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Back The Storm Crow Save as PDF
Chapters (42)
  1. Front Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright
  4. Contents
  5. Prologue
  6. One
  7. Two
  8. Three
  9. Four
  10. Five
  11. Six
  12. Seven
  13. Eight
  14. Nine
  15. Ten
  16. Eleven
  17. Twelve
  18. Thirteen
  19. Fourteen
  20. Fifteen
  21. Sixteen
  22. Seventeen
  23. Eighteen
  24. Nineteen
  25. Twenty
  26. Twenty-One
  27. Twenty-Two
  28. Twenty-Three
  29. Twenty-Four
  30. Twenty-Five
  31. Twenty-Six
  32. Twenty-Seven
  33. Twenty-Eight
  34. Twenty-Nine
  35. Thirty
  36. Thirty-One
  37. Thirty-Two
  38. The World of the Storm Crow
  39. Acknowledgments
  40. About the Author
  42. Back Cover

As she blocked one of Ericen’s attacks, she ducked under his follow-up strike and sprang up, driving her elbow into Ericen’s chin. He stumbled back, barely bringing a sword around to knock aside the thrust of her blade. The ferocity of her attack struck the sword from his hand, leaving him with one.

Off balance, it was all Ericen could do to keep up with her torrent of strikes. She struck high and low, forcing him to cover a wide range and expose new targets. Right as she sliced at his neck, she swept low with her foot, catching him in the knees. He struck the ground hard, and she leapt over him, driving her weapon down.

Ericen just managed to get his sword around to deflect the blade. It shot down and away, the metal screaming. The blade sliced across his cheek. He didn’t make a sound. Razel straightened, hovering over him like a wolf over a fresh kill, blood dripping from the curve of one blade. They held each other’s gazes, unmoving. Then she smiled, stepping off him.

Ericen rolled to the side as the crowd clapped. His eyes met mine for half a second, the cut stretching from his jaw to cheekbone leaking blood. The realization of what I’d nearly gotten myself into slammed into me, and I sucked in a ragged breath.

The prince shot to his feet and grabbed his other sword. He sheathed them both and slipped out of the ring. I started to go after him, but Kiva seized my arm before I could move an inch. Then she casually slipped in front of me. “Razel’s watching.”

“So what?” I hissed.

“Do you want her to challenge you again?”

The tension washed out of me. “No.” Not after what I’d just seen. If she could take down Ericen like that, I wouldn’t last a second, as rusty as I was.

Razel exited the ring, sliding her moonblades into their sheaths on her back with smooth precision. She hadn’t even cleaned the blood. She caught my gaze, the challenge pulsating in the air between us. Then she smiled and turned back for the castle.

A chill trickled down my spine—this wasn’t over. Razel had come to make a power play, and Ericen had intervened. She would find another way.

Thirteen

A couple of hours later, Ericen and I sat in a carriage heading down Sordell’s main street. The rain had let up, and though the sky hadn’t cleared, patches of stars shone overhead. Beneath them, Illucian citizens mixed almost indecipherably with soldiers in the streets.