Chapter 106 Zadyn
ZADYN
“What are you doing here?” Jace shoots me a dark look, lingering in the shadow of Serena’s doorway.
I finish unbuckling my belt of weapons and toss it down on a chair. “She wanted us to meet in here.”
“She told me the same thing.” An awkward silence falls. “Yet she can’t be bothered to show up,” he adds under his breath, moving to the bar cart.
“Don’t punish her for this.”
His eyes cut toward me.
“Who should I punish then? You? Kylian? Trust me, I’m glad to.” He pours himself a glass of dark liquor.
I rise from my seat, stopping beside him. “You and I have had to put our differences aside in her best interest before. Are you going to be selfish now when she needs you most?”
“She doesn’t need me. Now she has you and her precious Kylian.” Jace tosses back the shot of whiskey.
Part of me feels sorry for him, but Serena was right to lie to him. And it’s not as though she did it lightly. I can feel the toll it’s taken on her. I feel everything she does, and since we’ve sealed the mating bond, it’s been magnified.
Her denying their bond—it’s as if she rejected it. And Jace is clearly feeling that strain too. I’ve never seen him look so dark. So grim. Like there’s a literal shadow hanging over him.
I choose my words carefully. “She does need you. She needs all of us.”
“Too bad.” He shrugs, pouring out another drink. I clamp a hand over his wrist.
“She never wanted this.”
“Still fighting her battles, I see.” He gives me a cocky-ass smile and patronizing clap on the shoulder before redirecting his attention to the liquor.
I lean in closer, the leash on my temper slipping.
“She is hurting right now because of you.”
“I fucking hope so.”
I see red.
My knuckles crack against his jaw. I get one moment to revel in smug satisfaction before we’re flying backwards, taking out the entire bar cart.
He grabs hold of my collar and sends a sickening punch into my gut.
I groan, curling around his fist as glass shatters and crunches all around us.
He reaches for my throat, but I’m faster, twisting him beneath me and slamming his head into the floor.
His elbow drives into my groin, and a second later, he lands a blinding punch to my left eye.
My whole skull reverberates with the force, color spraying across my vision.
“What the hell are you doing?”
Both our heads snap up. Serena strides into the room, furious. Kylian is with her, leaning against the door, wearing an arrogant smirk.
Our fight is instantly forgotten.
“Get up,” Serena demands.
Jace and I shove apart, brushing off as we get to our feet. She walks up to me and drags my face into her hands, smoothing over the tender spot Jace hit. “Jesus, your eye is a mess.”
He watches from behind her, bitter jealously rolling off of him in waves.
“You cannot be doing this,” Serena scolds. “We have bigger problems than the two of you getting on each other’s nerves.”
“What’s this?” Jace sneers, nodding in Kylian’s direction. “Taking out the trash?”
“You didn’t really think she’d leave her mate down there to rot, did you, friend?” Kylian flashes him a condescending smile, shackled wrists folded over his bare chest.
Jace takes a step toward him, but Serena ducks into the line of fire.
“We are not doing this. Do you understand?” Her stare is unflinching as she meets Jace’s fury head-on. He blinks, his anger fading to a simmer as he unclenches his fists. “We’re all on the same side.”
“Are you concussed?” he asks. Serena cocks her head. “I’m asking seriously. Because if you’re not, then you are delusional for thinking we are on the same side.” He gestures between us and Kylian.
“Kylian…had reasons for doing what he did. Reasons I do not by any means condone or respect. But I promise you we are on the same side.”
“And which side is that?” I send a pointed look his way.
“The one that puts Serena’s safety above all else.” Hearing her name on his lips sends a spike of rage through me.
“You?” I bite. “You want to keep Serena safe?”
“Is that so shocking? She is my mate.”
“This entire time you’ve been trying to bully her into compliance!” I shout, unable to stop myself. “You were so desperate for her power that you kidnapped her and tried to force her into marriage. She nearly died trying to escape you. Her kingdom—our kingdom—is up in flames because of you.”
I point out the window to the hills his troops set on fire. They’re still blazing, devouring the green fields and pastures, plaguing the nearby villages.
“Don’t delude yourself into thinking you did all this in the name of love.”
“It may not have started that way—” Kylian looks serious for once, all mockery emptied from his face.
“But that is what it’s come down to. Something is coming for her.
That is why I have fought so hard for this union, fought to keep her at my side.
Because at the end of the day, when she is found, you won’t be the one to keep her safe.
” He takes a prowling step my way, then stops, rearing his head in Jace’s direction.
“And neither will you. I will be the one to keep her safe. Because I can.”
Zadyn, please.
I glance at Serena, exhaustion weighing down her words, even in my mind.
You believe him?
She nods, her shoulders sagging, like standing—breathing—is full of painful labor. “We have a problem, guys.”
“What’s wrong?” I close the gap between us, taking hold of her arms. Her face houses every emotion, yet still betrays nothing.
“Allow me to explain,” Kylian interjects.
“We’re allowing you to live. I think that’s generous enough,” Jace snaps.
“Listen to what he has to say. Please,” Serena begs.
“You made a grave error when you joined those stars. They were meant to remain separate,” Kylian begins, sinking onto Serena’s mattress. “Nice bed.”
“Stick to the subject,” I warn.
“That star was originally part of a constellation of seven—”
“The Aurea Dei.”
“Very good, love. But did you know they aren’t just any ordinary stars?
Each one represents the gods. Their power, their essence, their entire being is tied to them.
It is their lifeblood. The first star in the constellation burnt out when Zed was killed.
Went out in a blaze of glory. But the second one that went dark did just that.
There one minute, gone the next. That one is presumed to have belonged to Ienar. ”
Serena’s shoulders tense.
“My ancestor, Garron Triori, was the most talented starsmith to ever live. So when Queen Arden sought him out, he was able to do what she asked of him. Harness a star.”
“Oh my god,” Serena breathes. “Arden and Garron stole Ienar’s star from the constellation.”
“Without it, he was weakened, reduced to nothing more than mere fae. Ienar and his Seven scoured the earth in search of it. Arden and Garron tried to destroy the star, but failed each time. So instead, they broke it in two to keep it hidden. One half was given to Arden to protect, and the other was Garron’s. ”
“Get to the point,” Jace threatens.
“The point is that those stars have been passed down my line with the knowledge that to join them would cause catastrophe. Until the day of our wedding, they had been locked in my family’s vaults, never to see the light of day.
Only those with Triori blood are permitted inside.
When I was young, my father took me down there.
He made me swear a blood oath never to join the two halves, never to speak of their existence. ”
“Yet here you are singing like a fucking canary,” I point out.
“Serena is family,” he says in earnest. “Besides, you three let the cat out of the bag all on your own. I’m free to speak of it as much as I desire now.”
“So the stars don’t make up a key?” Serena asks, all hope sinking from her voice. Kylian shakes his head. “Then what have I done?”
“I don’t know for certain, but I know it isn’t cause for celebration.
There’s something else.” Kylian pauses. “My mirrors have been very helpful in guiding me, but the one thing they cannot see are the gods. It’s like a complete blockage where they are concerned.
I saw true destruction in those mirrors, fashioned around her.
Someone is coming for her, and I cannot see who.
Which basically tells me all I need to know. ”
“I don’t see how that relates to the stars,” Jace deadpans.
“Of course, you wouldn’t. Simple-minded,” Kylian hacks, disguising the slur as a cough.
Serena looks at him. “Real mature.”
“I just find it coincidental, don’t you?
” Kylian muses, relishing the sound of his own voice.
“Alright. Let’s recap. We have an old, vengeful god hell-bent on recovering a star my ancestor and her ancestor managed to procure.
War ensues, witches die, yada, yada, yada.
Flash forward two thousand years, and here we are.
And here she is, doing precisely what my father forbade me to do, and his father before him, and so on and so forth.
My mirrors have been cautioning me, but refuse to provide context, and the one thing I know is that they can’t see around the gods.
I would say it’s more than likely those dots connect. Are we following?”
The three of us link eyes. Kylian takes our grave silence as confirmation.
“I could be wrong, of course. It could be some other god looming in the mirrors, seeking the object Ienar was so desperate to wrestle from Arden’s clutches. The same heirloom that, for all intents and purposes, is Serena’s to inherit as the only living Blackblood.”
“Ienar,” Serena whispers. “But that would have to mean he’s alive.”
True fear gleams in my mate’s voice as she backs into me. I band an arm around her waist, pulling her against my chest, the need to protect roaring in my veins.
“It’s impossible.”
“Is there proof? Were there remains?” Kylian questions.
“He couldn’t have survived. Dragon fire kills gods, isn’t that what you said, Zadyn?” She turns toward me, eyes desperate.