Page 259 of Onyx Cage: Volume II
Lifting my eyes to survey the battle, I immediately spotted my wife, fighting like I had never seen before. Her sabers whipped through the air, slicing through her enemies with unmatched speed and precision.
She was death itself, dealing swift judgment with each of her blows as she made her way across the room.
I forced myself to look away from her, noting that Yuriy had dragged Kirill to the edge of the room. Though another lifeless body caught my eye. Blood pooled from Andrei’s torso as he lay sprawled out on the floor.
A muscle feathered in my jaw as I met Iiro’s gaze once again. Lowering my sword to his throat, I pressed the tip of the blade into his skin, enough to draw a single drop of blood.
I wasn’t going to kill him, but he didn’t know that. Still, he only glared at me, refusing to show fear, even on the brink of death.
I could almost have respected him, if I didn’t so deeply despise him.
Looking back out at the crowd, I raised my voice loud enough to break through the clashing steel and cries of pain.
“Enough!” I yelled. “We have the king.”
No one else needed to die today. Ever so slowly, the sounds of battle died down as the soldiers' attention fell to me and the former king at my feet.
Iiro lay silent as a stone, staring mutely ahead while I spoke to the crowd.
“The fight is over,” I said in a more moderate tone. “Hand over your weapons now, and you will suffer no further repercussions.”
The soldiers all looked around suspiciously before dropping their swords at the feet of the Unclanned.
Backing away, I allowed Iiro to stand, though I didn’t lower my blades.
I opened my mouth to continue speaking when motion caught my attention yet again. Arès gave a brief, curt nod to one of his soldiers, just as the man hurled a throwing knife.
“No!” I ordered, but it was too late.
The blade sailed toward Iiro, toward the part of his chest where his heart would have been, if he had one. It was everything I had wanted for years, to see this man bleed out in front of me.
But I had made a promise to Korhonan that his brother would live. I had sworn it. I refused to be no better than the man I was currently dethroning—and maybe I couldn’t quite bring myself to take away the last family that Theodore had, when he had risked so much to help us.
Even with Rowan and her army, we would have lost without him.
That was the only excuse I had for what I did next.
I leapt in front of the bastard, just in time for a sharp, stabbing pain to bite into my chest. I fell to the floor, unable to bear the weight of it. Pain was nothing new to me, but this held a new level of intensity.
It radiated from my chest, through my shoulder and back, spreading out like tendrils of fire that seared me from the inside out.
I distantly registered vibrant green eyes and an ominous crack of thunder before the world went black.
CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED FOURTEEN
Time lost all meaning as I drifted between nothingness and pain.
I clung to the pain. To the sharp, rhythmic stinging in my chest, the agonizing tug of stitches pulled taut. To anything tethering me to this world and the woman in it that I would storms-damned well not leave behind.
I will always fight to make my way back to you.
Me, too, Lemmikki. No matter what it takes.
Her voice sounded panicked and too far away. I wanted to tell her it would be all right, to promise her that I was coming back, that nothing in this world or the next could keep me from her.
But no matter how hard I fought, the darkness claimed me once more.
My wife was yelling.