Rhys moved before the blade finished falling.
He moved so fast Bianca barely saw him. One heartbeat, Ambrose was about to strike. The next, Rhys had his hand locked around Ambrose’s wrist, the blade yanked away just before it could touch the child. Metal hit stone with a useless, echoing clatter.
The girl screamed. She tried to crawl away, twisting against her bindings, sobbing so hard she could barely breathe. But she was alive. Unharmed. Still whole.
Ambrose snarled, fighting Rhys’s grip with a strength that didn’t match his age. But Rhys was all momentum and fury. He slammed Ambrose down at the edge of the ritual circle, pinning him with a knee to the chest.
"It's over," Rhys said, voice raw with barely controlled violence. "Stand down, or I end this considerably less gently than I'
