Page 182 of Death of a Mortal

I was ready to kill a king.

Drayce’s hand brushed mine, a sign that he was beside me for whatever came next.

The couple who went in before us bowed to the king and, after speaking with him, left through the side entrance to the throneroom. The guards gestured for us to move forward. With a last look at Drayce, I followed him inside.

I saw Noxie from the corner of my eye fly through the tall doors of the room, unseen.

At least that had gone right so far.

“Step forward, bow, and present your inquiry or grievance to His Royal Majesty, King Caedryn Veylor!” The herald’s voice was squeaky and nasally, that of an unfortunate soul stuck in this room that would soon be shrouded in death.

Eleven to eight, then.

Every step toward that throne seemed to take a year.

“My, my, look how you’ve grown, my child. Just as planned.”

My whole body froze. That voice was not Noxie’s in my mind…and it made my head hurt like my brain was being squeezed.

It was Malvina. She knew it was me under the glamour after all…and she could speak in my mind—why, I didn’t know, but it couldn’t be good. I immediately knew we’d stepped into a trap, but before I could convey this to Drayce, Sevrin dropped our glamour, and Bramick barricaded the open doors, sealing us in.

Caedryn bellowed his rage at the realization of who stood before him, and chaos broke out.

Drayce, Bramick, and I capitalized on the shock from the rest of the room and struck first.

Drayce created a storm above us that he drew a bolt of lightning from and struck clear through one guard’s heart. Bramick stomped a booted foot and sent sharp spears of stone through the marble floor to skewer another guard. I shot a single shadow tendril at the guard closest to me, and when his neck was firmly in its shadowy grasp, I sent a powerful ball of fire toward the court members that were recovering from shock and rallying to protect their king, throwing defensive shields up before taking up the fight.

At the exact moment my shadow separated the guard’s head from his body, the guards Drayce and Bramick had killed fell to the ground. Three down…

My fireball sent the court members scrambling out of the way, but it didn’t hit any of them.

Aerie floated high above us and used her air magic to float the last guard all the way to the ceiling before slamming him back to the ground, where he remained motionless.

All the guards were dead, leaving only the royals and the three court members. And the herald who…

Who had the handle of a dagger I recognized as Kellan’s protruding from one eye socket and laid motionless not more than one step from where he’d announced our arrival.

Caedryn and Varyn both transformed into their vey, leaping at the rest of us still huddled together in a group. I tried to reach Caedryn with a shadow tendril, but his fire burned me as if my magic had been part of my body, making me cry out in burning pain.

So demon fire could hurt my shadows.

Shit.

I clenched my jaw and sent the tendril instead toward Varyn, who jumped over it in his massive wolf form and landed with his front paws on Elene’s shoulders, sending her to the ground. Before anyone on our side could react, he clamped her head in his jaws and bit down, spraying blood as her head caved in, and then her body went limp.

Bile rose in my throat at the sight, making something in me crack—and this time it wasn’t the shadows. I wanted to stop the chaos and mourn her brutal death, rage at the prince for his brutality and betrayal, but there was no time.

Drayce sent a shield of water up before Caedryn got too close to me, then sent a bolt of lightning at Varyn, drawing a yelp from him and filling the room with the smell of burned hair.

Good. Let him burn.

Caedryn’s Pyrrath bellowed its fiery rage and steamed against Drayce’s water shield.

I took half a breath to look around me and found Bramick locked in combat with a one-handed Zareth, and Aerie in an airborne battlewith the mage, who apparently had the light element and kept disappearing.

Bernitha was backing away from the last court member I now recognized as Fenric the master of coin. They were locked in a sword fight, and Bernitha was fighting what looked to be a losing battle. Kellan was making his way to her, sending a sharp throwing star toward Fenric’s head as he ran.

Sevrin was backing away from all the chaos toward the rear of the room.