The music bolstered me as I scrambled up to the dais, barreling into the back of Sawyn. The sorceress fell forward but caught herself before slipping to the ground. As her hands fell, the twins plummeted to the floor. I screamed at the sickening crack of Malou’s head against the stone. Mina curled into a ball, groaning. I wanted to run to their aid, but I was under the full focus of the green-eyed sorceress.
“You!” Sawyn seethed, spinning toward me.
She stumbled forward, her breathing thick. She threw out her hands toward me as if to cast her magic, but little more than sparks flickered around her hands. She repeated the gesture and fewer sparks sputtered from her fingertips. I grinned. The nitehock Malou had given her was working.
She narrowed her hateful eyes at me. “You think I need my magic to defeat you?” Unsheathing the thin sword at her hip, she smirked. “I shouldn’t have let the ostekke have you when I could’ve finished you myself.”
She swung, and I blocked, locking my arms to hold my guard. I shoved her back, twisting under her attacking arm and swiping her side with my dagger. She ducked out of my blow, her sword carrying on the momentum of her strike. The edge collided with my forearm and I barked out a cry of pain as the blade pierced my skin.
“You’ve severely underestimated me, girl.” Sawyn cackled at the shock on my face as she bested me at every attack and battle tactic I knew. All my training, I assumed Sawyn would rely solely on her magic, and now I was facing that miscalculation at the tip of her blade.
Two Rooks ran up the steps to aide their queen. With a quick back spin, I unleashed my throwing knife into the eye socket of one, and the other . . . Sawyn grabbed him and stabbed a dagger into his belly and booted him back down the steps.
“She’s mine, fool,” Sawyn snarled, booting the bleeding Rook back down the steps. “No one gets between a Wolf and her prey. Speaking of,” our blades locked and she took the moment to casually look me up and down as if she had all the time in the world even as screams and sobs echoed through the throne room around us, “Why haven’t you shifted? Not Wolf enough, you bloody skin chaser?”
I shoved her back and took a swift sidestep to avoid the swipe of her blade. My steel met her own, slamming into her cross guard as I growled, “I’ve spent too many hours sharpening this blade to end you with my teeth.”
I lunged forward, catching her side. I wasn’t sure if I caught skin or only fabric but Sawyn’s eyes flared at me as her green magic sputtered, trying and failing to protect her. A flicker of betrayal flashed in her eyes as she glanced from the slashed fabric at her waist to me. “Everything I’ve done would’ve benefited you, too, you ungrateful bitch.”
“Including killing my family?” I asked with disdain.
She didn’t have an answer for that.
Fast as a snake, she struck again, and I barely had time to block her blow. My arms buckled. A messy block. My hand flew wide and I darted backward, knowing she’d take advantage of my exposed side. I twisted again, using the momentum to yank my paring knife off my belt and drive it into her bicep. She growled, grabbing my wrist and twisting until the knife clattered free. She kicked it off the dais, scowling at the blood seeping from her arm.
“I thought you had plans for that dagger?” She lashed out with maddening speed. Again and again. I tried to find another opening in her defenses.
“I have more plans than just that,” I said, retreating a step, then another, leading her back toward the throne until I could drop into it. “I have plans to take my rightful place right here. I have plans to steal back everything you have taken from my kingdom.”
I knew it would infuriate her enough—seeing me on that throne—to take that final step, the one I’d been slowly goading and guiding her to take with all my feigned blows and seemingly faulty footwork. And when she did, Maez was there. A chain looped around Sawyn’s neck and Maez yanked it tight, making the sorceress’s eyes bulge from her skull. I didn’t hesitate, driving up with my golden blade and plunging it into Sawyn’s gut.
“This is for Olmdere. And this,” I said, twisting my dagger until blood poured from her wound. “This is for all the Wolves like me too afraid to claim their true selves because of people like you. We fear your hate no longer.” I twisted the knife again as Sawyn choked on her own blood. “And this is for all of the humans you tried to crush under your boot.”
Sawyn’s sword clattered to the ground and her bloodshot eyes welled, brimming over with heedless tears. Maez let her drop, crouching over Sawyn and grabbing the keys to her collar out of the sorceress’s pocket.