Page 89 of In Darkness Forged
“Aislin is not yours,” Tal said, each word an icy shard that pierced the heavy silence. “No one belongs to another but by choice.”
He took two more steps, and then the razor edge of his sword came to rest against Lord Dreichel’s wrist, a few inches from Aislin’s face.
“Remove your hand,” he said softly, “or I will do it for you.”
He must, Aislin reflected in a curiously detached way, be exercising a great deal of restraint. Much like the first time she met him, Tal was barely holding back a tidal wave of pure magic. His leashed power shone from his eyes and filled the very room with a spine-tingling presence of its own.
But unlike the night elves, Lord Dreichel seemed not to know when to be afraid.
“Guards!” he cried, releasing Aislin’s neck and taking two steps back as his hand fell to the dagger at his waist.
Aislin doubled over, drew in a deep breath, and coughed several times.
“How did you get in here?” she gasped out. “Did you forget to mention you can turn yourself invisible?”
“No,” Tal said flatly, his air of menace not abating as she finally stood upright and managed to breathe normally. “But humans are quite adept at refusing to see things that cannot possibly exist.”
Like night elves and dreadwolves, Aislin thought ruefully.
“Thank you for coming for me,” she said quietly. “I know you’re angry, and so am I, but please… These people are not your enemy. You can’t just kill them all.”
Tal looked down at her, one eyebrow quirked. “I could,” he corrected thoughtfully. “But I will not. So long as they do not attempt to prevent you from leaving.”
“Then let’s just go…”
But it was already too late. Guards began to pour into the room—ten, fifteen, twenty… It was not too many for Tal, but in this case, even one was too many because Aislinknewthem. Knew their names and their families.
“Take them,” Lord Dreichel growled.
“Don’t do this,” Aislin cried out desperately. “Please, just let us leave in peace. We will go, and no one will get hurt.”
But no one else understood her fear. They assumed she was trying to save herself and pressed forward, unaware of their own danger.
Only Tal seemed to hear the desperation in her voice. He glanced at the guards, then took her hand and motioned with his head towards the end of the room. “Side door,” he murmured, and pulled her after him, but suddenly there were guards in that direction as well.
The guests panicked. Several of the ladies screamed, and one fainted, to be carried from the room by her escort. As the nobility retreated with more haste than dignity, the guards closed in, pressing Aislin and Tal back against the wall, weapons at the ready, forming a semicircle around their quarry at the edge of the great hall.
There was no longer any way out that Aislin could see. Not without death. Not without ruining Tal’s chances to be a part of her life here, and Aislin mourned that future even as she acknowledged it had never been very likely.
“I’m sorry,” she said regretfully as the guards closed ranks around them. “This is my fault. I should have known he would do this. Should have guessed he would never forgive me for proving him wrong.” But she’d been so weary. So anxious to have this finished and be free. “Please just don’t let them hurt you.”
In the space of a breath, one powerful arm wrapped around her waist, pulling her into Tal’s side as he stared down at her fiercely. “Let them hurt me?” he echoed. “The only way they could have done so was by causing you pain. When that hand was around your throat, it cut me far deeper than any blade ever could.”
Aislin had no answer for that. She could feel nothing now except the growing pressure of his magic, the heat of his arm around her waist, and the blazing power of his amber gaze as it burned against hers. “Whatever happens,” she whispered, “I regret nothing but not having more time.”
“As I said before,” Tal replied calmly, “I will not let you die.”
Then he released her. Expressionless now, he drew both blades. Stepped away from her and beckoned the guards with a jerk of his chin.
“Come then. Take my weapons if you can.”
CHAPTER24
These humans likely had no idea how close they’d come to death. Until Aislin had drawn that first shuddering breath, Tal had been prepared to lay waste to the entire hall in payment for their staggering hubris.
And yet, he knew Aislin would not thank him for it. There was but one enemy here, and that one was all too ready to hide behind the lives of others, using them and discarding them as he saw fit. Tal had long suspected that the man who sent Aislin to die would not scruple to take her life in payment for his disappointment, and the human had wasted no time in proving him right.
So as greatly as Tal longed to vent his anger in battle against the human lord’s guards, he could not. Humans were such fragile, easily damaged creatures, and any injuries to these particular humans would injure Aislin in turn. They were her friends and neighbors—people she had likely known all her life—so he could not simply destroy them with his power as he had the aranthas.