Chapter 42- Celaena

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Celaena

Celaena swore and hit the ground with a thump, wincing at the shock before she was up again and desperately trying to think of where the portal would lead, but all she kept seeing was Kairys struggling to get away from Metaphor by stabbing her, but still being dragged into the portal. Metaphor’s scream still rang in her ears.

“Where are they?” Celaena demanded, giving a death stare at Simile.

“Far away, assassin. That’s all you need to know.” Simile grinned, which Celaena thought looked more like she was baring her ugly yellow and crooked teeth, ready to devour all of them.

“I was thinking of a more specific answer, demon.” The assassin snarled, swinging Corruption and Void at her side and flapping her wings once. Inside though, Celaena’s mind was reeling. There was no way they were going to be able to defeat Simile. The only ones still here were Sanguis, Jothrynn, an unconscious guard, and Celaena.

Plus, what was she even doing here? The Commander wasn’t here to order the guards around, or even uphold her part of the deal right now. Celaena could easily walk away and hope she never faces any of them again.

If she managed to survive this first.

Poor Sanguis was limping, but still has the courage to growl at Simile, and Jothrynn had claw marks digging into his side and a grim expression on his bruised and bloodied face.

“Listen here, Simile. I do not want to fight you.” Celaena started, hoping that this would work, since she was out of ideas, and tired. She saw Jothrynn narrow his eyes in suspicion. He probably thinks I’m going to ask to join her, Celaena thought. She silently willed Jothrynn to keep his mouth shut.

“You are obviously a powerful demon, and I respect your fight.” She nodded her head in what she tried to make look like respect. “But Metaphor just put you on babysitting duty. She took all the powerful ones to have fun with and torture, and left you with the cleanup.” She waited a moment, steeling her nerves before continuing. “Honestly, are you really going to enjoy killing us? A wolf, two unknown guards, and some faerie that’s failed her whole life anyways? We aren’t special. We aren’t going to pursue you.”

There was a brief moment of silence where Celaena hoped her bad-luck streak would wear off just this once. Simile licked her lips and smirked.

“Do you think I’m a fool?” was all she said before she lunged at the girl faerie.

Instinctively, Celaena tucked herself into a ball and rolled forward, passing right under the demon and throwing her blades out and around, grazing the demon’s scaly legs. She jumped up and unfurled her wings in one swift motion. Slicing Corruption outwards, she took to the air but was caught off guard when Simile’s boney hand grabbed, tightening around her ankle and swinging her around with a force Celaena could not compete with. Thrown from the demon’s grip, Celaena tried to control her path of travel but the faerie hit a solid wall and fell ungracefully to the ground with a snap that sent pain shooting up her right arm. Muttering a curse and blinking away a few tears, Celaena slowly stood up again.

She cracked her neck as she watched Sanguis bite into Simile and thrash her about, swinging the demon left and right. It was almost comical. Almost.

Simile was trying to break free from the wolf’s grip, and Jothrynn was busy trying to help the soldier that Charlie had knocked unconscious to the door. Celaena silently agreed, there was only one way they were going to survive this.

Concentrating for a moment, another portal opened up a few feet away from Celaena. She whistled. “Sanguis! Come!” Celaena shouting, hoping that the wolf would drop Simile before he came. She dropped, and Sanguis instead picked up Jothrynn and the other soldier by the back of their shirts before limping as fast as he could over to Celaena, who then raced towards the portal. It wasn’t exactly what she wanted, but she didn’t particularly care if the guards lived or not.

Jumping in the portal there was a brief moment of suspension before she landed on the other side, expecting to be inside her old tree. The group wasn’t though, and she could feel Sanguis’s hot breath down the back of her neck as she stared at the faerie council.

Celaena closed the connection of the portal while simultaneously lifting up her blades, her right arm screaming in pain.

“Leibide.” She muttered. The thirteen faeries of the council were all out of their seats, weapons drawn and staring at her in disbelief. She decided to make quick work of this.

“Not a single one of you are going to attack.” Celaena shouted and glared at everyone in the room. “Physically or elementally. None of you will move as I leave with the wolf, or I will not wait for a contract to kill you.”

She walked purposely towards the door of the meeting, whistling for Sanguis and keeping an eye on everyone in the council. Nathye looked bemused. Celaena had the urge to slice the smile off his face.

Menoroth took a step forward, and Celaena whipped Corruption to point at him. She really did not feel like trying to fight off the Supreme General with one arm.

“Where is Commander Morgenstern and the others?” Menoroth asked, his eyes boring into hers. Just for effect, Celaena tilted her head and considered for a moment.

“I do not know, she was pushed into a portal with a demon.” Her eyes flickered once to Alaric Morgenstern, Seraphina’s father. His mouth was open in shock and his eyes radiated concern. “She is with a good group of fighters, she may still live.” Celaena added. “Now take care of the soldiers and do not pursue me.” With her broken arm she pointed she pointed Void at Jothrynn and the other guard, who looked like he wanted to pass out again. “They’ll explain everything.”

With that said, she walked back towards the door and opened it, knocking the guard on duty with the hilt of her sword. Sanguis followed close behind.

Almost to the woods, the wolf turned at growled at an approaching figure behind her. Tensing, Celaena whipped around and leveled Corruption with Menoroth’s throat, who walked forward with only a dagger in his hand.

“You’re under arrest, Graceling.” He told her, “Your trial is tomorrow. Too bad the Commander isn’t here to help you” he walked until he was a few feet away from Corruption. “Let’s do this peacefully.”

“Get out of my sight before I kill you right now.” Celaena snarled. There was no way she was going to go through a trial again. She was not going to stand and be made a fool of herself in front of her parents and Nathye.

When the faerie didn’t move, Celaena lunged at him, swinging Corruption with a practiced ease. He ducked inside her defense then, grabbing the wrist holding Corruption and twisting so the blade fell out of her grip. Ready for this, she brought up her other blade, Void, and attempted to gut him, but he grabbed her other wrist and shoved the blade upward and out of his way, tightening his hold. Celaena hissed in pain and kicked the faerie, but he twisted her broken arm around so that she screamed and stopped fighting.

He spun her around and put her arms behind her back, keeping a firm grip on not only her good arm, but the broken one too. He led her to the jail cell she spent the night before and pushed her in, so Celaena landed face first on the bed. She heard the cell click and lock into place behind her, and she fought to keep down her anger.

“The wolf is Morgenstern’s, give him to her father.” Celaena spoke through gritted teeth. “He answers to Sanguis.”

Sanguis was pacing a few yards back from the cell, growling lowly at Menoroth. He just chuckled.

“I cannot wait to see you sentenced to death” was all Menoroth said before calling for Sanguis and leaving.

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