Curse of Shadows and Thorns: A Dark Fantasy Romance (The Broken Kingdoms Book 1)

I swung the bolt, aiming for whoever had grabbed onto my arm. My frenzied attack was blocked. I reeled back again. I jabbed, sliced, tried to break free.

“Kvinna! Stop. Elise!”

I blinked through my stun, the bolt raised above my head. Halvar gripped my wrist, keeping the point from slicing his throat. He breathed heavily and held up a hand as if to guard against another swing.

“Halvar . . . what are you—”

“I came to make sure you were safe,” he said. “I saw you running. This way, Kvinna. They’ve locked the cellars, but there is a hatch in the stables that—”

“I’m not running to safety, Halvar,” I said, holding up the bolt again. “I’m fighting.”

The stable hand lifted a brow. A muscle pulsed in his jaw. “I was asked to keep you safe.”

“By Legion? Where is he?” I turned over one shoulder as if he might appear. “I heard he’d taken ill, and you’d left with him.”

“Yes,” Halvar said, drawing an axe from his belt when the trees echoed with shouts. “He is recovering in town.”

“He is at risk then.” My throat tightened. “They are coming from town!”

Halvar studied me for a breath, but slowly, a grin curled over his mouth. “I assure you, Legion Grey knows how to survive, Kvinna. Are you truly planning to use that?”

I followed his gaze to the bow in my hand. “I did not bring it as an accessory, Halvar.”

The stable hand chuckled and rolled his axe in hand. “With all respect, Kvinna, you are strange.”

I smirked at him, then rushed into the chantry. The place was never used anymore. My family made it a point to worship in town, in the spotlight. Where they’d be adored and worshipped in their own way.

Hints of old, dusty parchment perfumed the air, and the cushions of the benches were tattered and worn.

We ran for the staircase behind the gods’ altar that wound up to the bell tower.

Halvar surprised me. He moved lithely, as if he were born for battle. Not feeding mares and repairing battered carriages. I made a note to wonder about his past later, for now I was grateful he knew how to handle the axe in his hand. What had Legion said during the sparring match? Halvar didn’t lose.

At the top of the stairs Siv met us. She glared at Halvar. He glared at her.

Like a fist to my chest, I recalled that I had yet to confront Legion on his behavior toward my friend. It hardly seemed important now. I hated that I worried for him. Hated how I wished he were here with us, so I’d know he was alive and unharmed. Then, once it was over, I’d shout at him.

Next to the chipped iron bell the patrols were easier to see. All the attention had moved toward the north side of the manor where the forest grew thickest, and the peaks cut through the treetops. Lanterns had been doused at the house. The lawns were free of fleeing serfs now. All I could hope for was they found a place for refuge.

I opened my mouth to ask Halvar what he knew, but startled back when below us the gates groaned and cracked. Guards roared commands. I fumbled with my bow, loading a bolt, then lifting the weapon.

“Great gods,” Mavie said under her breath.

The gates shuddered, split, and soon the guards were overpowered. A swarm of darkly dressed people rushed into the lawns. They swung at the patrols with jagged swords, with crudely carved rods and clubs. Agitators, perhaps, but they behaved more like rabid dogs.

Mavie screamed as a man leapt onto one of the guards and bit the guard’s neck. My insides coiled hard and angry when the Agitator finished the guard with a blade, but his chin dribbled in blood from the ravenous bite.

Siv’s eyes widened in horror. “What is wrong with them?”

I lifted the bow, my hand against my cheek. My pulse raced, but on the outside I steadied. This was my duty to protect this land. These people. “I don’t know what is wrong, but they do not belong here.”

I let the bolt fly.

The point sank deep into the Agitator’s arm. I would not sit idly back while others fought, but it didn’t mean I was the best shot. I handled a blade well enough, but Mattis had only started teaching me how to maneuver with a bow. Siv made up for my poor aim. Her arrow dug deep into the man’s skull.

The trouble with firing on the siege, it drew attention to our position. Mavie dragged in a deep breath, holding it too long, as a few Agitators rushed the chantry. Their movements were strangely disjointed and stiff. Still, they moved swift enough.

“Dammit,” Halvar said through his teeth. “Keep them back if you can. I’ll take the door.”

My hands trembled as I took aim once more. I had four bolts left. I had to make them count. An Agitator dressed in a dark bearskin glared at the top of the bell tower. Light from the warning flames cast his face in a bloody glow. He sneered. His lips and teeth were stained in a filmy black. But his eyes were dark as pitch. Not even the flames reflected in them.

Siv stared at him, aghast.

I licked my lips and aimed my bow, desperate to ignore the crashes of bookshelves and glass inside the chantry. Desperate to ignore the worry over Halvar.

“I-I-I need to help him,” Mavie stammered.

“No Mavs,” I shouted back. “Don’t go. Defend yourself only.”

“I can spar too!” Mavie rolled her shoulders back and lunged back down the winding steps away from the bells and into the chapel.

“Bleeding hells.” I forced myself to turn away from the empty space that swallowed Mavie and aimed at the climbing Agitators.

Arrows whipped through the air from Siv’s bow. More Agitators fell. One of my bolts hit a woman in the thigh. She fell in a sick thud. Did I kill her? My stomach turned. I didn’t have time to dwell on it before a man curled over the ledge.

Siv screamed my name. I stumbled to the ground. Raised my final bolt. The Agitator’s chin was soaked in black spittle. His eyes wild. Perhaps his mind was lost, but he still raised his carved spear well enough. The point of the wooden rod lowered. I rolled onto my shoulder, narrowly avoiding the strike. He slammed it down again.

I slashed the point of the bolt over his thigh. When he staggered back, I kicked at his knee. The Agitator fell, but managed to curl his hand around my ankle. I tried to kick him off, but his hold was unrelenting.

He said something—more gurgled it—before he rammed the point of the wooden rod into the side of my foot. I screamed through the pain. Black dotted my sight. I held my breath, gritted my teeth, and tried to focus enough to fight back. I cut the bolt across my body. The Agitator stumbled.

My head spun. Hot, blinding light filled my head when he yanked the rod out of my foot. Bile burned the back of my throat. I wouldn’t die this way. Not with so many unknowns I had yet to unravel. Against the ache in my foot, I scooted back. Pain spread like fire in my veins.

The Agitator raised his killing blow. I closed my eyes against what would happen.

All at once the Agitator coughed. His breaths grew raspy, strangled. My eyes flashed open in time to see him fall to his knees. The man convulsed. More blackness spilled over his lips. His eyes rolled back into his head. Dark veins cut across his skin.

I dragged myself away from him. Heavy footsteps echoed up the staircase until Halvar and Mavie materialized. Both breathless. Halvar was covered in dark blood. Mavie trembled, but gripped her knife well. We watched in horror as the Agitator struggled to breathe. In another rattling breath he went still. A puddle of black pooled beneath him. As if his sweat and blood turned to ink.

“What the hells?” Siv’s voice drew me to look over the edge of the bell tower window. The Agitators below us, the ones fighting my father’s guards, fell to the ground.

I didn’t understand. My eyes scanned the surrounding trees, searching for answers.

I found one.

My body froze. For a moment, hardly longer than two heartbeats, in the trees a blood-red mask stared out from the darkness. At this distance I couldn’t see his eyes beneath the dark cowl, but the shine of the flames caught the fabric over his mouth and nose; it caught the gleam of the black axes.

“By the gods and hells,” Siv said in a gasp. “Is that . . .”

The Blood Wraith was gone on second glance.

He’d returned. To my land. For me.

Now that the guards were free of the Agitators, they reinforced the wall. They must’ve given the Blood Wraith pause to scurry back to the hell he escaped from.

“Kvinna,” Halvar said, voice rough.

His hand touched my shoulder and I startled. My body wouldn’t stop trembling. “Did you see him?”

Halvar’s eyes turned to the spot where the Blood Wraith had disappeared. He didn’t need to answer. His glance was response enough, but he did all the same. “A lookalike. To frighten folk.”

I knew better. Doubtless no one survived the Blood Wraith. All these turns later, he’d come to finish the job. But no one knew that. What was worse—if the Blood Wraith wanted me dead, then everyone around me would be at risk.

“Elise,” Halvar said my name softly. “You’re wounded.”

My eyes flicked to my foot. My boot was soaked in blood, but I didn’t feel the pain anymore. “I’ll survive.”

“Even still,” Halvar said with a cautious smile as he helped me to my feet, “we should treat it. There are a few . . . suspicious ointments we store away in the stables.”

I grinned to keep tears at bay. “Suspicious as in forbidden.”

“As in illegal. I’m trusting you to keep your mouth shut.”

“Don’t speak to the Kvinna like that,” Mavie said.

“Mavs, we all nearly died. Let’s drop titles for a moment,” I said and hooked my arm around Halvar’s shoulders. He helped me stagger down the steps. “Halvar,” I whispered when we were alone. “I saw the Blood Wraith. I think . . . I think he came for me.”

I don’t know why I said it. Perhaps I needed to confide in someone. Halvar was quiet, but he’d come to stand with us. He was as trustworthy as anyone right now.

His jaw tightened. “The Blood Wraith comes for no one in particular.”

“So, you do think it was him?”

“No,” he said quickly. “No. I don’t. But out of curiosity, why do you think he’d come for you?”

I pinched my lips tight, wincing as I limped off the final step. I shook my head. “Doesn’t matter.”

Halvar hesitated. His grip around my waist tightened. “I swear to you, Kvinna Elise, we would not let him bring you harm. No one will.”

“We?”

“You understand what I mean.”

I smiled. Legion.

Mad as I was at the man, even ill, he’d sent Halvar to defend me. I could chalk it up to him protecting his investments, but if I had to take a guess, I think Legion was more a decent sort and genuinely cared.

The moment of affection passed as the weight of what happened here tonight crushed my shoulders. Had the Wraith done something to the Agitators? Why did they behave so . . . strangely? What was the blackness bleeding from their bodies? Like a blight in their blood.

“How did they die, Halvar? The Agitators. They all died at once.”

Halvar met my gaze but didn’t speak. I swallowed past the knot in my throat and shuddered. Fury.

Did the Blood Wraith have fury? Was he the one who’d slaughtered the Agitators? Hells, were those who’d attacked even Agitators at all?

One thing was clear, if fury was rising—tonight would not be the last time blood spilled.