Shattered Souls (Guardians of the Maiden Book 3)

Dyna’s shadow stretched ahead of her as she leaped over boulders and ducked around trees. Sunset’s golden light bathing the ground began to fade. Her heart pounded, every breath labored as time chased her into the forest. Then she was plunged into twilight. Dyna stumbled against a tree, entering a short clearing on the edge of a cliff. Beyond the ravine was dark and so far down, it had to easily be five-hundred feet high.

Shakily, she searched through her satchel and drew out a slaver’s key. She crouched and quickly fit the teeth into the tiny hole in her witch bangles. They fell away, and immediately Essence rushed into her veins. Her eyes misted as a familiar green glow filled her hands. But she couldn’t celebrate that because her bond still hadn’t returned.

Cassiel. She looked out at the stars on the horizon, wishing with all her heart to see his form flying against the moonlight. Find me. Please find me.

But Cassiel couldn’t find her until she broke the spell. Dyna squeezed the arrowhead tight in her fist, and kept running, and heading east. He had to be in that direction.

The forest grew darker with the coming nightfall. There was no time to be afraid. She focused on putting as much distance between her and the camp as possible. Moonlight formed a dim path on the ground, so she followed it. She was so focused on not acknowledging the dark, that she didn’t notice the waiting shadows until she came face to face with a group of Azure Knights.

Her boots scraped against the hard earth, stumbling to a stop in a glade. They looked imposing and vicious in their heavy blue armor. She panted heavy breaths as she spun around, looking for an opening to escape, but they had her surrounded. One stepped forward and removed his armored helmet. By the moonlight, She could partially distinguish a man’s rough face with a beard and short dark hair.

He eyed her suspiciously. “What’s this? You’re not who we expected.”

They must have been waiting here to finish off whoever escaped the assault.

“She must be one of Tarn’s spies sent to scout ahead,” said another man, taking in her black, leather armor. “She wears his colors.”

Dyna shook her head, discretely slipping the arrowhead in her satchel. “I’m not. I was his captive and I only now made my escape.”

“Something a spy would say.”

“Kill her and be done with it,” ordered the first knight. “You know our orders. No prisoners.”

Her heart jolted.

“Wait, Captain, if she was in Tarn’s camp, then she may have information for the King,” said the knight beside him. “We should take her with us.”

The Captain’s mouth curved in a lewd smile “Hmm. Well, she is pretty. At the very least she will provide entertainment. Bring her.”

The knights lunged for her.

Gods, she didn’t have time for this! Dyna’s hands lit with magic and threw a blast of Essence at them. It threw them back and they gaped at her. “I am not going anywhere with you,” she hissed. “The next one who approaches me will lose a limb.”

The men laughed. Each pressed on the Azure crests embossed on their chests and their armor hummed as golden light rippled over them. Of course, they had damn shields.

The Commander sneered. “Tarn has witches among his spies now?”

“I told you, I’m not his spy.”

“She’s right.” The sound of that voice, as frigid as winter, sank a frightful chill down Dyna’s spine. “One of mine would have already slit your throats.”

Knights yanked out their swords as they stared into the dark. Their feet shifted over the ground, the metal of their armor clinking.

Swallowing, Dyna slowly turned around, and spotted the distinct black form lurking within the trees. Her heart thundered in her ears, her legs locking in place. Her shaky breaths clouded in the air as the temperature dropped. Fear permeated the night, every instinct telling her to flee.

The shape moved into the moonlight.

The tip of a steel blade came first, then boots, until Tarn fully emerged. Shadows hovered in the planes of his face, and his pale eyes eerily gleamed white in the moonlight. He looked like death itself dressed in all black, his long coat fluttering in the breeze. And the scent of blood came with him. Dyna glanced down at the weapon he loosely held. The pommel was embossed with a sigil that was vaguely familiar. Fresh blood marked the blade’s edge, droplets landing by his feet.

His gaze cut into hers, and it was frosted with a quiet wrath that made her insides go cold. Tarn walked past her and faced the Knights. Fifteen men in all.

The moonlight spilling through the branches at his back darkened the shadows clinging to the planes of his face. He swiped a hand through the air. Their enchanted shields peeled off their bodies like tattered sheets, only to be absorbed by the glowing black clovers on his cuff. Just like that, he left them defenseless.

“Let us skip pleasantries,” Tarn said into the shocked quiet as he removed his coat. “We both know why you’ve come.”

The Azure Knights breathed heavily, their breaths clouding in the air as they crouched into defense positions.

Tarn’s sword whirled with a flick of his wrist. “Shall we?”

The Commander put on his helmet. “In the name of His Highness King Lenneus of Azure, I sentence you to death.”

The men charged all at once with a battle cry. Tarn shoved her out of the way and she caught herself on a tree. Their gleaming swords swept for him. He spun under the arc of a blade and slashed through a man’s torso. His body pivoted as he cut through a knight’s throat and dodged the whizzing blade of another. He moved so quickly, so deftly, Dyna stared with rapt horror as he hacked his way through the band of men simultaneously, countering every strike.

Her heart raced as she watched him easily slay them one by one, and red splattered his face with each kill. Blades missed him by inches. They never touched him. His movements were so precise and graceful. He moved with an elegance she had never seen. Something that only came with rigorous years of training. Of killing.

Two knights charged for him, and Tarn stepped back at the right moment so they struck each other. She shuddered at the sound of his low chuckle. He was toying with them.

This was nothing to him.

Frost bit the air as ice grew from his hand, coating his blade. He surged forward and slashed down across a knight’s chest, and in the same momentum, his sword swept up to cut the next. She couldn’t look away as clouds passed over the moon. The dark shrouded her vision, and all she could see was the occasional flash of steel and spurt of red, as blood-curdling screams rang in her ears.

Moonlight spilled back through the branches as he struck the last man down. Turning, his attention fixed on her next. His predatory stare bore into her, as if deciding where to stick his talons first. If Dyna wasn’t already leaning against a tree, her knees might have given out.

Tarn raised his sword above his head, and she scrambled back to run. He was going to kill her for escaping. She tried to cast a shield, but it sputtered in her shaking hands. He flung the weapon—but it flew past her head and she heard a wet cry. Dyna turned to see a hidden knight stumble forward with the sword through the chest.

She tripped out of the way before the man keeled on top of her. Before she could run, Tarn snatched her arm and hauled her to her feet.

“Did you think you could run and I wouldn’t find you?” His icy voice froze her to the bone.

“I—”

Tarn wrenched her aside. Steel flashed from the corner of her sight as a spinning knife flew past, missing her completely. But he jerked and glared down at the cut on his bicep. There was one wounded man left alive. Tarn ripped his sword from the dead knight’s chest and went after him as he attempted to crawl away.

Dyna cried out. “No!”

Tarn thrust the blade into the back of the man’s neck. Her stomach heaved at the sound of the wet squelch when he jerked it free. She slapped a hand over her mouth, muffling a whimper. Gods. He’d murdered the man in cold blood. Without mercy or hesitation. Yet he’d also pulled her from the knife’s path.

Tarn had saved her life.

Dyna saw the satisfaction on his face when they both realized it. She bolted.

Tarn caught her within three strides and hauled her around to face him. “You cannot escape me, Maiden. You now belong to me for the rest of your life.”

“I will never be a thing you own!” Dyna punched and kicked at his body but it was like fighting an unmoving glacier. Any spells she tried were consumed by the clovers. She smacked his face and his expression grew livid. Frost crept out from under his hold and crawled up her arm to her neck. It hurt terribly, and panic crystalized in her veins, but she merely looked up at him. “Go on, then. Kill me. Because I won’t stop trying to get away from you.”

A muscle in Tarn’s jaw flexed as he regarded her coolly, then the frost melted away. He dragged her into the woods. “Perhaps I should thank you for running. It revealed rats invading my nest.”

She dug in her feet, fighting every step. “You already had rats. Benton was the one who—”

Dyna stumbled when Tarn dropped to one knee midstride.

“What—” He cut off with a painful gasp. “What is this?”

His body curled forward and he fell on his hands and knees as he heaved with heavy breaths. His fists shook on the ground, struggling to stay up right. Confused, she canted her head, listening to him wheeze for air.

What happened?

Dyna glanced at his bleeding arm. She crouched and carefully picked at his sleeve to inspect the lesion and found a sickly green foam burbling from the swollen ridges. “You’ve been poisoned.”

Tarn let out an indignant laugh. “Of course. That slithering prick would rather use such cowardly methods to get rid of me than to do it himself,” he growled through his clenched teeth. His arms gave out, and he fell face down. It took a great effort for Tarn to roll onto his back. His lungs rattled with shallow breaths, and he hacked up blood. “Curse him to all seven hells.”

She levitated the bloodied knife that cut him and lightly sniffed it, analyzing the distinct sickly sweet scent. “Fengu,” she concluded. “You’ve been poisoned with one of the most lethal venoms only found in Xián Jīng. I hear your lungs already hemorrhaging from the inside as you fall into paralysis. You must feel the numbness settling. It will be a painful death by slow asphyxiation. I think you’ll be dead in about five minutes.”

Tarn’s mouth pinched, and his sweaty complexion paled further. “How fortunate that you’re here.” He reached in his coat for the vial of Witch’s Brew. Probably to dampen the fear that must be sprouting in him now. “Heal me.”

Dyna snatched it away. “No.”

Rage swam in his wide eyes. He snarled muddled words he could hardly form. “I saved your life. It belongs to me now. Obey my command.”

“Slavery has been abolished in Azure, Tarn. I belong to no one, least of all you.”

He grabbed her neck, but there was no strength in his shaking grip. “You will heal me or die with me.”

“No, I won’t.” Dyna easily pushed it away and stood. She watched his chest spasm as he hacked out more blood. Not moments ago, Tarn had seemed like the most terrifying being, but now he’d been defeated by a mere nick. “Oh, how it must feel for the great Tarn to be so powerless. On the brink of the very death he sought to avoid.”

“You’re…relishing this… aren’t you?”

Yes, a part of her was satisfied to see him suffer for once. Because at the moment, he was the weak one.

“’Only the strong rise above the weak,’” Dyna quoted him, balancing the bloodied knife in her hand. “It was you who taught me the true meaning of power. Thank you for the lesson. I shall not forget it.”

As much as the fury contorted his clammy face, a faint smirk rose to Tarn’s mouth. “Then you may…” he rasped, “survive this world yet.”

His pale eyes slid closed, and he stopped moving. Dyna counted the slight rise and fall of his chest. Each labored breath grew fainter and fainter. Seeing Tarn this way was strange. He looked so innocent and helpless. As though he hadn’t recently slain everyone else laying in the glade. It was a trick of her compassion. She had borne witness to his cruelty. He killed so many people.

This was his fate.

Dyna’s steps were soft in the quiet night as she walked away from the dying man. She had to continue with her journey and find Cassiel. But Tarn’s fading life was a weight over her head. Herb Masters vowed to treat all, even the wicked. She argued no one would blame her if she omitted that vow this once.

Yet her feet stopped. Angry tears welled in Dyna’s eyes as she warred with herself. He hurt her. He killed Zev. He held her captive. Left to die there on the frozen ground was no more than he deserved. But if she took another step, it meant she was a beast like he claimed.

We all have darkness in our hearts, Maiden. Even you.

She should leave him.

Anyone else would.

Tarn laid waste to everything in his path because he believed it was the only way to live. Something had twisted him so terribly it marked his body as well as his mind. But perhaps, he could see a new way…if given a chance.

Shaking her head, Dyna rushed back to Tarn’s side and filled her hands with magic. “Don’t make me regret this.”