Twilight Siege

27

“Of course it had nothing to do with you, at least not in the beginning. Lochlan told us there was a part-Fae woman in Belfast and I was intrigued. I learned what I could about you and passed it on to Morgan, she wanted me to get close to you.” He spoke matter-of-factly as he stepped slowly toward me. “When I saw how Lochlan looked at you, I knew I had to turn you from him. I would have preferred you fall for me and we could have set out on our campaign together, but killing you will also achieve my goal.” “You seem to think Lochlan cares for me far more than he actually does —doing this isn’t going to mean anything to him.” I argued with Ronan as he came to stand directly in front of me. His only response was a smile as he lifted the knife and sliced into my exposed wrists, eyes on my face the entire time to absorb the emotions crossing my face. I cried out in pain—I would have preferred to not give him the satisfaction, but that s**t hurt. Seeing blood pour from my opened wrists and drip onto the pavement made my head feel like I had just stepped off an amusement park ride. I attempted to remind myself that I healed quickly, and his cuts across my wrist were less damaging than if he’d cut the length of my forearm, but my rational mind did little to calm the chaos of my emotions. My head swam with dizziness and I tried to swallow down the bile rising in my throat. “Please don’t do this. Just take the necklace, you don’t have to kill me.” I pleaded with him in a voice hoarse from my previous crying. “I’m afraid I do. We can’t have Merlin getting in our way and once Morgan has this necklace, she’ll be unstoppable.” His eyes danced with excitement as they dropped to my necklace, drunk on the possibility of possessing its power. He brought the knife up between us and tilted his head as if examining the blood on the blade like a child fascinated by watching salt shrivel up a slug. His eyes dropped again to my throat and I couldn’t get enough air— shallow breaths puffed from my lips as my heart pounded in my chest. How was this happening? Why couldn’t I use magic and get myself free? I tried to concentrate enough to feel the warm swell of power but when he brought the knife to my pulsing neck, terror seized me and all I could do was struggle in vain against the invisible binds holding me to the wall. The cold blade sliced into my flesh and pulled across the front of my neck. I opened my mouth on a silent scream as dizziness threatened to take me under. Suddenly Ronan dropped the blade and screamed, gripping his head in both hands. With a grimace he lowered himself to his knees and as soon as he folded over, my magical bindings disappeared and I fell forward, stumbling away from him as far as I could manage. Pounding footsteps caught the attention of my fuzzy mind as Lochlan came charging down the alley with a murderous expression on his face. Just as Lochlan was about to lay into him, Ronan swung out his arm and a magical blast flung Lochlan fifteen feet backwards where he hit the ground with a thud that made me shudder. Recovering quickly, Lochlan jumped to his feet but Ronan traced in behind him and wrapped his arms around Lochlan’s neck. Ronan gritted his teeth and positioned his hands as if to try to snap Lochlan’s neck while Lochlan slammed a vicious elbow to Ronan’s stomach. Lochlan had a good forty pounds on Ronan and was able to fling Ronan over his back in order to remove Ronan from his neck. Ronan traced back up instantly and they began circling each other like wild animals, periodically striking out and pounding each other with merciless aggression. “You should keep a better watch on your pet. As soon as she took off that necklace, she couldn’t even see through a simple glamour.” He grinned a blood-streaked smile as he and Lochlan squared off. “It was so precious, watching her realize that she had f****d me instead of you.” No! No, no, no, no … My eyes closed, but no tears fell and I had no energy to cry. Lochlan had gone motionless and in the brief instant that his eyes cut over to me, Ronan made his move. He lunged at Lochlan, taking him to the ground and pouncing on top of him, landing blow after blow to Lochlan’s face until Lochlan caught his fists and the men grappled for control. Despite the horror of the scene unfolding before me, I couldn’t seem to summon the appropriate fear and urgency. From my hands and knees, I rolled myself onto my side to lean on my elbow, laying myself on the filthy ground, which was no longer cold to the touch. I wasn’t sure if my skin had cooled to the temperature of the pavement, or if I simply couldn’t process the sensation of cold any longer. My head began to feel excruciatingly heavy and darkness threatened my vision. As my head hung lower, one thing permeated the fog in my brain—the knife. Just a foot or so to my side was my knife. Using all the energy I had left, I rolled myself over toward the knife and only once it was in my numb fingers did I sit back on my knees. Lochlan flipped Ronan over his body with a kick from his strong legs and Ronan flew into the wall where he landed in a heap. He was too disoriented to trace but quickly began to regain his bearings. I rasped Lochlan’s name and his eyes flew to mine. Without another word I slid the knife across the pavement to him and in one motion he grabbed the handle and swept the blade up into the middle of Ronan’s chest. Ronan had not yet made it to his feet and he staggered backward. His face contorted in shock and horror, eyes cast down at the hilt of the knife protruding from the center of his chest. He fell back to sit against the brick wall, his head leaned back and when his eyes rose to Lochlan’s his bloody lips rose in a smirk. “Morgan is going to kill you all.” Lochlan lifted his booted foot and slammed his heel onto the knife, sending it even deeper into Ronan’s chest. His head lolled forward as Ronan slipped into unconsciousness. Lochlan pulled out his phone as he hurried over to me. “I need you and as many of the men as you can gather in the alley next to Murphy’s, now!” He dropped the phone and sank to his knees where I lay on the ground. I hadn’t remembered lying down, but as he neared me I gazed up from the ground at his battered face. Even beaten and bloody he was gorgeous and if I was going to die, I was pleased his face would be the last thing I would see. Dying, I was dying, and Ashley was hurt. “Ashley…” It left my lips more as an exhale than a sound and I listened as my heart rhythm slowed to a broken beat. “No! No you don’t, stay with me—f**k!” I could tell he was yelling, but his words sounded far away. Lochlan swept me up into his arms and as he began to run from the alley I lost the fight and let the darkness take me.