Enemies Beside Me
645 Words
Chapter 15: Enemies Beside Me
Rain hammered the alley roofs.
Iron-masked figures dropped soundlessly from above, landing in crouched rows around them. Black coats. Silver blades. Eyes hidden behind expressionless metal.
Too many.
Elias counted for three seconds, then stopped.
“I preferred it when problems came one at a time.”
The leader stepped forward.
His mask was marked with a vertical scar of red paint.
“The girl comes willingly,” he said, voice distorted behind steel, “or the city bleeds again.”
Lena’s silver light brightened.
“You people are obsessed with dramatic threats.”
The masked man ignored her.
He looked at Adrian.
“You lost your throne.”
“I lost patience first,” Adrian replied.
The leader lifted his blade.
“Take them.”
They surged.
The alley exploded into motion.
Lena sent a wave of silver force through the front line, throwing five attackers into dumpsters and brick. Adrian disarmed two with brutal efficiency, fighting now with fists, elbows, stolen knives—human, but terrifyingly skilled.
Selene moved like cold water, precise and elegant. She snapped wrists, drove blades into walls beside throats, and smiled every time someone underestimated her.
Elias grabbed a dropped baton.
“I have no training!” he shouted, swinging wildly.
He accidentally struck an attacker in the jaw.
The man collapsed.
Elias stared. “...I may have instincts.”
Another lunged at him.
Selene kicked the attacker aside without looking.
“Stay behind me, pet.”
“I hate that it’s helping.”
Lena fought back-to-back with Adrian.
“You’re slower,” she said between strikes.
“You’re sentimental,” he answered.
“I’m serious.”
“So am I.”
Three masked fighters rushed them together. Adrian ducked low, sweeping one down while Lena blasted the other two into a wall.
He glanced at her.
“You’re stronger.”
She met his eyes briefly.
“I had to be.”
Across the alley, the leader watched calmly.
Then he drew a black chain from beneath his coat.
Adrian went still.
“No,” he said.
The leader snapped the chain forward. Symbols along its links ignited red.
It wrapped around Selene’s throat before anyone could move.
She gasped, dropping to one knee.
“Court-binding iron,” Adrian said sharply. “Move!”
Lena lunged, but two masked fighters blocked her.
The leader yanked the chain tighter.
Selene clawed at it, face paling.
“You speak of cages,” he said to her. “Kneel in one.”
Something changed in Lena’s expression.
Cold fury.
She unleashed a burst of silver light so violent every attacker nearby flew backward.
The alley walls cracked.
Windows shattered overhead.
She walked straight through the smoke.
The leader hesitated for the first time.
“Interesting,” he said.
Lena grabbed the chain with bare hands.
The iron burned into her palms.
She did not let go.
With a scream, she tore it apart.
Selene collapsed, coughing.
The leader stepped back.
“Take the girl alive!” he shouted.
Elias rushed to Selene’s side.
“You okay?”
She glared through tears. “I was strangled, not charmed.”
“Great, personality intact.”
Adrian reached Lena and seized her wrists.
Her palms were blistered and bleeding.
“You fool,” he said quietly.
“You’re welcome,” she replied through clenched teeth.
Before he could answer, the alley darkened unnaturally.
Every masked fighter froze.
Even the leader looked upward.
From the rooftop edge above them, a tall figure in a long iron coat stepped into view.
No mask.
A face lined with scars.
Eyes like dead ash.
Adrian’s voice dropped to something Lena had never heard before.
Fear.
“Cassian.”
The man smiled faintly.
“My king,” he said. “You look small.”
End of Chapter 15
Say Chapter 16 when you're ready.
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