderness where no one will find us. Claim you as my mate for real and raise a brood of mountain-wild children. But I will not go in such a way as to leave you in any sort of danger. Having to look over our shoulder constantly, worry about you, or worry about our children? I can’t. I must settle this. Here. Now. Then I’ll have you. If you’ll have me.”
“I believe you,” she whispered, the wind pulling at the words, nearly rendering them impossible to hear. But I did.
Holding her tight, I hurried on as fast as I could to the palace. I wanted to get it over with.
A quartet of guards approached us as we landed. Upon sighting just who I held in my hands, they moved to encircle us.