Free The Guild of Assassins by Anna Kashina Page B

eyes, the deep tenderness in his gaze making her breath catch in her throat.
    This wasn’t supposed to happen. It went against their entire training and who they were.
    And yet – it felt so right .
    She lifted up higher against his chest so that she could look him full in the face.
    “What just happened?” she whispered.
    “Something worth dying for,” he said quietly.
    She looked at him for a moment longer, then relaxed against his body. She felt so weak that it seemed that she needed his strength next to her just so that she could keep on breathing. He put his arms around her, holding her and gently stroking her hair.
    She didn’t know what would happen now or what they were going to do. But she knew that she was never going to let him get killed. Whatever the future held, they were bonded now. If he died, she’d have to die too.

8
A LESSON
    “Just think, Your Highness,” Egey Bashi said. “What makes you capable of resisting the Kaddim power?”
    Kyth thought about it.
    “Focus,” he said. “Their power seems to make everything scatter. I am not doing it on purpose, but somehow I feel that by staying focused I can make it flow around me without affecting me.” He thought some more. “It feels like a blade,” he said. “A very sharp blade over the top of my head that slices their power like a net, making it fall to the sides without enfolding me.”
    The Keeper nodded thoughtfully. Everyone else sat around watching in fascination, except Alder, who crouched at the side of the glade over his spiders. They ate fresh meat and could catch and kill small rodents. Kyth preferred not to dwell on what was happening right now next to his foster brother.
    “I know the feeling,” Ellah said. “When I use my gift, I see colors, blue if someone says the truth and red when they tell a lie. It took many lessons with Mother Keeper to bring this ability under control.”
    Kyth frowned. He couldn’t control his gift much. Except for the fact that he was always immune to the Kaddim, his ability just came and went, seemingly on its own. The Keepers told him his power was in elemental magic, a rare ability that had all but disappeared since the times of the Old Empire. True, he could sometimes focus the power of the wind or water to aid his swordplay, but overall it wasn’t as impressive as it sounded.
    “What about when you protect others?” Egey Bashi asked.
    Kyth glanced at Raishan. He and Mai were the only two people he had ever protected from the Kaddim to enable them to fight. “It’s kind of the same,” he said. “I imagine an invisible spearhead I can control, which cuts through their power like a knife through a net. It takes effort to slice their power away. When I first tried to do it I had no idea it would work so well.”
    Lady Celana cleared her throat in that special way of inborn royalty, drawing everyone’s eyes without saying anything or making any loud sounds.
    “Prince Kythar,” she said, “was able to draw away all the Kaddim troops during the battle in my father’s castle. It looked quite different from what you describe, Your Highness.”
    Kyth raised his eyebrows. He’d almost forgotten about that incident – not because it was insignificant, but because it was too traumatic to think about. Back then, the Kaddim had cornered and almost killed Kara. And Kyth hadn’t been able to do anything to save her, until it was almost too late. He shivered as the memories flowed in.
    The person who had saved her back then was Mai, who was somehow able to overcome the Kaddim power in the middle of the fight. Kyth had no idea how he was able to do it. And now, unwittingly, he remembered Nimos’s words. His feelings for her ... Could Mai have overcome the Kaddim because of his feelings for Kara ?
    Was this why Kyth was immune too?
    He forced away the thought. Nimos was their enemy, trying to wedge discord among them. He would never give in to that.
    “You are right, my lady,” he said to Celana.