Gilded Serpent Danielle Jensen (i can read with my eyes shut .TXT) 📖

across the table, wanting Felix to feel as much hurt as he did. Wanting him to know what it felt like to be betrayed. “And allow me to be clear: that will never happen.”

Felix’s eyes widened, color draining from his face. He took a step back from the table, looking anywhere but at Marcus.

Which was the exact moment Gibzen strode in.

The primus looked between the two of them. “Sorry to interrupt, sirs. But I thought you’d want to be the first to know—we found the xenthier. It’s far closer than we anticipated. And something else.”

“What?” Marcus demanded, nausea rolling in his guts. Because everything he didn’t want to happen was happening, and all of it too quickly.

“An abandoned city. And if what my boys tell me is true, you’re going to want to see it for yourself.”

What he wanted was out of this camp. Away from everything. What he wanted was to be able to breathe. Because only then could he decide how to deal with this.

“They’re right,” he said, keeping his gaze fixed on Gibzen because he couldn’t stand to look at Felix. “Get me an escort ready. We leave in an hour.”

 26TERIANA

“I give up,” Teriana said, spitting out a mouthful of mud. “This is not how I want to spend my day.”

Quintus was ostensibly teaching her to defend herself from a rear attack, but it primarily involved him holding her facedown in the mud. Much to the amusement of all the men standing guard around Marcus’s tent.

“Giving up means you’re dead,” Quintus answered, his weight not shifting off her back.

“Then I’m dead.”

The sound of footsteps splashing in mud caught her attention, and she turned her head, peering through her mess of braids to see Felix walking past. He frowned, then asked one of the guards a question. Whatever the young man’s response was, it caused his frown to deepen. But he said nothing further, only proceeded into the tent.

“Let’s try again.” Quintus climbed off her and then caught her by the belt and hauled her upright. Gibzen walked past them then, his face splitting with a wide grin. “Oh, this looks fun. I’d stop to watch, but duty calls.”

Flipping the primus a universally insulting gesture, Teriana spit out more mud before reluctantly turning her back to Quintus. This was going to hurt. But before Quintus could move, a loud bang echoed out of the command tent along with Felix’s shout of “No!”

Instinctively, she stepped toward the tent, but Gibzen held up a hand. “Who’s in there with them?” he asked those on duty.

“Just the legatus and the tribunus.”

And they were arguing. Teriana could only pick out a few words, but one that kept repeating was her name. And while all those on guard duty held their positions, their heads were turned to listen, their expressions grim.

“What a bloody mess this is.” Gibzen gave a sharp shake of his head, then swiveled to look at her, eyes full of condemnation. “Happy?”

Not even a little bit. And neither were all the men in the surrounding camp who’d stopped what they were doing to watch. To listen as their two highest-ranking officers shouted at each other about her. Every one of them thought she was to blame for this, unaware that Marcus’s grievance with Felix was because of betrayal. Because of treason. “Someone needs to intervene.”

“Yeah, but not you.” Taking a breath, Gibzen strode between the guards and into the tent. More terse words emanated, but they were too quiet for her to make out.

“Maybe we should—” Whatever Quintus was about to say was cut off by Felix striding out of the tent.

“Fuck!” he shouted, then flung his helmet, the metal slamming against a tent post with a loud clang. No one in the camp said a word, everyone watching in silence as he stormed across the open space surrounding the command tent. Then he slid to a stop, eyes fixing on Teriana.

She held her breath as he stalked toward them, jaw tight and eyes red. “What are you doing?” he demanded.

Quintus stepped in front of her. “Legatus’s orders, sir. She’s next to useless in a fight.”

If she hadn’t been sick with terror, Teriana would have taken offense.

“Then why aren’t you following them?” Felix asked. “His orders were to teach her, but all I see is you drowning her in the mud for the entertainment of idle bastards whose time is better used doing something useful.” He roared the last, and all the men standing around watching the exchange swiftly departed in opposite directions.

Pulling off his sodden cloak, Felix tossed it at one of the guards. Then he turned his back on Quintus, his eyes on Teriana. “Watch.”

Behind him, Quintus shifted uneasily. Teriana didn’t blame him.

“Get on with it, Quintus,” Felix snapped. “And don’t hold back.”

“Yes, sir.”

Quintus eased forward, making no sound, the stick he’d been using in lieu of a knife held in his right hand.

Then he lunged, his left arm wrapping around Felix’s torso, hand clamping down on Felix’s wrist.

Yet it seemed Felix hadn’t gained his position in the Thirty-Seventh just because of Marcus. In a blur of motion, he twisted his left arm up, hand closing over Quintus’s where it grasped the stick. Then he jerked Quintus’s arm down, holding the blade tight against his breastplate before slamming his head back against Quintus’s nose.

Blood splattered, and Quintus swore, recoiling. He kept his grip on Felix’s wrist, but his balance was off and Felix took advantage, twisting to face Quintus and using his momentum to shove the stick away from his chest and toward Quintus’s unarmored chest.

Where it came to a stop, the tip resting right below Quintus’s sternum. “Dead.”

Glowering, Quintus pulled away, spitting blood into the mud.

Wiping at the mud that had splattered his face, Felix retrieved his cloak. As he fastened it, his eyes flicked to Teriana. “You can live without your fingers but not your jugular. Sacrifice the former to buy yourself opportunity to save the latter. Understood?”

“Yes.” The word came out as a croak.

Felix’s gaze