Page 71 of To Kill a King
“Elves, to me!” Another detonation several yards away overpowered her call, the debris pelted her face, drawing blood. “Engage! They won’t use the weapon on their own men!”
At least, she hoped they wouldn’t. Humans were even less predictable than sun elves.
Zadé swung her sword, and it came away red as a body tumbled to the ground. “Woop!” She leaned forward and parried as the next opponent lunged for her.
Her world contracted until there was nothing but the feel of her mount’s panting beneath her and the hum of her blade as it cut through the enemy. Explosions reverberated somewhere behind her. She wiped the blood from her face with an even bloodier arm.
The horde parted as a thick, muscular human stepped up, his axe pointing at her, as though he could claim her life so easily. The morning sun reflected off the mirrored sheen of his plate armor. It was almost as fine quality as hers.
Impressive. She bared her fangs and growled as she leapt from her horse. Planting her feet in the red mud, she centered her posture and nodded to him.
“Come on, then.”
He pulled his weapon over his shoulder and charged, screaming.
Zadé dropped to her back, letting his blade cleave through the air overhead, where her gut had been moments ago. With a twitch of her abdomen, she flipped upright and brought her sword in to kiss his inner thigh, first one side, then the other, before he could recover from the momentum of his swing.
Lightness burst through her chest as she howled in victory.
He didn’t realize it yet, but he was already dead. “Your arteries are severed, human. Time to make your peace with whatever god you hold dear.”
The deafening explosion threw her forward, face-first into the mud. Something heavy landed on top of her as her ribs fractured with a painful snap. The world went black.
Present Day
Cressida breezed into Filathas’s guest house like she owned the place. Zadé snorted. Who was she fooling? As matriarch and head scholar, everything here pretty much belonged to Cress. She must’ve waited for Elsan to step out so there’d be no one to run interference.
Valek.
As if the pounding headache wasn’t enough to deal with—she’d forgotten how bad elven wine hangovers could be. She cracked her eyes open. Everything was still double, which meant the hangover wasn’t even in full swing yet.
Rolling over, she pulled the blanket over her head. “Go away.”
Footsteps reached the foot of her bed and her covers disappeared. “Niece, wake up. We’re long overdue for a discussion.”
She glowered as her linens dropped from her aunt’s fingers to the floor.
Lady Brightleaf’s gaze hardened. Clearly, she had no intention of leaving until Zadé endured whatever she had to say.
“Fine.” She shoved herself up into a sitting position, crossing her legs and leaning back against the headboard. Opening one eye and glaring, she grumbled, “Say yer piece and leave me t’ my nap.”
With a sigh, Cressida sat on the corner of the mattress. “I know it’s late, but I wanted to apologize.”
Zadé blew air through her lips like a horse. “Yer sorry? Fer what? That I lived? Or fer kickin’ me out when I didn’t roll over ‘n die like a dutiful soldier?”
Her aunt shook her head as her eyes lined with silver. “No. For the misunderstanding when you left.”
Zadé chortled. “What misunderstandin’? Ya’ll made it plenty clear yeh didn’t want me ‘round.” And that hadn’t changed in the last two-hundred years, judging from their less-than-warm reception. “I never even figured out what I did wrong, ‘xcept survive.”
Cressida met her gaze. “Contrary to what you think, we were happy you lived. Elated. But we didn’t know how damaged you were, and we were still trying to figure out how to relate to the new you when you disappeared.”
“You would’a skipped town, too, if all you got day in ‘n out was people looking at you with pity and silence whene’re you walked into the room. It was so obvious y’all wanted me gone. You didn’t even bother to invite me to the officer meetings.” She crossed her arms and looked away. “And General Raloven did nothin’ ‘cept complain to anyone who’d listen ‘bout how I’d lost us our best advantage against the humans.” As if it was all her fault their spies hadn’t picked up on the humans’ new weapons.
“Oh,” Lady Brightleaf murmured. “I’m sorry. He didn’t mean for you to overhear.”
“Yeah, well, man’s got a loud voice. Kinda hard ta miss.” And he’d known full well she was right outside the door.
“That he does.” Cressida sighed. “We’ve been concerned about you. Stay here, with us.”