Mistrals Kiss   ::   Гамильтон Лорел

As I let the thought come all the way up to the front of my mind, I didn’t know whether to laugh, or weep. I didn’t want to kill one hag, and had hated killing the first, yet I was already planning the death of the third.

Frost and Doyle lifted me over the hidden ridge of bones. They half floated me to Sholto, where he cried over the hag. They tried to let me go, but I sank to my chin when they released me. They grabbed me in the same moment, both fishing me higher above the black water.

“She must stand on her own two feet for this kill,” Agnes said, her voice holding some of the deadly heat of her look.

“I don’t know if I’m tall enough,” I said.

“I have to agree with the hag,” Fyfe said. “The princess must stand on her own for the kill to be hers.”

Frost and Doyle exchanged glances, still holding me between them. “Let me down slowly,” I said. “I think I can touch bottom.”

They did what I asked. If I kept my chin pointed up, I could just barely keep the dirty water out of my mouth.

“We have no weapons with us that will kill the immortal,” Doyle said.

“Nor we,” Ivar said.

Sholto looked at me, his face raw with grief, and I fought to meet that look. He moved, and a tiny wave slapped my face. I began treading water, so I could keep my head above the surface. As I did so, my leg brushed something — I thought it was a bone, but it moved. It was Segna’s arm, limp in the water. My leg brushed it again, and the arm convulsed.

“The bones are a killing thing,” I said.

Then Segna said in a rattling voice, thick with things that should never be in the throat of the living, “Kiss me one…last…time.”

Sholto leaned over her with a sob.

Ivar moved everyone back to give us room. He made certain that Agnes moved back, too, which meant that Segna’s body began to sink below the water. I moved forward, tried to help catch her, as I treaded water. I got a hand on her body, felt the weight of her cloak wrap around my legs. I felt her tense a heartbeat before her arm, which was behind me now, swept forward. I had time to turn and put both hands on her arm, to keep the claws from my side.

“Merry!” Doyle yelled.

I had time to see her other arm sweeping up behind me. I let go of the arm I was already fending off, and tried to sweep the second arm away from me. Segna’s body rolled under the water, and took me with her.



CHAPTER 14

I HAD TIME TO TAKE A BREATH, THEN WE WERE UNDERWATER. Segna’s face loomed under the dirty water. Her mouth opened, screaming at me, blood blossoming from her mouth.