All Chapters of The Bride Wore Blood: Chapter 91 - Chapter 100

Rune’s POVThe sand of the auxiliary pit was coarse, biting into the soles of my boots as I settled into a low guard. Across from me, the Boren warrior didn't just stand; he loomed. He was a mountain of a man, his bare chest a map of silvered scars and tattoos that I thought I saw pulsed with a rhythmic, violet light. Another time I would have thought it was my imagination, but these days I know better. It probably is magic. He held a slab of darkened iron that looked more like a tool for execution than a sword.I can feel Lana watching me, tracking my every move. But more than that, I felt the cold, hollow ache in my chest where my trust in Timian used to live. I had spent the night watching the man I thought I loved sleeping beside me, even if I can’t feign desire anymore. I was exhausted, my skin still damp from the morning mist, but his continued betrayal had left me with a clarity that was sharper than any whetstone.'You won’t defeat me,' I whispered, the words intended for a gh

I’ve done enough training with Rune over the years, to not be completely helpless. Rune pushed into the arena, so that the wooden barriers could divert the stampeding crowd around us. I step forward, sheltering the two small girls behind me, as I face the Boren warrior who had been trying to take Rune out of the competition. He stares down at me, dark eyes glistening as he lets out a roar. His hands extended to his sides as Rune vaulted the railing and landed beside me, every bit the prepared warrior. Ready to finish her combat against an attacker. Instead of lunging forward, the Boren warrior paused, his chest heaving as he locked eyes with me. To my shock, he bows low. A deep a and respectful gesture that feels entirely out of place amidst the panic around us. Straightening his back, he turned his gaze toward the panic-stricken crowd surging against the barriers. With a sweeping gesture toward the chaos, his expression shifted from the heat of battle to a grim, focused resolve. He

Thade’s POVThe roar of the crowd hit like a wall of sound. It vibrated through the stone floor of the royal dais and settled into my bones. Below, in the dust and heat of the arena, two knights charged at one another, the rhythmic thundering of their destriers' hooves echoing the frantic pulse of my own heart. I miss Lana at my side already, stomach tight with a knot of anxiety. I can’t follow her like a shadow, looming over as she carries our child. She deserves more faith and trust than that. I sat in the high chair of the King, my hands resting on the cold stone armrests, my posture as rigid as the metal circlet around my head. Every nerve in my body was screaming. It wasn't just the heat or the smell of horse sweat and iron; it was the land itself. I could feel the magical power around me intensifying with the heightened emotions of the crowd. A low-level hum that made my skin prickle. We were an anchor holding onto a sinking ship, and the weight of the Otherworld magic felt hea

Lana’s POVRune didn’t wait for the order. As soon as the guards’ refusal hung heavy in the air, she was a blur of lethal motion, launching herself forward as if the distance between us and the Nix guards I recognised hadn't existed. They were people she had grown up with, trained with and knew far too well.I didn't watch the opening strike. I grabbed Elara and Samsan’s hands, their small fingers trembling against my palms, and pulled them back, my gaze fixed only on the path away from the gate. Behind us, the world was fracturing. The frantic, heavy thumping against the iron gate was replaced by the chaotic clash of steel on steel and the savage, guttural snarls of the Boren shifters who had joined the fray.‘Keep your heads down,’ I urged, my voice steady despite the adrenaline surging through my veins. ‘Don't look back.’ For all of my bravado against Rupert, I had a responsibility to keep the girls, and my unborn child safe. I navigated us through the surge of Boren fighters as

Scream? Run away? Every instinct told me that my plan should be to get far away from the great black dragon before us. ‘We need to get the gates open,’ I reply softly, impressed with my own ability to sound under control. With all the efforts of the Boren who are working with us, I hear the creak of the gears becoming unstuck. With the press of the desperate crowd ever increasing the gates groan as they start to swing inward on their mechanism. As the gates finally started to open, the crowd surged forward like water against a burst dam. Panic rippled through them, a frantic wave of bodies scrambling over one another in a desperate bid for safety. Behind us, the ground shuddered under the rhythmic thud of the advancing line, the Nix warriors, their forms distorted and terrifying, flanked by the shifting shadows of the Otherworlders touched by the black tendrils of magic that marked Valerius’s influence. And above them all, Valerius the dragon loomed, a creature of nightmare made fl