A Court of Whispers and Song

Chapter 35

She didn't have a plan as Merrill's invisible force waned. Only rise and strike. Now, with her foe's attention fixed squarely on Nesta, Gwyn had to knock Merrill over before she could attack.

Two objectives, then. Disarm and drag Merrill's ass to the ground.

As Merrill squared off with Nesta, Gwyn's soaked body crashed into the priestess. The two bodies rolled over one another, tumbling together until they slammed into a far granite wall. Scrambling for an advance, Gwyn rose on her knees, straddling her disorienting opponent. A growl unleashed from within, along with a punch that had the very stone quake beneath their feet.

Gwyn's head snapped back as Merrill countered, cheek thrumming from the impact. The blow went unchallenged as the young Valkyrie was thrown off, grounding a few feet away, to find Nesta standing above Merrill. A sword held above Merrill's black heart as Nesta's boot's heel ground into the elder priestess's wrist until she lost hold of her weapon.

"Here," Nesta said, handing Gwyn the dagger she had pitched before being assailed into the pool.

"Thanks, Nesta," she returned, wiping blood on her leathers.

"Holy fuck. Is that a Valkyrie sword?" Nesta glared at Merrill. She motioned to Gwyn, then to the discarded sword, the gilding shining in the candlelight. "Take the sword, Gwyn. You disarmed her."

"Don't you fucking dare! That was my mother's!"

Nesta snorted. "And appears to be Gwyn's now. A Carynthian Valkyrie, I might add. So." Nesta undulated her shoulders and neck. "Should we make this insipid cunt talk, or wait for the Spymaster?" She bared her teeth, imparting a proper weight of dread. The near-infamous Lady Death was the monarch of such matters.

Merrill's eyes were no longer murky, but the magnetic azure Gwyn had come acquainted to scowling at her in sheer distaste.

Gwyn bent, aiming the blade at Merrill's throat. "The other people you were speaking of from the Great War. Who were they? Where did they go?"

Snarling, the elder priestess spat blood in Gwyn's face. Nesta forced the point of the sword into the wound previously created by Gwyn's knife. The intention close enough to the heart, but not close enough to kill. Merrill's chest rose and fell rapidly in panic, her eyes darting. "We don't know and don't remember. Nobody does."

Gwyn's brows furrowed in confusion.

"Preposterous bullshit! Someone has to remember," Nesta barked out.

The young redheaded Valkyrie reeled her head, forging onward. "Who is she you've been conspiring with?"

Merrill hissed like the viper she was. "All the same endgame, you know. All the same. The High Fae that betrayed will fall. Only a matter of time."

Merrill shrieked as Nesta twisted the sharpened steel into the open injury an inch or two, with a smirk on her gorgeous face. Cauldron, one would assume she was the dreaded spymaster of the Night Court.

"I've been waiting to do this since I saw you treating Gwyn like complete shit during my library assignment, Merrill."

"You worthless bitch!" Merrill's snarls and shrieks reverberated through the open space.

"Nesta, do you need..." Roslin hailed from the entrance.

One second.

All it took was one second to turn, detecting two of their Valkyrie sisters in their leathers. Armed, bracing to do battle, but too set in worry to move. One second for Merrill to knock Nesta's sword away and kick both Gwyn and Nesta backward.