Chapter 26
Nyxarian soldiers poured into the corridor like floodwater, their armour gleaming in the dim light, weapons already drawn. Too many. Far too many for our current state. Varyth could barely stand, Lincatheron was bleeding from where debris had caught him, and we were all running on fumes and fury.
A snarl ripped from Fenric’s throat, something primal and possessive that made the hair on my arms stand up. Obsidian exploded across his hands, crawling up his forearms like living armour.
Beside me, Varyth made a sound I’d never heard from him before. Low and vicious and wrong, like something breaking inside his chest. His hand shot out, fingers closing around my wrist with bruising force as he yanked me behind him.
“Stay back.” The words came out guttural. Mist erupted around us in a wave of silver fury, coiling thick and defensive. “Isara, stay back.”
“I can fight.”
“Not this time.”
Fenric was moving too, his body shifting to physically block Cindrissian and Lincatheron even as they tried to push forward. “Get behind me. Both of you. Now.”
“Fenric, what the hell?” Lincatheron started.
“I said get the fuck behind me.”
The desperation in his voice made my blood run cold. Whatever was coming, whatever had provoked this reaction from both of them—
The soldiers parted.
A male stepped into view.
The snarl that tore from Varyth was feral.
“Don’t,” Fenric bit out, though I couldn’t tell if he was talking to the newcomer or to Lincatheron and Cindrissian behind him. “Don’t fucking move.”
I was already shifting, already preparing to step out from behind Varyth’s protective stance because I’d be damned if I let him use himself as a shield twice in one day.
But then I actually looked at the male who’d just walked into our tunnel.
I knew him.
Not personally. Not from this life.
But I’d seen him before.
In Darian’s memory.
Dark hair, caramel skin. Brutal, elegant features that could have been carved from violence itself.
His face was adorned with several piercings that gleamed in the soft light.
A small gold ring hung from one ear, while delicate chains draped from the other, their intricate designs shimmering as they caught the faintest movement.
The centre of his forehead held a single glittering black gem, dark as obsidian, yet every so often it flashed—as though lightning was trapped beneath the surface.
Power rolled off him in waves that made the air itself crackle and pop. Lightning danced across his shoulders, his arms, threading through dark hair that seemed to move with its own current.
The air around him smelled like ozone and violence.
My breath caught.
Stormborn.
His eyes catalogued each of us with predatory intent. Lingered on Varyth’s wings. Settled on Cindrissian with recognition that felt dangerously intimate.
“Cindrissian.” His voice was smooth, cultured. “Haven’t seen you in a century, old friend.”
The way he said friend made it sound like a threat.
Fenric’s snarl intensified, obsidian crawling further up his arms until it looked like he was wearing gauntlets forged from solidified darkness. “You’re not taking him.”
The words came out feral, protective, and so viciously possessive that even Lincatheron turned to stare.
Merrick’s laugh was rich and warm and absolutely devoid of humanity.
“Not to worry.” Lightning danced between his fingers, casual as breathing.
“I have no interest in traitorous scum.” His gaze slid back to Cindrissian, predatory and amused.
“How’d that work out for you though, Cindri?
Betraying your Court, your people, your family for—what was it?
Love?” The word dripped with mockery. “How’s. .. what’s her name? Eilrys?”
Cindrissian went absolutely still. Not the stillness of calm, but the frozen rigidity of violence barely held back. When he spoke, it was silk and poison. “Why don’t you just go back to sucking Ashterion’s cock, Merrick? Or are you out here because that wife of his finally replaced you?”
The temperature in the tunnel dropped.
Then Merrick tilted his head, and before anyone could move, before I could even process what was happening, a bolt of lightning slammed into Cindrissian’s chest.
The impact launched him backward with enough force that the air itself screamed. He hit the cave wall across from us with a sickening crunch and crumpled to the ground with a groan that made my chest seize.
“No!” Fenric’s roar shook the tunnel.
Obsidian erupted from his hands in a wave of lethal spikes, launching toward Merrick at a speed that should have been impossible to dodge.
Merrick moved like liquid lightning, electricity arcing around him as he sidestepped the attack with brutal grace. The obsidian spikes embedded themselves in the soldiers behind him, three dropping before they even realised they were dead.
“Fenric.” Merrick’s tone was almost conversational as he surveyed the carnage. “Still so emotional. Still so tragically attached.”
“I’m going to fucking kill you.” Fenric was unrecognisable, something primal and utterly unhinged bleeding through.
Varyth’s mist thickened, his grip on my wrist bordering on painful. I could feel the tension radiating off him.
“Let us pass.” Varyth’s voice was steady despite the blood trickling from his temple. “Whatever orders you have—”
Stormborn’s gaze slid past Varyth.
Found me.
The amusement on his face shifted into something more focused. Lightning rippled across his frame in a pattern that looked almost curious.
“And who,” he purred, taking a step closer, “is this?”
Varyth moved instantly, blocking his line of sight with his body, mist coiling like it was preparing to strike. “None of your concern.”
“Now that’s interesting.” Stormborn’s head tilted, studying the protective stance with the attention a predator gave prey that was acting strangely. “You’re rather invested in keeping her hidden. Which makes me very, very curious about what she is.”
He took another step forward.
I didn’t have time to process what was happening before Varyth’s grip on my wrist turned to iron.
“Run.” The word came out feral, desperate. “Isara, fucking run.”
But Stormborn’s attention had already locked onto me with a focus that said running was never going to be an option. Lightning crackled across his shoulders, threading through dark hair that moved like it had its own heartbeat.
“Oh.” The word dripped with realisation, with triumph. “Is this the human? The one that has half the courts in the realm hunting?”
He took another step forward, casual as death.
“The one my commander is looking for.”
The mist around Varyth exploded outward. His wings snapped wide, every line of his body screaming mine in a language that transcended words. “You’re not fucking touching her.”
Behind Stormborn, the soldiers shifted, weapons rising, bodies tensing in that way that preceded violence.
For a moment, no one moved.
The tunnel held its breath.
Then the cave exploded.
Pure, blinding, white-hot light seared through my eyelids even when I squeezed them shut. The air tasted like ozone and rage and the split second before lightning struck.
The force of it drove me to my knees.
When my vision cleared, when I could see again through the spots dancing across my retinas, the world had fundamentally changed.
Bodies littered the ground.
The soldiers behind Stormborn were just... gone. Not dead in the traditional sense. Dead in the way things died when lightning decided they shouldn’t exist anymore. Scorched and smoking and utterly, completely lifeless.
And Varyth—
Oh gods, Varyth.
He lay crumpled against the tunnel wall, wings splayed awkwardly, unconscious but breathing.
Blood trickled from his nose, his ears. Beside him, Lincatheron had fallen across Fenric like he’d tried to shield him even while unconscious.
And Cindrissian hadn’t moved from where Stormborn’s first attack had thrown him.
All of them down.
All of them breathing, but down.
Only Stormborn and I remained standing.
“Perfect.” His voice was silk and satisfaction as he surveyed the carnage with the detachment of someone admiring their own artwork. Lightning danced across his frame, casual and beautiful and absolutely devastating. “Now we can chat.”
“You just murdered your entire fucking squad and you want to chat?”
“What do you want?” The words came out flat, lethal. I wasn’t going to give him anything. Not a single fucking answer.
Merrick studied me for a long moment, lightning lashing across his frame in patterns that should have been beautiful and were only terrifying. “Has he hurt you?”
The question landed so far from what I’d expected that I actually blinked.
“Has Varyth,” he continued, his tone almost conversational. “Harmed you in any way? Threatened you?”
“What the fuck kind of—”
“It’s a simple question.” He cut in. “Has he given you reason to fear him?”
My laugh was jagged, feral. “What the fuck do you mean do I fear him? You’re the one who just electrocuted an entire cave.”
“I’m asking,” he said with infuriating patience. “If the male currently unconscious behind you has treated you with anything resembling respect. Or if you’re here because you have no other choice.”
Something hot and possessive ripped through my chest. “Varyth has kept me alive when half the realm apparently wants me dead or worse. He’s protected me. If you’re trying to paint him as some kind of enemy, you can fuck off.”
“I’m not painting him as anything.” Merrick’s expression remained neutral. “I’m trying to determine if you understand what you’ve gotten yourself entangled with.”
“I don’t know what you want,” I snarled, black fire flickering hotter under my skin. “So either take me to whoever the hell you answer to, or—”
“I’m not taking you anywhere.”
I stared at him.
Merrick’s mouth curved into something that might have been a smile if smiles could be weapons. “In fact, that’s precisely what I’m trying to prevent.”