Chapter Thirty-Six
Cadence
When I stepped across the threshold into Ryker’s chambers, dread settled over me, enveloping me like the warm embrace of a lover.
A moment later, I came face-to-face with the source of my unease.
Ryker stood against the far wall, his muscular arms crossed over his broad chest, eyes the color of obsidian, as his shadows twisted and writhed around him.
Eamon paced the small space in front of him, pressing his thumbs into his eyes as he recited every place he had searched for me. His footsteps stopped abruptly, and he turned toward the entryway, toward me, and the sigh he released was one of pure relief.
“Cadence.”
I took a single step inside. Then another. The door thudded closed behind me, sealing us in. Callum shifted next to me, his eyes scanning the room as though he was searching for someone.
Eamon reached for me, his hands still trembling.
“I’ve been looking for you everywhere.”
I let him clasp my hands in his, just long enough to feel the quiet desperation humming beneath his skin. Then I stepped away.
My gaze flicked past him, finding Ryker. His shadows curled tighter, like a storm gathering force.
“You disappeared,” he said, his voice deadly calm. “Tell me why.”
I met his stare, refusing to flinch. “I needed air.”
His jaw tensed, a flicker of something darker — suspicion, or maybe rage — sweeping over his expression.
“You. Needed. Air.” He made every word count. “And you couldn’t wait for Eamon to return before heading out.”
His gaze flicked to Callum, and his eyes narrowed before returning to me.
Eamon’s voice cut through the standoff. “Now that she’s back —”
“She can speak for herself,” Ryker said, never looking away from me. “Can’t you, Cadence?”
I hated how my name sounded on his lips. Like a promise and a threat.
I lifted my chin, refusing to be cowed.
“Leave us.” When no one moved, Ryker shouted, “I said get out!”
Eamon flinched as if he’d been slapped, but Ryker barely noticed. He remained still, his gaze hard.
A tidal wave brewing beneath the ocean.
The shuffling of feet drew my attention, and I turned toward my brother, inclining my head. He studied me for a heartbeat before dipping his chin and exiting Ryker’s chambers alongside Eamon.
The silence stretched between us, taut as a bowstring. Ryker’s shadows pulsed once, then slithered back into his skin as if they were afraid of what came next.
He pushed off the wall and stalked toward me, each step precise and deliberate. “You keep lying to me, Temptress,” he said, clicking his tongue.
I wanted to scoff. To shove him away.
He was hardly an open book.
But my heart was pounding too fast, and not with fear.
Ryker circled me, his shadows coming out to play once more, brushing against my skin like a cold caress. I stood there, pulse racing, trying to remember why I longed to be free of him.
And hating myself for forgetting, even for a second.
Faster than I could process, black tendrils slithered over my body, encasing me in darkness. My protests died on my tongue when the familiar sensation of falling gripped me, and my hands flailed as I searched for something to hold on to.
The world shifted around me, reality bending and warping. His shadows released me without warning, and I stumbled forward, my knees hitting cold, damp earth.
The space surrounding us was vast and empty. In every direction I looked, there was nothing but grassy hills.
It shouldn’t have unsettled me, but it did.
“Where are we?” My voice wavered, sounding smaller than I wanted it to.
“Get up,” Ryker said, ignoring my question.
I dusted the dirt from my knees, dragging out the action and taking a moment to compose myself.
When I straightened, obsidian eyes stared back at me, malice and determination shining through in equal measure. Ryker’s calloused palm darted forward, seizing the column of my throat and squeezing.
The next thing I knew, I was lying on my back staring up at the pale blue sky as I tried, and failed, to suck air into my burning lungs.
“You’re strong enough to take care of yourself, right?” Ryker snarled. “Well, this is your chance to prove it. Get up and fight me.”
He pulled me to my feet without waiting for an answer. When he released me, I took a step back, and then another.
My chest heaved as I fought for breath, the phantom grip of his fingers still burning around my throat. The taste of copper filled my mouth, and I realized I’d bitten my tongue. “You’re fucking insane, Ryker.”
“Am I?” He tilted his head in that unnerving way all hunters did as they studied their prey, learning them. “You want your freedom? You wish to rid yourself of my protection? Beat me, and you’ll have it.”
The shadows around him writhed with anticipation, feeding off his barely restrained violence. I could feel the power radiating from him in waves, dark and intoxicating and terrifying all at once.
“I will not fight you, Ryker.”
He shrugged. “Suit yourself.”
Without warning, he lunged, gripping my waist as he swept my feet out from beneath me. My back met the hard earth, and I gasped as pain bloomed along my spine.
“Come on, Cadence,” he taunted. “You’re Wraith Borne. Show me how scary you can be.”
I gritted my teeth, hating that I was powerless and that he used that knowledge to torment me.
A flicker of shadows darted past my peripheral vision, and I threw myself sideways, rolling across the grass as they sliced through the air where I had been seconds before. The packed dirt scraped against my palms, tearing skin, but I scrambled to my feet and kept moving.
“You’re a bastard!” I said, dodging another tendril of darkness that lashed out like a whip.
Ryker’s laugh was cold, unfeeling. “That’s the fire I’ve been waiting to see.”
If only I had Riordan’s affinity for fire magic. I’d set him ablaze without sparing a thought.
When he came at me again, I narrowly avoided his fist as it whistled past my ear. The rush of air sent my hair flying, and I stumbled, barely keeping my footing on the uneven ground.
“Too slow,” Ryker said, already moving.
This time, there was no sidestepping the unbridled storm that was Ryker Ashborne.
His shoulder slammed into my ribs, driving the breath from my lungs as we crashed to the earth together. I tried to roll away, but he pinned me in place with his thighs on either side of mine and his hips bearing down on me.
“Fight back!”
He was seething. I could see it in the way his vein pulsed at his temple and how his upper lip curled into an inhuman snarl.
“Or I’ll keep knocking you down until you do.”
“This proves nothing.”
My protests were weak. Ryker had proven his point. Traversing the halls of the palace without someone to watch my back was dangerous, but only because he’d made it so.
If not for the cuffs encasing my wrists, I could protect myself from any threat, including other Wraith Borne.
Of course, leaving dead bodies in my wake would lead to questions.
Ryker’s gaze narrowed as he watched my tongue slide across my lower lip, clearing the blood from where the flesh had split.
“It proves everything.” He lifted himself off me, and I stood, not wanting to give him any further advantage.
But my eagerness was short-lived.
His shadows lashed out, wrapping around my ankles and yanking. I hit the ground, my palms landing on a rough stone hidden beneath the grass.
Ryker didn’t hesitate. He landed on top of me, rolling me to my back and pinning me with his weight once more.
“All right, you’ve made your point.”
“Have I? Because I don’t think you get it. I’m stronger, faster, and more experienced than you. I knocked you on your ass in mere seconds, and there wasn’t a damn thing you could have done to stop me.”
“Cocky much?”
But even I could concede he spoke true.
Ryker’s breathing was steady, while I struggled to suck in a breath. Sweat coated my brow, and my limbs trembled.
He had thoroughly bested me.
“And those with only a fraction of my strength could still end you.” His eyes searched my face, and I swallowed roughly. “I am trying to keep you alive, Cadence.”
“I never asked for your protection.”
His jaw clenched, and a low growl rumbled from his throat. “I know you can’t see it, but the things I’ve done, the choices I’ve made, I haven’t done them to hurt you, Temptress.”
“No, only to control me.”
“I’m doing my fucking best!” His fist hit the dirt next to my head, but I didn’t give in to the urge to cower.
His chest rose and fell in rapid succession, and he slapped a hand against his breastbone as he worked to rein in his anger. “I will never be the man who brings you flowers or whispers sweet nothings in your ear.”
Emotion flashed across his face, making him appear younger, more vulnerable.
“I am the man who will hunt down your enemies and lay their bloodied heads at your feet so you, and anyone who ever thought to plot against you, will know exactly what fate awaits them should they try.”
My breathing hitched, and my heart fluttered, but he wasn’t done.
“I am the man who will stand at your back, guarding you from the shadows, even when you don’t want me to. I am the man who will burn kingdoms and drench the ground in blood should so much as a single hair on your head be harmed.”
His eyes locked with mine, his gaze intensifying.
“It is not me who controls you, Cadence. Every thought, every decision, fuck, every breath… you’re the reason for it all.
You are the one who’s truly in control here.
You possess the power to unravel me, and that makes you the most dangerous creature in the realm, because I would stop at nothing to bring you back to me. ”
I didn’t have time to process his declaration. His mouth descended on mine, and then he devoured me.