City of Shadows by Pippa DaCosta

in violence.
    The pair below broke up, the female a clear winner. Her sparring partner took her hand and raised it up to thunderous applause. Quick as splintered light with scalpel-like precision, she represented everything people feared and admired about the fae. Faster, stronger, better in every way. What if these fae decided not to police their own? What if they wanted more?
    I reached behind me and checked the three throwing knives fitted snugly against my lower back. I’d survive an attack if I surrendered to that terrible need to palm my weapons and start spilling blood.
    A new pair of warriors took to the floor. Others grouped up, sizing up one another with quick smiles and hungry glares. I’d seen that wild glimmer in Reign’s eyes. How could we ever think we’d tame them?
    â€œWhere is Sovereign?”
    I froze.
    General Kael stood so close I could feel his breath on the back of my neck. Shivers crawled across my skin.
    â€œI couldn’t find him.”
    â€œHow convenient,” he growled. “So why did you really come back, Construct?”
    â€œBeing on the run from the FA didn’t appeal.” His growl rumbled deeper. “I came back for help and to offer you the queen’s knowledge in return.”
    â€œWhat is the extent of this knowledge?”
    I swallowed. “I have … I have dreams.”
Dream
was too soft a word for the thoughts in my head whenever I closed my eyes. Scenes of slaughter, sounds of the dying. The smell of death and another, more potent, smell, that wrapped around me and held me close, a sweet smell that I ached to fill me up once more. Faerie. They weren’t dreams, but nightmares. “I don’t sleep anymore, because of the dreams, only I don’t think they’re dreams at all. I think they’re memories.”
    â€œI don’t believe you. Constructs are not designed to harbor memories.”
    â€œThis one is.” Anger slipped through the restraint in my words. “I’m not just a construct. I bespelled a man. I’m different. More fae than I was.”
    â€œYou killed fifteen of my warriors.”
Fifteen.
I’d wanted to know, but now that I did, I wished he hadn’t told me. “Are you here to do the same again?” he asked. “Do you think you can cut through us like you did outside the queen’s chamber?”
    â€œNo. I—”
    â€œ Enough.” Kael whistled a high-pitched alert and stepped back. “You have three seconds before Samuel reaches you.”
    An arm reached over the balustrade. One of the warriors from the training session below spilled his lithe-self over onto the mezzanine landing. Eyes wild, braided blond hair trailing over one shoulder—he snarled.
    I bolted out the door, veered back the way I’d come, only to face two FA warriors marching up the hallway. Tricolored eyes targeted me.
    Adrenalin burst through my veins, shutting off all unnecessary thought and sparking instincts into action. I turned on my heel and darted down a hallway I hoped was the way out. More steps. I jumped down and yanked open a door. I was heading deeper into the house, not out.
Damn it.
    Boots thudded down the hall behind me.
    Palming a knife, I burst through a set of doors and ducked right, plastering myself against a wall. Second dagger out, I waited, listening to my racing heart and blood pumping in my ears. A strong chemical smell burned my nose, but before I could place it, one of the fae burst through the door. I recognized the female warrior from the training hall and let the first dagger fly. It bounced hilt first off her shoulder. She twisted in a way only the agile fae can manage, curling around, hardly losing any speed, and struck out with a fist. I flinched left. Her knuckles hit the wall beside my head. She snarled, hooked around my throat, and lifted me clean off my feet. I kicked out, but she no more flinched than a statue would.
    I punched my remaining