Chapter 32 #2
Those wicked black eyes narrowed in reproach, his gaze snagging on my dagger. “A witchwood blade. I must say, I am impressed. He has turned the very witch I ordered him to hunt into his own personal assassin. How unfortunate that she —”
Just then, the huge double doors banged open, and a horde of demons swarmed into the chamber. Semphrys’s soldiers held Kaden and Sorsha between them, and my heart sank to my knees.
Kaden was struggling against four demons, his wings splayed at a painful-looking angle with rowan-wood spikes piercing the delicate membranes. Sorsha thrashed just as fiercely against her captors, the end of her golden braid stained with blood.
That would explain why my glamour had faltered. The princess had been fighting to evade capture.
As I watched, Sorsha gave a particularly violent thrust, and one of the demons turned and punched her in the face. I sucked in a gasp, searching the tangle of bodies crowded into the chamber for Adriel, but the royal guard was noticeably absent.
A horrible sense of knowing made my stomach clench, but I turned back to the demon king and lifted my chin in defiance.
“How wonderful,” Semphrys crooned to Sorsha and his son. “I’m delighted that you both could join us.”
I didn’t think. I just lunged for the demon king — bringing my blade down in a deadly arc toward the center of his chest.
Quick as a flash, one of those long tendrils of shadow shot out to capture my wrist, yanking my arm behind my back and wrenching a cry from my throat. A second dark ribbon unfurled to capture my other arm, holding me immobile.
Kaden’s growl reverberated through the chamber, and there was a loud scuffling sound as he fought against his captors’ hold. Fresh blood dribbled from the places where the spikes pierced his beautiful wings, and I shook my head, begging him not to do any more damage.
“Was this your plan all along, my son?” Semphrys asked. “If so, I must admit that I am underwhelmed.”
Kaden stopped thrashing long enough to shoot his father a filthy look.
“I had hoped your mate would be more . . . intelligent.”
A pulse of ominous magic fanned out across the chamber, signaling Kaden’s wrath. But the familiar hum across my skin dissipated almost instantly, which meant the rowan-wood spikes lancing his wings were quickly sapping his power.
“Fated to a half-huntress, half-witch.” The demon king tutted, sending out another thick rope of shadow. “Disappointing. Though I would expect no better from the half-Drathen whelp.”
Quick as a striking serpent, the black band of shadow looped around my neck. My whole body clenched as the ribbon tightened around my throat, cutting off my air supply.
The tendons in Kaden’s neck bulged as he lurched forward, but his demon captors held him immobile.
“There is no bond more powerful,” Semphrys continued. “Apart from the sire bond, of course.”
Black spots danced in my vision, but I was aware of my mate’s jerky movements as he fought to reach me. A howl of agony ripped from his throat, and I felt a tremor of pain slice down the bond as he tore his beautiful wings.
“Our kind was cursed by the gods,” the king went on. “Feared by the gods. They believed us too powerful to bear full-blooded offspring. It was only by rutting with that Drathen bitch that I was able to secure my line.”
A howl of rage reverberated through the king’s chambers, but I couldn’t see Kaden through the shadows threatening to pull me under.
“Though I found a loophole, I did not evade this curse. Everything in nature must find a balance. My offspring only exists because I exist.”
Suddenly, the pressure on my windpipe abated as Semphrys’s shadows released their hold. I fell to my knees, nearly face-planting on the cold obsidian as I heaved in air.
“So, kill me, witch. Every choice has a price. To kill me, you must also kill your beloved.”
My lungs were full of cold fire, spasming after being deprived of oxygen. As the fog in my mind cleared, I met Kaden’s gaze, and I felt a pulse of devastation down the bond.
Devastation and . . . guilt.
That one look said it all. Kaden had known the effects of the sire bond. He’d known when he’d pressed me to make the bargain.
I swallowed around the lump that had formed in my throat.
From the moment we met, I knew I shouldn’t trust him. My hunter instincts had thrummed with warning at every word, every touch. Kaden was the darkness I’d been bred to hunt and exterminate with cold, hard steel.
And yet, I’d grown to love the demon prince.
I’d entrusted Kaden with more than my life. I trusted him with my heart.
Slowly, I turned to face Semphrys, holding his sinister gaze as I opened my palm.
Time seemed to slow as my blade slid from my grip and clattered to the floor, and Kaden let out a strangled “No!”
His terror was a living thing as it surged down the bond, but I didn’t meet his gaze. I knew what he was thinking.
Kaden had bound me in a fae bargain — made me swear that I would find a way to end Semphrys, no matter what the cost.
He’d known the cost would be him.
Kaden had been prepared to die to end his father. It had never occurred to him that he might lose me instead.
At that moment, Silas’s warning came floating back to me from what felt like a lifetime ago.
Mark my words, Lyra. That pitiful mortal heart of yours is gonna get you killed.
And for the first time, I smiled at the memory of my old master.
Perhaps it was foolish to love a fae, even a half-blooded one. But Kaden had been equally foolish to place his trust in me, because I didn’t have a mortal heart.
I had the heart of a huntress.
A cruel sneer twisted the demon king’s features, and for a moment, I let him revel in it — the perverse satisfaction he felt at turning our love into a weakness.
“I don’t need a blade,” I said, still smiling at the memory of the last male who’d underestimated me. “I’ve already killed you.”
Semphrys’s sneer faltered, and my gaze went to his temples, where tiny beads of sweat had appeared. His already pale skin looked ashen, and he was trembling.
His black eyes shot to the twin crystal chalices, widening as the realization hit him.
“The wine you drank was laced with vikkarni venom,” I said, finally glancing at Kaden. “He told me it was poisonous to his kind, though I didn’t know at the time whether the venom was lethal to demons or the fae.”
Semphrys’s face went slack with shock.
“It was only recently that I discovered the truth. The princess was bitten in the in-between. It made her ill, but she didn’t die.
” I flashed the demon king another saccharine smile.
“Did you know there is a wonderful library beneath the fortress at Cragsmuir? It was there I learned that vikkarni venom is particularly catastrophic when ingested. Oh, and there is no cure. At least not in the Otherworld. There is a variety of blue yarrow that grows in the in-between that could save you, but it’s only effective as an antidote when used as a tincture, which would take several weeks to prepare. ”
For the first time, Semphrys looked stunned. And sweaty. His pale, bald head glistened in the flickering glow cast by the hellfire, and his hands were shaking.
Those shimmering black eyes flashed with the promise of pain, and a tremendous quake shook the chamber.
The firelight guttered as the whole palace quivered, and spiderweb cracks snaked up the wall as the floor groaned and split. A deep crevice opened in the middle of the chamber, the tower groaning from the impact.
There was a shriek and a crash from somewhere behind me, and the demon king’s shadows lashed out.
Another wave of magic made the palace shudder, and when the shadows finally abated, I saw the source of the mayhem standing in the doorway to the chamber.
Adriel.
With his wings splayed, the royal guard looked like an avenging angel and radiated the power of a god. Semphrys and his demons looked momentarily stunned, and I took advantage of the distraction — pushing myself upright.
I whirled on the demons surrounding my friends as Kaden broke free from his captors’ hold. Blood sprayed as he pulled a rowan spike from his wing and thrust it into the chest of one of his father’s soldiers.
The demon shrieked, and I lunged forward, obliterating the monster in a cloud of black mist. Great wisps of it unfurled around us as I slashed and stabbed.
Another tremor shook the palace, and I turned to see the demon king collapse, his limbs moving in violent convulsions.
Triumph swelled in my chest. If my theory was correct, killing him with the vikkarni poison would sever his bond to the souls he’d stolen. When he reanimated, I would drive my witchwood blade through his heart, ending his immortal existence.
But before I could move to watch the life drain from his cold, black eyes, more of those horrible tendrils shot out. They wrapped around my wrists and ankles, wrenching me to the ground.
Pain radiated through my skull as my chin struck the hard obsidian. My witchwood blade clattered out of my grasp, sliding across the slick floor toward the chasm that had split the chamber in two.
No.
The blade came to rest along the edge of the crack, and I sucked in an agonized breath.
I raised my head, looking to Semphrys, who was still lying in a heap. His face was the color of bleached bone, and a sickly yellowish foam leaked from his mouth.
He was dying, yet he still managed to hold me in his grip.
A guttural shriek made my stomach jolt, and I whipped my gaze around.
Kaden was on his knees, face twisted in agony. The tip of a rowan-wood stake protruded from one side of his chest, and driving it in from behind him was —
A cold vise clamped around my heart as the imposter Adriel twisted the blade.
Kaden screamed, and the fake royal guard’s glamour melted away to reveal the real Xadorsch.
A cruel smile twisted the courtier’s lips as he slowly twisted the stake.
Kaden’s guttural groan made it feel as though I was the one being stabbed, and my bottom lip quivered as I watched his hands turn white where they were splayed on the floor.
The sound of splintering wood rent the air, and Kaden let out another moan. Then Xadorsch began to move, his dark robes billowing as he shuffled toward me.
He was going to kill me.
I could feel Semphrys’s power fading as I lay bound by his shadows — feel that suffocating darkness dissipating like smoke as the vikkarni venom did its work.
Only it wasn’t fading fast enough.
My heart throbbed in my throat. If I could just reach my blade —
But Xadorsch was mere feet away, and I was still bound by what remained of the Dark King’s magic.
Scouring my mind, I recalled the levitating rune I’d practiced ad nauseam with Gaeldric back in Adraeis. I’d never quite mastered it, but maybe . . .
Eyeing the blade balanced on the edge of the chasm, I poured every ounce of intent into moving the dagger.
I thought of Adriel and Sorsha, who would die slow, agonizing deaths at Semphrys’s hand if I should fail.
I thought of Anvalyn and all the innocent fae who would perish if the king continued his crusade of greed.
I thought of Kaden’s mother, who’d been brutalized by the Dark King and slaughtered by her own people.
I thought of my own mother, hunted and slain for what she was.
And I thought of my mate, who’d sacrificed everything for the ones he loved.
Gathering my power, I focused every fiber of my being on moving the dagger. The hilt quivered, and then, to my astonishment, it rose a few inches off the floor and shot into my outstretched hand.
I turned to Xadorsch, but his face had gone slack.
My gaze dipped to his abdomen, where the bloody tip of a sword protruded.
Kaden stood behind the courtier, his silver eyes gleaming with rage. Xadorsch gave a sickening gurgle, and I barely had a second to register that the shadowy manacles had disappeared from my wrists.
Rising to my feet, I strode toward the bastard, raising my blade overhead and slamming it down in a deadly arc.
There was a sickening crack as I broke through Xadorsch’s breastbone. An agonized howl made my ears ring, and then he vanished in a cloud of black mist.
A shudder rolled through me as I turned to Semphrys, who lay motionless on the polished obsidian floor. For a split second, the oppressive power that had cloaked the chamber lifted, but then I felt it again.
The king had regenerated.
Swallowing, I glanced back at Kaden, and a thousand expressions flickered across his face. Grief and triumph and pride that sent a surge of warmth flooding through me.
But mostly, there was love. So much warmth and adoration that I felt a lump rise up in my throat as I locked eyes with the male who was bound to my very soul.
The infuriating, beautiful male who’d made me love him not despite what he was, but because of it.
Kaden, the fae prince who loved his people enough to give up his crown.
Taker of Souls, who’d fulfilled his father’s dark purpose to protect his only family.
Son of Elowynn, who dreamt of a world where his people could be free.
The demon king’s heir, who’d worn a wicked mask to protect the kingdom he loved.
My mate.
I was bound to Kaden, body and soul. I couldn’t let him go, but I also couldn’t allow Semphrys to go on existing, devouring the very souls he’d been charged with protecting.
My feet felt heavy as I approached the demon king, my blade humming in my grip. My dagger thirsted for Semphrys’s blood, singing in unison with the hunter’s death song that reverberated in my bones.
Tears clouded my vision as I met Kaden’s gaze, and I caught his slight nod before I raised the blade overhead and plunged it into his father’s chest.