Free The Silver Siren by Chanda Hahn

Knowing I wasn’t going to win,
and quickly losing the upper hand, I pulled the extra dart from my
pocket and stabbed his neck.
    A few long seconds later, the second
guard went slack.
    Out of breath, I ran to Kael who now
sat up in the corner, tense and alert. My heart went out to him. I
reached for his blindfold when a shadow passed over the opened
window. I turned and ducked as a shooting star whipped past my
head. Another SwordBrother in head to toe black, had crawled in the
window that I came in. Where had this one been, on the roof? Had he
come up from another floor? I had the element of surprise on the
first SwordBrother and luck was on my side for the second, but I
don’t know if I could take a SwordBrother in a one on one
confrontation.
    I stood in front of Kael protectively,
a knife in each of my hands. I bent my knees, balancing my weight
evenly, and made myself relax. The other SwordBrother cocked his
head when he recognized my technique and he mirrored my stance.
Even behind the face mask, I could have sworn he smiled at
me.
    I attacked.
    He blocked, hitting my arms with his
and deflecting each of my blows.
    I aimed a stab.
    He blocked again and reversed the
move, so I had to leap back as he forced my own knife toward my
torso. It was then that I noticed his lack of weapons, which only
irritated me. Could I kill a defenseless SwordBrother? I realized
how stupid that statement sounded, since there was no such thing as
a defenseless SwordBrother.
    I needed to end the fighting and end
it now, before others came and I would be doomed. Taking my knife,
I tested its weight and threw it toward his chest. The SwordBrother
rolled and came up closer to me, but I didn’t care about the knife
or about hitting him. I could see Kael struggling against his
bonds.
    The knife was merely a distraction. I
concentrated on my gift, on his life. In seconds, I could see my
foe’s heart, his inner light beating. I closed my eyes and reached
for the light, beginning to extinguish it.
    The SwordBrother stopped in his tracks
and fell to his knees clasping his chest. He moaned slightly, but
that was the only sound he made as I continued to pull, drain him,
destroy him. His arm reached out toward me, as if asking for help,
but I refused. The familiar anger that was my constant companion
surfaced and whispered to me to be quick. Hurt him. He had tried to
kill me; he was going to die.
    My mind was so focused on my target
that I didn’t hear the sound of chains loosening behind me, or the
quiet footsteps as Kael escaped his bonds and put his hand on my
shoulder.
    “ It’s okay, Thalia.
Release him.”
    “ No! We need to escape. I
don’t want to be killed. I only came here at your request. Not so
that we would be murdered.” The man moaned and leaned on his hands
trying to crawl toward me.
    “ Thalia, look at
me.”
    My neck whipped to look at the person
touching my arm. Deep green eyes stared at me. It wasn’t Kael, but
his brother Alek. I saw the empty chains and the blindfold and gag
lying on the ground.
    “ It was a
test?”
    “ Yes, one that Kael
thought up himself—to prove your strengths to us and to prove your
bond.”
    “ But where’s Kael?” My
mind didn’t comprehend what was happening, and I still had my hold
on the SwordBrother whose arms were shaking in pain as he tried to
hold himself off of the ground.
    “ Thalia, release him
now!”
    Alek’s warm hands pulled mine down,
and I released my hold on the man in front of me, but it was too
late. He fell to the ground. In that one second of hesitation I had
felt his heart—once bright and pulsing with energy—stop.
    Alek’s words rolled over and over in
my mind until comprehension dawned. I stared at my hands in horror
and then back to the body that was on the floor.
    Alek ran forward and yanked off the
mask.
    And I saw Kael’s pale lifeless face.
Not breathing, eyes closed.
    “ No!” I screamed and
dropped to the floor in despair.
    I watched as Alek listened