Chapter 48
It could have been hours or minutes when I woke next, groaning at the pain pulsing through my body. Ire was nowhere to be seen.
My shoulders ached from the strain of being pulled back so severely behind me. My wrists were raw and bloody from where the cuffs had chafed. But it was the pain in my neck and face that had a whimper crawling up my throat.
Flame. Flame.
I tried it again. She was still drugged, but there was something there. I could feel the edges of her consciousness returning. And I needed it to, desperately. Flame could contact Kingsolver.
Edith.
Shaking the thought of her out of my head, I focused my energy on Flame.
Even if I couldn’t yet speak to her, if she couldn’t speak with the tygers herself, perhaps she could be a conduit.
I was her Bonded rider and Paired with Blake.
There had to be a way. I needed Blake and his telepathic Bond with Kingsolver.
I pictured a thread connecting us, through our tygers.
Through our Paired magic. Through our love and passion.
Blake. Kingsolver.
Nothing.
I bit my lip hard enough to draw blood and tried again, reaching.
Blake. Kingsolver.
A spark of something. A flicker of recognition, distant and faint, like a call across a vast, stormy sea. My magic thrummed.
My heart slammed against my ribs.
Blake was there. I could feel him. He was searching for me, too.
I just had to reach him.
I closed my eyes and started to sing.
It was instinct, a call from somewhere deeper than thought, deeper than fear. My voice was choked, raw. Every note brought more pain, even as I tried to fight through it. And when it got to be too much, I stopped and reached out through my mind again.
Blake, I called to him. I closed my eyes and saw a thread of light twisting and swirling into darkness.
Then I felt a presence on the other end.
“What the hell are you doing?” Ire’s voice was sharp with irritation as he came into the room.
I kept humming, ignoring him.
Blake. Kingsolver.
The names rippled through me, through the space between us. And then—
Suddenly, in my mind, a roar split the air.
It wasn’t just sound. It was fury, power, a seismic wave of raw, undeniable force. Was it only my imagination, or was it real?
But then—
The collar sent a sharp jolt through me as the chains tightened and yanked me off the ground. I slipped, the metal biting into my neck before I caught my balance. It felt as if the collar were choking the magic out of me, turning my own power against me.
Ire grinned, crossing his arms as he loomed in front of me with a wicked smile.
“Nice try,” he said, linking a finger beneath my collar. “This is a gift from the Serpent Lord himself.” He released me with a shove. “I’ve just returned. The camp is in an uproar over you, little yin.”
My throat was raw, every breath like knives. In my mind, I wrapped the cursed collar in an impenetrable shield, blocking off its power. With every breath, I made my defense thicker. Then I reached for Blake again.
“Some wish to search for you and delay attempting to find the Anchor,” he continued, “while the Onyx Tortoise and half of the Azures want to leave you to your fate.”
Blake. Blake.
Even if I couldn’t hear him, I could feel him. I wasn’t alone. They were coming. I knew it.
I relaxed my body as much as I could to relieve the tension on my wrists and shoulders.
“Whatever shall we do to pass the time—” He cupped my breast through my nightdress and pinched my nipple painfully, while his other hand roughly cupped my sex.
An audible roar echoed through the air then.
Kingsolver. Blake.
And then another. Not just one—an entire chorus. It shook the walls, rattled the chains, and sent a jolt of lightning down my spine.
Ire’s hands dropped from me, his face ghostly white.
I reached out, not just to Kingsolver, but to every single tyger in the dominion.
I didn’t need to know them by name or face. Flame was connected to them, and through her, I was, too. It had worked. I sagged with relief.
The roar swelled, their cries rising in a symphony of fury and power. A tremor ran through the ground beneath me, like the earth itself was waking up. The air thickened with energy.
The tygers were coming.
And this time, they were answering to me.
In my mind, I sent Blake and Kingsolver everything.
The image of Ire standing by my cage, his smug, leering face.
His knife at Flame’s belly. Flame, trapped and unmoving, her great body shackled, helpless.
Myself, feeling much the same. Ire’s hands on my skin, his mouth so close to mine.
The threats, the prophecy, the dark magic around my throat.
Their rage was incandescent.
I felt it blazing through the Bond like molten steel, ready to be wielded. A snarl rippled through my mind, a promise of destruction.
The roar that followed wasn’t just sound. It was a war cry.
And the others answered.
One tyger. Then two. Then dozens.
From deep within the dominion, from the stables, from wherever they were caged or lurking in the shadows, every tyger under the sky heard me.
The ground trembled.
Ire spun toward the doors, panic flashing across his face. He rushed me and hit me hard across the face before grabbing my chin in a crushing hold.
“What did you do?” he spat. “What the fuck did you do?”
I smiled.
Flame stirred. I could feel her as she woke.
The telepathic call of the tygers cut through the last bit of whatever drug or magic had held her captive, unraveling its grip thread by thread.
Flame’s roar split the air. We heard her crash against her stall, the creak of her chains as she fought against them. Ire ran to the door and bolted it just as we heard Flame’s restraints give way.
He fell upon me, hand to my throat, squeezing.
“You—dead—bitch—”
I fought to breathe, to keep my toes on the ground. As my lungs began to burn, I screamed for Flame.
In the keep. I’m here, Flame!
I heard her furious roar just before she crashed through the bolted door. She leapt into the room like a comet, the heavy door lying broken in her wake. She swiped Ire with full force.
He flew backward across the room and hit the stone wall with an audible crack.
Flame stalked forward, shoulders rippling, teeth bared in growling fury. She planted herself between us, chest heaving, golden eyes fixed on him.
He stood up and cracked his neck. “I’m going to kill you both.”
Flashing, he pulled his metal skin around himself and slammed into Flame. She was still weakened but utterly determined. He crashed into her side again, trying to knock her away.
Suddenly, the collar at my throat pulsed and my body went limp, as if I were dying. My shoulders and wrists screamed as they bore my full weight.
Stay awake, Rubi, came Flame’s slow, drugged voice.
I don’t know what’s happening to me, I moaned. I wasn’t sure where I was sending the message—to Flame or Blake or Kingsolver. Everything felt heavy as Ire released my chains from the hook and I collapsed with a loud cry.
He drew a sharp blade against my throat, just above the collar.
“If your bitch of a tyger makes one wrong move—”
There was a thunder of paws, the splintering of wood, the roar of untamed fury, and Ire spun, still holding me, to look out the window.
The stables exploded open as a stampede of tygers burst inside, a force of raw, magnificent power. Tygers of every shade were moving as one unstoppable tide, their eyes gleaming, their fangs bared. Tygers I’d never seen before, but also Xane. Venom.
And at their head, like a warlord descending from legend, was Kingsolver, and riding atop him, Blake.