Protect the Prince (Crown of Shards #2)(64)

Led by the blond woman, the assassins advanced on us, a solid line of deadly intent. At first, I wondered why they didn’t charge forward, but then I realized that they were trying to pin us up against the glass wall so they could more easily hack us to pieces.

I yanked Dominic back. That snapped the prince out of his surprise, and he raised his hand, dark blue lightning flashing to life on his fingertips.

I silently applauded myself for not letting Calandre talk me into wearing a gown and pulled my sword out of the scabbard on my belt.

“You take the ones on the left,” I murmured. “I’ll take the ones on the right. Don’t let them pin you up against anything. Always keep moving. You stop moving, and you’re dead.”

Dominic nodded and reached for even more of his lightning. I lifted my sword higher and focused on the assassin closest to me, all the while listening to the opening strains of the phantom music that always played in my mind whenever I was in a fight.

Then, with one thought, everyone attacked.

Three assassins converged on me, yelling and swinging their swords. I dodged the first assassin, then the second one, but the third one was a mutt with speed magic, and I barely managed to avoid his hard, fast blow. He was definitely the most dangerous of the three men, so instead of moving away, I whirled around, stepped into his body, and grabbed hold of his wrist.

And then I blasted him with my immunity.

I might not have my gladiator shield strapped to my arm, but in a way, my immunity was better than any shield, and it immediately snuffed out his speed magic. It still felt strange to actively, forcibly call up my power instead of hiding it, but something about wielding my magic as a weapon also felt extremely, satisfyingly right.

The assassin must have had some enhanced strength as well, because the tip of his sword plunged to the ground, as if the weapon was suddenly far too heavy to wield. He struggled to lift the blade, not understanding why his magic had suddenly vanished.

I let go of his wrist, whirled around, and sliced my sword across his chest. The assassin’s blood spattered all over me, but I welcomed the wet, stinging warmth on my body and the strong, coppery stench in my nose. Those two things told me that he was dying and I wasn’t.

The assassin screamed and crumpled to the floor. I stepped over his twitching body and looked for the next enemy to fight.

The first assassin yelled and charged at me again. I ducked to the side just as his weapon came whistling down. He was closer than I’d realized, and his blade sliced cleanly through the edge of my tunic sleeve, exposing the silver bracelet on my right wrist.

I grimaced. Calandre was not going to like having her fancy embroidery ruined, but I imagined—hoped—that she would like it even less if I died, so once again, I lashed out with my sword, swiping it across the assassin’s stomach. He too screamed and staggered back into one of the tables, bouncing off it and falling to his knees.

That assassin was also bleeding out, so I risked a quick glance over at Dominic.

The crown prince hurled a large ball of blue lightning at one of the assassins in front of him. The assassin tried to avoid the blast, but the lightning slammed into his shoulder, making him scream and fall to the ground. His sword dropped from his charred, blackened fingers, and his whole right arm was now a melting, bubbling husk of flesh.

The stench of singed hair and fried skin filled my nose, overpowering the blood. I’d heard that Dominic was a powerful magier, but I hadn’t realized that he was almost as strong as Sullivan.

Dominic growled and tossed a ball of lightning at another assassin advancing on him. That assassin avoided the blast and swung his sword at Dominic, but the prince sidestepped the blow, pivoted to the side, and punched the other man in the face, making his head snap back. Then Dominic wrenched that man’s sword out of his hand, flipped it around, and stabbed the blade into the assassin’s chest. That man also fell to the ground screaming.

And that was all I saw before another assassin came at me. This man had seen what I’d done to the other two, so he didn’t recklessly charge forward. Instead, his eyes narrowed, and he studied every little thing about me, just like I was doing to him.

As we circled around each other, that phantom music started playing louder and faster in my mind. The assassin moved in to attack, and I let the swelling notes sweep me away. The music played and played, and my hands and feet moved in time to the beat as I perfectly performed the moves, the steps I needed to in order to stay alive and kill my enemy.

Left, right, twirl in for a strike . . . Left, right, avoid the counterstrike . . .

And on and on it went until the assassin lifted his sword a second too late, and I slid past his defenses and buried my weapon in his stomach. The man screamed, and I twisted the blade in deeper. He screamed again, and I yanked the sword out of his stomach and shoved him away. He joined the other two assassins I’d already killed on the floor.

My head snapped left and right, searching for more enemies to fight. And I found them—all gathered around Dominic.

Four assassins were left, along with the woman who’d led them in here, and they had cornered the prince in between the fireplace and the glass wall.

With one hand, Dominic brandished his stolen sword at them. In the other, he held a ball of lightning, ready to unleash it on whoever attacked him first. The assassins were so determined to kill the prince that they didn’t notice that I was still alive.

And I suddenly realized that winning this battle wasn’t the only thing I needed to do—I also needed to protect the prince. Because if I survived this assassination attempt and he didn’t, then I doubted I would leave Glitnir alive, queen or not.