Mask of Poison (Fall of Under Book 1) by Kathryn Kingsley (great novels to read txt) 📕

help you’d pay me would come in the form of a shallow grave, like the one you gave me before.” Rxa lifted his scythe and sliced the air in front of him in a wide arc. Ember could hear it. “I plan to return the favor.”

“Killing me dooms the world.” Aon held his ground. “You know that.”

“That is entirely the point, I’m afraid! Now, enough of this. Let’s dance.”

“Very well.” Aon clenched his fist. And in that moment, the darkness around her seemed to deepen. As if everything around her grew…darker, somehow.

When Rxa swung his scythe for the King of Shadows, Ember ducked beneath the window, hiding her head underneath her arm.

Glass shattered. She heard rocks tumbling and wood splintering. The sound of a battle raged for what seemed like an eternity, yet an instant at the same time. Fire roared, and she held back a cry. The same cry that finally escaped her as a body flew through the large double doors, sailing down the hallway, and tumbling to a stop.

Rxa.

He climbed unsteadily to his feet, laughing quietly the whole time. Several of his bandages were now blooming in fresh blood—a dark, blackish-yellow substance. He held his scythe tightly in his hand. The long blade was spattered in blood. Judging by the bright red color, it wasn’t his.

Aon walked in after him, limping. She could see wetness against the black clothing he wore. Pulling herself back up to her feet, she wedged herself into the corner of the room but kept her escape routes open. If she needed to run, she wanted options. Even if she knew she really didn’t have anywhere she could go.

Lyon, where are you?

“Do you want to continue this stupidity, Rxa?” There was pain in Aon’s voice.

If Aon lost…she didn’t know what to do. Shit, shit, shit! She hadn’t thought about a backup plan.

“Aren’t you having fun?” Rxa giggled. “I’m having a blast!”

“Can we settle this like adults, instead of like children on the schoolyard, trading fists?” Aon sighed tiredly. “This is pointless.”

“I think it has plenty of point.” Rxa gestured the blade of his scythe at the other king. “And you always did like to whine when you were bested in a fight. Usually when Edu was the one who put you on the ground. Oh! I almost forgot to ask.” He lowered his blade a few inches. “How is the big idiot? I miss him. Shame I’ll have to kill him, too.”

“Is that your goal, then?” Aon laughed derisively. “To destroy us all, one by one, starting with me?”

“Winner, winner, chicken dinner.” Rxa tilted his head to the side, blond tendrils limply falling in front of the empty dark eyes of his mask. “Although I would have liked to end it with you. Make you watch as I destroy everything. But…honestly, you’re not the one I’m trying to hurt the most.”

“Oh? Who, then?”

“None other than your doting, devoted parents, of course.”

After a moment of silence, Aon shook his head. “You cannot destroy the Ancients. That isn’t possible.”

“Isn’t going to stop me from trying. And I really, really have nothing better to do than to try. Maybe they’ll finally have to speak to me once I burn this whole world to the ground along with every damnable soul in it!” Rxa’s fury broke off quickly as he grabbed his side with one hand. “Ow. Shouting hurts. Note to self—shout quieter.”

Aon took the opportunity and dashed toward Rxa, moving so quickly he was barely more than a blur.

Rxa’s scythe cut through the air in front of him with a loud woosh.

For a second, she couldn’t tell what had happened.

Aon and Rxa stood facing each other.

For another beat, no one moved.

Ember had seen a lot of gore in her life. A lot of death, and a lot of disgusting ways to die. She had seen a horse eaten by a pack of drengil. She had seen people dismembered and mutilated, tortured and flayed.

But she had never witnessed anything like what she now saw before her.

First, Rxa looked down at his chest. Aon’s metal gauntleted hand was buried there up to the wrist. With a sickening slorch, the King of Shadows yanked his hand back out. And it didn’t come alone.

He had ripped out Rxa’s heart.

The bandaged king collapsed into a heap at Aon’s feet.

But it wasn’t the sight of Aon holding a still-twitching heart in his fist that made bile rise in her throat.

It was the fact that Aon had not struck the only blow.

Slowly at first. Then a little bit faster…Aon’s upper body slid off from the rest. Sliced through the midsection at an angle, the two parts thumped to the ground beside the king in rags.

Ember covered her mouth with her hand and debated getting sick. She hadn’t ever thrown up from seeing horror. Not through all her training or years as a hunter in the wild. This is what they can do to each other. Again and again, over and over. What kind of nightmarish world is this?

She didn’t have a long time to debate the thought. A noise filled the air—one she recognized. The sound of bodies moving.

The sound of drengil.

With a sinking feeling of dread, she looked out the window. There they were, shambling toward the door with bared teeth and reaching hands. With Rxa dead—at least temporarily—it seemed the force that was holding them frozen in place and following orders was gone.

The sound of crashing glass over her head had her ducking instinctually. In a flash of turquoise light, Lydia was standing by Aon. She looked up at Ember and smiled sadly. “You’ll be okay. I know you will.”

Ember blinked. “What?”

Without answering, Lydia’s form changed. Ember watched, agog, as the other woman became the smoke-like snake with the glowing turquoise wings. She scooped up Aon—both halves—in the coils of her tail.

Two flaps of her powerful wings, and she was gone, smashing through what was left of the large window over the door that she must have destroyed coming in.