Last Stand (The Black Mage #4)(67)

My breath hitched as Paige’s voice rang out from the dark. “My loyalty is to Jerar.”

The knight swung, twisting in and out of Blayne’s defense as the king dove.

Paige countered just in time.

Two blades collided, again and again. Everything was on fire, but I didn’t have time to rest. My legs quivered as I pushed up off the floor.

Paige advanced, backing the king into a corner of the room and knocking the blade right out of his fist. She was a better fighter, and he was weary from our duel.

Her sword pointed at his neck.

“Surrender,” the knight ordered, “and I’ll spare your life. I say this only once.”

I saw the flare in his eyes the moment they turned to ice.

“Paige,” I gasped as my knees wobbled in an effort to rise, “he has—”

But it was too late.

The blade he’d dropped shot up off the ground and caught her by surprise. The girl screamed as the sword spun and cut a crescent she didn’t have time to defend against.

I couldn’t run. I could barely even stand as Paige dropped to her knees, blood streaming from her chest.

Something inside of me snapped. Something angry and hot.

Magic bubbled and surged. It sang inside of my veins like a scream.

And then the king screamed as my magic lashed out and threw him against the wall. He cried out as I sent the second half of my rapier at his chest. I held my hand out in front of my face, casting the blade to twist.

The king slid from the wall to the floor, the second half of my rapier sticking out of his ribs.

Blayne clutched the shard in an effort not to move. His face was ashen and his lips kept closing and opening in a soundless cry.

I waited a moment, bracing for an attack with magic sparking along my fist… but if Blayne had the ability to pain cast, he hadn’t mastered it. If he had any normal magic remaining, he didn’t know how to control it. Not with the pain.

He wouldn’t be stopping us now.

Darren.

Something tugged at my gut, and I swallowed, looking away. I couldn’t think of the prince now.

And then I staggered forward, chest heaving as I reached Paige’s side.

My throat was on fire, my pulse so loud I couldn’t hear anything but the thudding of my heart.

Paige’s face turned white and her teeth chattered as I knelt. “K-keep g-going, m-my lady.”

“No!” I shook my head as tears blurred my eyes. This couldn’t be happening. Not again. First Derrick, then Wolf, now Paige.

Paige wasn’t even a rebel. Her only crime was believing me over the Crown.

She wasn’t supposed to be a sacrifice.

“G-go…” Paige’s face was strained and her lips were shiny and red as she coughed, choking on blood. Her skin grew paler by the second. “P-please, R-Ryiah…”

She never called me by my name.

“Y-you’ll be f-fine.” My voice was breaking. I was breaking.

The knight shook her head and her face contorted with the effort. Her back was growing sticky and hot, and her pulse beat frantically under my hands…

Something smoldered in my chest. “I’m n-not l-leaving you.”

Paige didn’t reply; she couldn’t. Her eyes were glassy as she raised a trembling hand to my cheek and a sad smile fluttered across her lips.

My fingers curled to fists and I clutched the girl to my chest, swallowing hard. Everything ached. The guards would arrive at any moment. Every second could cost my escape, but I couldn’t leave her behind—even if that meant waiting out the last minutes of her life.

I would wait as long as it took.

The first tremors that rocked her body came too soon. Her whole body trembled against my arms, and the longer I held her, the more violent they got.

And then they grew less. Her head dipped as her fingers brushed my arm. At first I couldn’t figure out what she was doing.

She kept repeating the same pattern over and over, tracing lighter each time.

She was trying to etch letters into my skin, to speak what she couldn’t say aloud.

O-U-I-B-E-L-I-E-V-E-I-N-Y

A sob caught in my throat.

I believe in you.

Paige’s tracing stopped and her finger rested on my skin. Her breaths turned shorter, and labored.

Behind us I could hear Blayne gasping for air. I clenched my jaw and blocked it out. He didn’t deserve my pity. He deserved to die.

It would come quicker now that the king had nothing to plug his wound.

My hand covered Paige’s, and I held onto my friend as the final breath left her lungs.

Her body went limp in my arms. It was that same moment footsteps sounded outside.

King’s Regiment. I withdrew the half-rapier from Paige’s back and blinked away tears as I gently laid her down. With two shaking fingers, I shut the lids of her eyes and then stood, crouching against the shadows and readying to run.

Her sacrifice wouldn’t be in vain.

The steps drew closer as someone approached the kennel door.

“Paige?” Someone knocked. “I saw the horse. I know you’re there.”

I wanted to collapse in relief. Darren. It was Darren.

And then I remembered who else was in the kennels with me. I had already lived out this scenario once. I knew whom Darren would believe.

Blayne moaned from the other side of the room, but he was far past the point of shouting his brother’s name.