Chapter Fifty-One
Cadence
The room tilted violently as I dragged in a ragged breath. My knees buckled, and I reached blindly for support, finding only empty air. The floor surged up to meet me, but powerful arms caught me before I hit the ground.
“Ryker!” Eamon’s voice boomed above me, cutting through the music and chatter, sharp and panicked.
My vision fractured, faces blurring into indistinct shapes as a crowd gathered around me. Through the blur, Ryker appeared beside me, shadows trailing him with deadly intent. His features contorted with rage, but the undercurrent of fear had my pulse racing.
His hands replaced mine, applying pressure that sent shockwaves of pain radiating through my body. “Who did this to you?” His voice was strained, haunted. “Lock down the castle. Find them!” he shouted.
Guards scrambled in all directions as chaos erupted inside the hall. Courtiers scattered like startled birds, their shrieks piercing the air as more soldiers flooded the area, their weapons drawn.
The dagger had slipped between my ribs with expert precision, and the steady flow of blood indicated that my attacker’s aim had been true. A familiar coppery tang coated my throat, and I tried to speak, but my tongue felt thick and unwieldy in my mouth.
The cool press of metal against my wrists drew my attention, and I glanced down to see Ryker slipping the cuffs from my hands.
“Heal yourself, Cadence,” he said in a low voice, so only I could hear.
I closed my eyes, focusing on my magic, but my mind was too hazy to pull at the threads of my power. I was losing too much blood, too quickly, for me to recover.
A tear slipped from the corner of my eye, and I felt Ryker press his lips to my temple, kissing it away.
“Come on, Temptress,” he cooed. “Don’t play with me.”
“I… can’t,” I rasped.
Ryker’s body stiffened around me as he cradled me against his chest. The familiar sensation of falling washed over me, letting me know we had disappeared inside his shadows.
My stomach didn’t do its usual tumble, and I knew at that moment I was on the brink of death.
“Odette!” Ryker roared, and I heard the elderly woman inhale.
“What’s happened to her?”
“Someone stabbed her. She’s losing too much blood, and I can’t stop it.”
“Poison?” she asked.
I tried to shake my head, but I had no idea if I had succeeded.
“I don’t know,” Ryker said, not bothering to hide his panic. “But you need to heal her.”
Shuffling sounded from the side of the room as Odette moved closer. “Oh, my.”
“Don’t just stand there, help her.” Ryker’s voice cracked, and a wave of fear washed over me.
But the feeling didn’t belong to me. Ryker’s emotions flooded the bond, and his desperation pulled me under, threatening to drown me.
My eyes fluttered open, and I watched as Odette scrambled for her satchel, knocking vials and dried herbs onto the blood-stained floor. Her hands shook, but she kept moving.
The bitter reek of rue filled the air, and I blinked, fighting the urge to slip into unconsciousness. From the corner of my eye, I saw Odette pour a thick, brown liquid into a goblet before returning to my side.
As she pressed the tumbler to my lips, she said, “Drink, Lady Cadence.”
When the tonic flooded my mouth, a sharp, bitter taste coated my tongue. It tasted like acid and death, but I forced myself to swallow it anyway.
Almost immediately, the world snapped into sharp focus. My pulse slowed, and my mind cleared. I could feel the wound knitting itself back together, flesh fusing.
Then panic seized me.
“No,” I said, shoving the next mouthful away. “You’ll kill me.”
“Hold her steady.” There was no mistaking the command in Odette’s tone, and I felt Ryker’s arms tighten around me.
My head lolled to the side, and I resisted the urge to vomit. “Stop.” The word sounded brittle, weak. “Please.”
“What is it, Cadence?” Ryker’s words were quiet, tender even. “Tell me what’s wrong.”
I inhaled a shaky breath. “I am bleeding internally. If you close the wound without stopping the bleed, I’ll drown in my own blood.”
Everything hurt, and it was an effort to get the words out.
“What do you need?”
“Help me sit up.”
Ryker didn’t hesitate. His hands went to my shoulders, steadying me as he lifted me upright. The pressure in my side was brutal, white-hot, and dizzying, but I bit down on the scream burning its way up my throat.
“Tell us what to do, Temptress,” he said, pressing a light kiss into my hair. “I’ll fucking do anything.”
A twisted, dark part of me was thrilled by the way he was falling apart, his panic spiking through the bond, a wild crackling energy that was barely held at bay.
“Just hold me steady.”
Ryker’s arms wrapped around me, holding me tight while sweat turned my skin clammy and cold. I released a measured exhale as I pressed my trembling hand to my side, feeling the half-sealed wound.
As I closed my eyes, I forced myself to reach within, searching for the flickering trace of my magic. It stuttered, my body refusing to obey. Blood slid hot and sticky between my fingers, pooling beneath me.
My breath rattled in and out, each inhale slicing me open from the inside. Gritting my teeth, I tried again, forcing my mind to block out the pain as I worked. But every time I reached for it, my magic slipped away, leaving only agony in its wake.
A scream tore up my throat, raw and animalistic, but I clamped my lips shut, breathing through my nose until the wave of anguish subsided.
My blood kept flowing, hot and slick, and I couldn’t keep my hands from shaking. Ryker’s grip on my shoulders never lessened, and his shadows twined around my body, pressing in, caging me, refusing to let me slip away.
He wouldn’t allow me to escape him. Not if he had to drag me back from the brink of death himself.
I can’t do this. I can’t do this. I can’t do this.
The pain was too much, and my magic too weak.
Ryker’s breath was warm against my cheek. “Focus, Temptress. I know you can do it.” He shifted until his gaze met mine, his eyes wild and dangerous. “Look at me, Cadence. Don’t you dare let go.”
His power slammed into me through the bond, thick and suffocating. Shadows curled around my legs, my waist, crawling under my skin. But it wasn’t uncomfortable. The inky tendrils caressed me as if trying to comfort me in my distress.
And that’s when I decided I was not dying. Not here. Not fucking now.
I pictured the wound in my mind: a gaping, bloody gash, leaking my life away. I could feel the shreds of flesh, the pooling blood, the jagged edges of muscle and skin. With trembling hands, I reached for my wilting power, forcing it to obey my commands.
It hurt. Gods, it hurt.
I gritted my teeth harder, refusing to let the pain win. Ryker’s arms were a vise around me, holding my shuddering body upright. His lips pressed to my temple, a constant source of strength as he rocked us both.
“Heal or die, Cadence. It’s time to choose.”
My inner voice propelled me forward, and I dug deeper. Air wheezed in and out of my lungs, but I forced my magic to gather in my palm before shoving it down, straight into the wound.
I imagined the gash healing, arteries knitting together, tissue fusing. I pictured the blood flow slowing until there was nothing left but a dull ache and the raw memory of pain.
Light flared behind my eyelids. My body jerked, and pressure built under my ribs. For one terrifying moment, I thought my magic would betray me, slipping from my grasp once more.
Then I felt it.
The paltry scraps of my power, knitting the wound closed from the inside out. Magic rushed up my spine, and the pain slowly retreated.
I slumped against Ryker’s chest, my body spent but intact.
“It’s done.”
“I’m sorry, Cadence,” Ryker said, his voice tight. “I’m so fucking sorry.”
The cool bite of metal spread across my skin as he re-clasped the cuffs. He pressed a tender kiss to the underside of each wrist as he whispered quiet apologies.
I didn’t have the energy to fight him, letting my eyelids close as my body gave in to the need for rest.
As the darkness pulled me under, Ryker’s voice was the last thing I heard. “I’ve let you down, but I promise I’ll find them, Cadence. And when I do, I will make them suffer for ever daring to harm you. This is my vow to you.”