Betrothal's Price

Chapter 39: Good Luck With That

Liam was surprised he'd let Henry talk this long. There wasn't a chance in hell, he would let Isla back into the ruthless hands of Henry's forces. He looked at Henry incredulously, his fists clenching tighter as each syllable of each word spewed from his mouth.

He was so ready to kill him. He glanced at Isla whom Henry's gaze was upon. Liam could tell that Isla was slightly considering the offer, and he knew that that was what Henry was aiming for.

Isla met his gaze, and shook her head, sending a message. She wasn't going to. She knew what Henry was doing. He was trying to bait her into taking the offer.

"And if we refuse?" Liam spoke up, in irritation.

Henry hesitated, ".. Well, then I suppose endings will not go fondly for you."

Henry's hesitation put everything into place for the both of them. Henry's forces were still small. He had nothing to back up his threats and no power of the situation. He only wanted it to appear that way, while aware he was helpless and grasping at straws.

Liam and Isla exchanged looks, but said nothing.

Henry waited for a reply, "If I were you I'd choose wisely. You should know that quite well, wouldn't you, Isla? And by the way, that's quite a ring on your finger."

Isla crossed her arms, doing her best to hold her composure, "Yes. It is. As for decisions, I'm surprised you've comprehended as much as you have. Wise isn't somethin' that applies to your level of expertise." She wasn't smiling.

Henry chuckled, "Same smart aleck attitude. Tell me, how did Everett die? What were his last words to you-"

"ENOUGH!" Liam shouted, placing his arm in front of Isla and looking Henry dead in the eye, A smile never further from his face. "You wanted us to negotiate a deal. Listen to this, I'm only gonna say this once. I'll put it in simple words. Try to do whatever with your plans, but as surely as I'm standing here. No One. Is. Touching. Her." His voice was deep and gruff. Any false move and Liam ready to kill anyone that dared try to harm her.

Henry had originally never felt threatened by Liam or by anything he could've done, but as of about a few months ago, he'd found that Liam had killed a good 3/4 of his Scathian troops just to get Isla back. He'd never taken his fiddling with magic anything to fear until he found that his "fiddling" with magic helped him get quite skilled wielding it.

Needless to say, he didn't want to test Liam's skill on himself. Besides, why did he need to fight him? The Scaths he had here were far more skilled than the ones who took capture of Isla.

Liam and Isla would never survive all of his troops. "Very well. Your funeral." He mounted his horse and gave a dismissing look. "Kill them." He said quietly and he turned his horse around, riding off, while most of the remainder of his army came out of hiding and attacked.

Just as the Scaths attacked, Levi revealed himself and fought through the army along with Liam and Isla.

The two of them put their backs together and fought their way past the troops, killing as many of them as possible. Liam improvised in his fighting and used Levi's borrowed bow and arrows, killing several Scaths in less than four minutes and continued. Isla and Levi attacked with their blades, Liam and Levi steering clear of physical contact with the Scaths.

Isla slashed a Scath that came at her, “Liam, Henry’s gettin’ away. We need to get to him before he’s out of reach.”

Liam shot several arrows at several Scaths, then attacked the rest with items he found around him, “We can’t, Isla. We’ll have to let him go. We’ll get to him another time. We’re too busy and even if we were to finish these guys, we’ll be too worn out to win a fight against him.”