Chapter 15 #3
Aedric’s anger was a palpable thing, thrumming through the air.
“Hello Aedric.” Her voice was rough. She’d screamed herself hoarse in the library.
Aedric’s eyes flashed and the flames in the hearth surged suddenly, swelling higher until they nearly spilled over the stone. “You betrayed us.”
“You took my son.”
Heat flooded the room, the gauzy curtains snapping and twisting in the clash of fire and wind.
Aedric's hands curled into fists, sparks dancing over his knuckles. “What do you think will become of him now, after what you've done?”
Something inside her cracked open again—the same splinter of madness I’d seen in the library returning to her eyes.
“Let me see him,” she whispered, the desperation naked in her voice, her fingers moving restlessly over the shape of the pendant at her throat.
“Tell me how to break the bond, and he may be spared.”
Her chin quivered. We had moments, perhaps only seconds, before her madness returned.
Before we lost our chance.
“Now, Levinica.”
She lifted her gaze to the open terrace, where the curtains whipped wildly in the wind.
The bond snapped.
The force of it punched the breath from my lungs.
“They are two shores,” she murmured faintly. “And I…” Her fingers tightened around the necklace. “I am the bridge between.”
Somewhere in the castle, I heard a distant crash, a shout. Hamish bellowed.
Aedric didn’t so much as glance toward the door. “Now, Levinica!” he yelled. “What did you see?”
She tossed her head, as if trying to clear it. “I touched him. But he is only half. To see clearly, I need the whole.”
Aedric went still. Dangerously still. “He?”
Levinica blinked slowly, her haunted stare drifting once more toward the open doors.
The bond inside me pulled so taut I swayed on my feet.
My gaze dragged helplessly toward the terrace. Toward the darkness beyond the violently thrashing curtains.
Something was out there.
“Aedric…” I whispered.
He didn’t hear me.
He raised his hands, fire blooming in both palms and gathering into two blazing spheres. Then he drew back to throw.
“What did you see?”
The shadows moved.
They tore from the corners of the room and slammed into him, hurling him backward hard enough to extinguish the flames. Thick bands of shadow wrapped around his body, pinning his limbs to his sides.
From the darkness itself, as though he'd always been there, stepped Veylan. He smirked and crossed his arms, his tattoos writhing over his skin. “Hello again Aedric.”
His gaze slid to me, and the smile spread slow and oil-slick across his face. The shadows swept over me next, binding me just as tightly, dragging me down beside Aedric.
Veylan approached, looking down at us with those fathomless eyes.
“There are debts to be paid,” he said, almost gleefully.
Footsteps sounded in the doorway. Cold dread curled through me as I turned my head—
—but it was Hamish.
He drifted into the room, feet hovering above the ground, caught in thin threads of violet light. His face was bruised, one eye swollen, a thin line of blood trailing from his mouth.
Behind him stepped Layne. Smiling.
Veylan inclined his head. “Segolayne.” Aedric blanched, staring at her like he was seeing a ghost.
“Soul-eater,” she returned smoothly, stepping forward. With a flick of her hand, the threads around Hamish snapped and vanished, and he dropped to the floor.
Hamish shoved himself up instantly, but he didn’t make it a step. A thin blade flashed from beneath her apron. He froze as the edge pressed to his throat.
A bead of blood slid down his neck.
“Surprised, Flamelord?” she called over her shoulder, her voice stripped of its former meekness—now low and smooth, edged with something feline.
“Turns out I was the luckiest little girl alive, when my parents shielded me from your uncle’s flame.
Though there was precious little left of them to bury when he was done with them. ”
She pressed the blade closer, guiding Hamish back until his spine hit the wall. “Sit.” He glared at her—but slid down anyway. She smiled, her teeth flashing dangerously. “Good boy.”
“Aedric—” I started, but he’d already turned on Levinica, fury blazing through him. He inhaled—and when he exhaled, the hearth exploded.
Flames surged outward, heat roaring through the room, licking across the floor—
—and vanished.
Snuffed out in an instant.
The bond yanked hard.
In the dim wash of moonlight, Levinica rose to her feet, a distant, expectant smile on her face as she looked once more to the terrace.
Veylan crossed his arms. “How strange, Flamelord,” he said smugly. “You understand how Levinica’s visions work—how they sharpen when she touches the one they concern. And yet, in your haste to free your mate, it never occurred to you to ask me who she’d touched to see this one.”
His eyes glittered.
“The moment the Veil fell… she opened the gates of the Dusklands to welcome him home.”
The curtains snapped in a rush of wind. And stepping through them from the blackness beyond, came the nightmare made flesh.
Beautiful. Terrible. Cold.
The Dark Prince himself.