Kill.
Avenge.
Hurt.
Breena rested her soft hand on his shoulder. Quieting him.
His woman was right. This creature, this bearer of evil, wanted to anger him. Push him to make a mistake because this thing knew that, despite his command of blood magic, Osborn could still kill him. Would still kill him. With the power of his berserker ancestry and Breena’s nearness.
Osborn raised his sword, calmly and with perfect balance.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
EVERY LESSON, EVERY WORD of caution and instruction, Osborn ever gave Breena now ran through her mind. She’d never been so afraid. She’d awoken not so long ago with only two commands echoing in her mind. To survive and to avenge.
Now she added a new one on her own: win this fight with Osborn.
Leyek raised his sword, waving it around in an elaborate dance.
It’s the flourishing knights who are the first to die.
The air around her chilled. Osborn’s berserkergang grew in strength. The Blood Sorcerer’s minion charged. The clang of steel on steel rang through the air as Osborn blocked his blow. With an upswing of his sword, her warrior almost sent Leyek reeling to the floor.
She searched the crowd until she met Rolfe’s eyes. Signaling toward the door, she mouthed the word, “Go!” With Leyek fully immersed in battle, now would be the time for her people to escape. With a nod, Rolfe silently gathered the Eldens who awaited their deadly fate and ushered them away.
With her people secure, Breena reached for her own sword. Two on one might not be a fair fight, but when did a wielder of blood magic deserve honor and respect?
Osborn charged forward, his sword slicing through his prey’s shoulder. Leyek screeched at the pain, the sound horrible to hear; the walls began to shake, and dust rained down on their heads.
“That’s the sound your vamps made as I killed them,” Osborn shouted at him with a sneer. He thrust again, but Leyek was able to sidestep the blow.
The Blood Sorcerer’s minion began to shake and mumble. Words, dark words, reverberated off the beams of the ceiling. A revolting menace permeated through the small hall. Nausea made her stomach roil.
“He’s summoning his magic,” she called.
Leyek moved in a flash. A slash appeared on the right side of Osborn’s pelt. Then the left. With a gleeful cackle, the pelt fell to the floor and caught on fire.
Osborn’s connection to the ber spirit was severed. Gone.
With a roar of outrage, Osborn rushed toward the minion. But some invisible force repelled him back, and left him bleeding. A nasty gash appeared across his chest, and blood seeped from the wound. Blood magic.
Osborn glanced down at his injury, and wiped across his ribs. His hand came back red with his blood. He stilled at the sight, and the room seemed to warm.
Then her warrior’s face changed. The unrelenting rage lining his features softened. Replaced by determination. Osborn thrust, parried and thrust again.
Leyek stumbled backward, blood pouring from a gash across his face, and another wound to his side. Osborn charged once more, burying the blade in the minion’s stomach. Leyek fell to the cold stone floor, his blood pooling around him.
“Tell me how they died again,” Osborn ordered.
Leyek struggled to breathe. “I’ll give you power. Great power. We’ll bring the girl in together. My master will reward you greatly.”
“Tell me how they died.”
The minion’s eyes turned the color of decay. He knew there’d be no ally in the Ursan standing over him. “I gave free rein to the vamps. Torture, devastate, torment…they did it all.” Leyek’s words began to slur, a murky haze surrounded him. The wound on his cheek began to heal. She would not let this thing live another day.
She ran to Osborn’s side, and grabbed the steel of his sword. Breena gripped the blade so hard it cut into her flesh. Energy stirred within her, swirled and grew. With a snap it left her fingers, forging itself with the steel.
“My magic with your strength,” Breena said. “It’s time to finish him.”
“It’s only right,” he answered.
Osborn steered her aside, kicked Leyek’s blade toward him, then backed up. Her warrior eyed the Blood Sorcerer’s minion. Waved him forward.
Leyek grabbed the hilt of his sword with bloody fingers. He chanted as he stood, but Breena no longer feared his brand of magic. He lunged at Osborn, and with only one strike from her warrior’s sword, Leyek fell to the ground dead. Her magic had destroyed him.
Osborn wavered on his feet, and Breena ran toward him, looping his arm over her shoulders and helping him out the door. He needed to be in the fresh air, away from the death and magic of the blood.
“You did it, Osborn. And without your pelt.”
“We did it together.”
“YOU BELONG AT MY SIDE, Breena,” he told her once they’d crossed the threshold, loving the feel of her strength and trying to not let on that he was as hurt as he appeared.
“Don’t you mean you belong at my side?” she asked, a slow beautiful smile curving her lips.
“Yes.” His breath flowed out as a relieved groan.
Her kissable lips turned pouty. “I was doing pretty well in there. You didn’t have to turn all berserker.”
“I am a berserker.”
“Even without your pelt.”
He nodded. The ber spirit would always be part of him. He understood that now. A lesson he could one day teach his brothers. “And yes, I did have to turn ‘all berserker.’ For you.”
Breena stood on tiptoe and kissed his cheek. “That’s why I love you. And him. Mostly you,” she teased.
Osborn grabbed her hands. “You know I must go with you to Elden. The Blood Sorcerer killed my family, too.”
Breena nodded. “I was hoping this was where you said you loved me, too.”
She tried to pull her fingers from his grasp, but he wouldn’t let go. He would never let go. “And I’m trying to tell you that I would have followed you to Elden, anyway. Even without knowing he was responsible for what happened to my people. I was returning to convince you, uh, that I belonged at your side when I heard the sound of your blade.”
He let her hands drop. Her decision. Her choice.
She reached up and cupped his cheek, her thumb running along his lower lip.
“There will be another full moon tonight. Breena of Elden, will you join me under the stars and seal your life with mine?”
After gripping his hands in her tiny ones, she gave his fingers a squeeze. “I don’t know what we will face tomorrow, but tonight will be ours. Yes, Osborn.”
“And, Breena?”
She gazed into his eyes. “Yes?”
“I love you.”
EPILOGUE
THE NIGHT OF LEYEK’S defeat, Breena insisted they have a feast. She said it was in celebration, but Osborn knew she sensed her people needed festivity. The music, the dancing and the tales around the fire. To feel normal again. United as Eldens. The Blood Sorcerer had nearly broken them as a people. Truthfully many of them would never be the same, but tonight they would eat and laugh and forget.
Tomorrow would be for battle plans. Breena had already questioned every Elden in an attempt to ferret out news, even the most vague of rumors about her brothers. Osborn knew she’d never fully rest until she had her answers, even if they were tragic.
As the sun set, the fire blazed higher. By the hour more Eldens crept from the shadows to join her. Each one was greeted with laughter or tears and sometimes both. Families were reunited while others learned the knowledge of loved ones with stern acceptance. Grief would be for later. After the Blood Sorcerer’s death.