She squinted against the glint off his axe and fumbled for the rope beside her throne.
More beasts than men, with long, stringy, dark hair, full beards, and thick heavy brows that shadowed their empty black eyes, the savages stood sentinel on either side of the open portal.
She yanked the rope to summon help and prayed it would come in time.
Savages were vicious creatures but dumb and completely subservient to their leader. No doubt the real threat had yet to emerge.
She wasn’t about to stand there and wait for it. She slid to her left, sword at the ready.
The first savage kept pace, paralleling her movements.
Chayce Maynard emerged from the portal, his nearly black eyes rock hard. “Hello again, Ryleigh.”
A setup.
Chayce drew his sword. No sign of the boy who’d toyed with her during their last encounter remained in the man who stood before her.
“What do you want, Chayce?” She lifted her chin, stiffened her spine, in an effort to appear strong.
“Let’s not play games, Ryleigh. That time has passed. I don’t want anything from you except your death, so I can claim my kingdom.” He strode toward her.
The savages kept pace on either side of him.
She raised her sword and backed up. The back of her legs hit the throne. Trapped.
Chayce increased his pace.
She charged the savage on her left. If she could just skirt around him. She brought her sword around and aimed for his chest.
He stepped back, and she missed. He swung his flail and opened a gash across her right bicep.
Not too high a price for the better position. She spun and faced them. Her every instinct begged her to flee, but the door was too far away. She’d never make it.
The savages turned toward her and stopped. They looked at Chayce.
Chayce ascended the platform, sheathed his sword, and settled on Jackson’s throne. Elbows propped on the armrests, fingers steepled in front of him, he leered at her. “Kill her and dispose of her body.”
They rushed her.
She used the first savage’s momentum to plunge her sword through his gut. While he fell, she pulled the sword free and rounded on the second.
His fist landed hard in her stomach.
She doubled over as he raised the axe above his head.
He swung it down.
Ryleigh spun just in time. Wind from his swing a brutal reminder of the sheer strength these creatures possessed.
The axe hit the stone floor, cracked the block, and rebounded. The savage lifted it and swung again.
Ryleigh struggled to regain her footing as the savage she’d already stabbed lunged toward her. The clash of his flail against her sword as she blocked sent a shock wave through her arms, and she tightened her two-handed grip on the weapon.
The door screeched open. “What’s going—”
Elijah’s voice from the doorway brought a wave of relief.
“Mia, go. Now.” He raced to Ryleigh’s side. “A bit sooner than expected, I must say.” He stepped between Ryleigh and the savages, decapitated the first, rounded and engaged the other.
Ryleigh charged Chayce. She’d kill that arrogant bastard where he sat, on the very throne he’d betrayed his father and his brother to attain.
Chayce waved a hand, and a portal opened behind him. A smile crept across his face, and pure evil danced in his eyes.
More savages poured into the throne room. Too many for her and Elijah to take on alone. Most remained in place at Chayce’s sides. A few surged forward.
“Retreat,” Elijah ordered. “Go, Ryleigh.”
She backed toward the door, careful not to turn her back on the advancing savages.
Two more of them reached Elijah. He swung his sword in a blur, battling all three at once.
Careful to avoid Elijah’s weapon, she plunged her sword through the soft spot at the back of a savage’s head as Jackson had taught her.
He crumpled.
“Go,” Elijah screamed.
Footsteps pounded toward them.
“Now, Ryleigh.”
She braced herself. “I won’t leave you.”
The heavy door slammed closed. A savage shoved a long pole through the iron handles, effectively barring the way into the room.
Three more savages fell at Elijah’s feet.
Ryleigh backed toward the side wall.
A savage intercepted her. He swung his axe.
She hefted her sword and blocked the blow.
Another came at her with a flail.
She barely managed to block, but the flail dug into the back of her hand and loosened her grip.
The next blow ripped through her hand again.
Her sword clattered to the floor.
He heaved the axe back around toward her head.
She dove and rolled out of the way.
A stone in the wall behind her shattered under the blow. Sharp stone fragments pummeled her.
She had to get out of there, needed a weapon. She yanked a small knife from her boot, useless against the savages' thick skin, and fled toward the throne platform.
If she could remove Chayce, the attack would fall apart, and the savages would retreat.
She hoped.
Something heavy pounded the doors from the outside, the sound reverberating through weapons clashing and savages grunting as they fell at Elijah’s hand.
She leaped onto the platform.
Under the next blow, the doors splintered.
Chayce surged to his feet.
Ryleigh ducked behind her throne. She grabbed the flail from the wall behind Jackson’s throne, the same flail Chayce had used to torture him when he’d held him captive in Argonas.
Fitting.
She lunged and slammed the flail at Chayce’s head. She realized he was gone too late to check the swing. The spikes embedded in the seat's velvet padding.
Chayce strode through the chanting savages.
They parted, backing away from Elijah, who lay motionless on his back in the center of them.
Chayce unsheathed his sword. When he reached the prophet, he raised his sword.
“Nooo!” Ryleigh launched herself from the platform.
Chayce’s sword arced downward.
Elijah grabbed Ryleigh’s fallen sword and blocked the blow. He rolled and jumped to his feet.
Ryleigh ran toward Chayce’s back, swung the flail into the face of an oncoming savage without slowing. Another took his place, blocked Ryleigh’s advance, then forced her back.
With no choice but retreat, she jumped onto the platform and stood on Jackson’s throne. There had to be a way around them to reach Elijah.
One door shattered beneath the weight of their battering ram.
Savages grabbed Elijah’s arms from either side.
Chayce’s second blow found its mark straight through Elijah’s chest.
Blood