City of Shadows Read Online Free Page B

likely closer to the latter. I certainly didn’t relish the idea of going toe to toe with him, but I would to keep Andrews safe. I owed him that much.
    â€œLet him go.” I nodded toward Andrews. “He’s not fae, he has nothing to do with … anything.”
    The warrior with his hand fisted in Andrews’s hair growled, “He threatened General Kael.”
    â€œThreatened?” Andrews snarled through gritted teeth, “I’ll kill the bastard.”
    I tried to convey an “Andrews, what the hell?” expression, but he wasn’t looking at me. He only had eyes for Kael, and if looks could kill, the general would be dead already. What was Andrews thinking? He couldn’t go up against the general.
    â€œHe’s bespelled. He doesn’t know what he’s saying.” I wasn’t entirely sure that was the case. Bespelled people did act irrationally, but only when it got them what they wanted—closer to their fae masters. Attacking the general didn’t make any sense. It was nothing short of suicidal.
    Unless, that was the point. A way out? My heart sank. Was that what he’d come here to do?
    Finally Andrews blinked back into the room, and by the widening of his eyes he seemed to realize he was in trouble. He yanked on his wrists, but the fae holding him hauled him back. “He’s the one that took her, Alina,” Andrews spluttered and snarled. “He took Becky!”
    Who the hell was Becky? I searched my memories, some mine, some I’d stolen from him.
Becky. His missing sister. Kael took her?
I swung my glare back toward the general.
    â€œGet him out of here,” Kael snarled, stalking toward me.
    I straightened to my less-than-impressive human height, daggers clutched in my hands, and held my ground. Kael stopped close enough to ripple shivers along my skin. He smelled of warm leather and wet metal; like blood. Memories sparked alive, derailing my bravado. The last time I’d seen him, I’d been bleeding out in his arms. He hadn’t fared much better. I’d only survived because the queen had healed me. Clearly though, he’d healed quickly enough.
    He smiled. On his proud face, his smile was a wicked thing. His eyes—shades of dark slate, black coal, and liquid mercury—narrowed by the smallest of margins. “Something is amiss in this world if an insignificant thing such as you can kill our most glorious queen.”
    I lifted my chin, sure he could hear my heart hammering inside my chest. “I had help.”
    â€œAh yes; the hound.” His eyes raked over the crowd. “Where is he?”
    â€œ Screw you.”
    Kael’s touch burned when he grabbed me by the jaw, plucked me off my feet, and threw me down on the bar top as though I were a child’s doll, one he’d like to rip the limbs off of. He pinned me by the throat and leaned his weight in, tightening his fingers with every passing second.
    â€œWhere’s the killer in you now, Construct?”
    Lungs heaving, I gasped for what little air I could. I kicked and bucked, swiped at him with my daggers, but he avoided my slashes. Then he plucked the blades from my hands so fast my fingers burned. I watched, wide-eyed, as he passed my daggers to the sandy-haired warrior on his right.
My daggers!
The killer in me came then, surging through my mind and body, dragging invaluable fae knowledge with it. I bit down hard and pulled back on my rapidly unraveling control. No, I didn’t want to be
that thing
. Not even for this. I couldn’t lose control. But I had nowhere to go and no weapons to fight with.
    â€œAlina!”
    â€œAndrews, get away!”
    â€œFae bastards. You deserve to be hunted, you sick psychos! You took my sister! Where is she?!” I heard the horrible grisly sound of knuckles on flesh and his corresponding grunt of pain, and then nothing from Andrews.
    Hooking my fingers behind the general’s, I fought to