Chapter 57
Gritting his teeth, he seized the shaft jutting from the top of his chest with both hands and ripped it free in one savage motion. Blood burst from the wound in an arc, soaking the front of his shirt almost instantly. He sagged forward, catching himself against the tree.
"Well, well." A chuckle from the darkness. "What do we have here?"
My blood froze in my veins.
"Dreamwalking filth..." the male drawled. "... and a traitorous Eidra whore."
Thalassis stepped from the waves themselves, as though the sea had borne him to shore, a dozen armed males fanning out behind him, spears and harpoons gleaming in their hands. Thalassis carried a crossbow with almost lazy ease, another bolt already nocked and aimed directly at my chest.
Rìan lurched to his feet and placed himself between me and the weapon. "Thalassis," he snarled, baring his teeth.
A slow, arrogant smile curved the High Lord’s mouth, turning his once-handsome features into something cruelly inhuman, every sharp angle of his face lending him an almost demonic cast.
"Tell me, Rìan. Can you ever just die easily?"
"No," Rìan said. "But you can."
Silver light flooded his eyes as his magic gathered, swelling with enough force to make the air tremble around him—only to gutter out an instant later. He doubled over, clutching the wound high on his chest, blood pouring between his fingers.
Thalassis’s smile grew feline with delight as he ran a finger down the length of the bolt. “Iron-coated,” he said simply. “Excruciating.”
My stomach dropped. I reached for him, fear tearing through me but Thalassis tightened his hold on his crossbow. “Ah ah, Eidra,” he said. I stopped abruptly.
Rìan shuddered, his legs buckling beneath him as he dropped back into the sand.
"I wanted to believe Aedric," Thalassis said sadly, fixed on me. "I truly did. That you were everything he claimed. That you were different from your kind. That your human side made you weak and stupid enough to be useful. That, when the time came, you would stand with us."
His gaze slid to Rìan, distaste curling his lips.
"Yet here I find him at your side. No...
not merely at your side. Practically inside.
" He clicked his tongue. "What will your High Lord think when he learns of your faithlessness, I wonder?
Especially after fighting so hard to spare your life.
It only confirms what I've always believed—females are all duplicitous creatures, no matter the species. "
I bit the inside of my cheek until the metallic tang of blood flooded my mouth.
He laughed softly. "I'm almost offended, Elowen. Did you truly think that I'd allow the Dark Prince and the last Eidra to stroll out of my Court so easily? The two pieces capable of deciding the entire game?"
"How?" My voice came out hoarse. "How did you know?"
A look of deep satisfaction settled over his face. "The moment he wrapped his hand around my throat." His blue stare drifted to Rìan and his smile turned triumphant. "Aedric’s grip would’ve burned."
Rìan held his gaze without yielding an inch. But his eyes were glazed with pain and blood loss, his skin ghostly white, the sand around him saturated with dark red.
Thalassis reached into his robes and withdrew a folded sheet of parchment.
"And then this came soon after you left—a rather fascinating correspondence from the Court of Flames.
Lady Calantha was gracious enough to inform the rest of us that the Dark Prince and Lord Aedric's Eidra slipped through her fingers in Illyra.
Vanished without a trace from a pleasure house despite being surrounded on every side.
" He smiled knowingly. "A pleasure house which, incidentally, has its twin in my own Court, connected by a passage I discovered smashed beyond repair. "
He folded the letter once more and slipped it back inside his robes, patting the pocket almost affectionately.
"But that wasn't the most interesting part.
She also mentioned your accomplice—a High Lady who, it seems, has spent centuries concealing a rather inconvenient truth.
" He tutted disapprovingly. "I’d assumed it was the Moiraithe who’d summoned you to their realm when the Full Circle met that day.
Imagine my surprise to discover that Chronod magic runs through Lady Elyndra's lineage. Distant and diluted, admittedly, but enough to condemn her all the same. The Full Circle stripped her of her title immediately. She’s been questioned, but has revealed nothing.
" His nose wrinkled as though he'd caught the scent of something rotten. "Admirable loyalty."
He ran an affectionate hand along the crossbow’s body. "Ordinarily, that loyalty would already have earned her an executioner's blade. But executions ordered by the Full Circle require every member’s vote." He pursed his lips thoughtfully. "And High Lord Aedric seems to have… disappeared.”
Blood rushed to my head.
"Tell me, Eidra." Thalassis's voice was almost conversational. "Did you kill him?"
"No!" The answer tore out of me like a snapped bowstring.
He tilted his head, his eyes narrowing. "Then where is he?"
"I..." My breath hitched. "I don't know."
"You don't know," Thalassis repeated slowly, as though tasting the words. "You expect me to believe Aedric willingly let you walk away with the one male he wants nothing more than to destroy?"
He took a measured step toward me. "No. Something happened to him. And I will discover what." His smile turned monstrous. "Even if I have to peel the pretty skin from your bones to do it."
"You..." Rìan's voice rasped beside me. "...will not... touch her."
I spun toward him. He was still on his knees, one hand clamped over his chest, but the words cost him what little breath he had. His next inhale dissolved into a wet, bubbling wheeze that sent a bolt of fear straight through me.
“Feeling the iron poison, Rìan?” Thalassis called. “It may take some time to stop your heart. A slow death, I’m afraid. Though I confess, I’m rather enjoying the spectacle.”
My magic reared at his words.
Rìan was dying—its mate. My mate.
Panic tore through it, spiraling into a desperate frenzy. If he died, I died—and the last spark of Eidrae magic would vanish from the world.
Rìan's remaining strength gave out. He pitched forward into the sand, catching himself on one shaking arm. His next inhale caught, ending in a thick, gurgling gasp.
I lunged toward him.
"I said don't move!" Thalassis' shout cracked across the beach.
The crossbow snapped upward. Around him, a dozen spears and harpoons leveled toward us in the same instant.
I froze. My gaze found Rìan's. Everything in me screamed at me to reach him, to stop the blood, to do something…
Thalassis followed my stare. His eyes moved from me to Rìan... then back again. His expression slowly changed.
"No..." The word came out barely louder than a whisper. "It can’t be."
Disbelief gave way to dawning comprehension, followed almost immediately by fury.
"You're bonded to him." Something savage ignited in Thalassis' eyes. Behind him, the sea answered. A wave crashed against the shore with enough force to send spray bursting high into the air.
I didn't answer. I didn't have to. He found the truth written plainly across my face.
"You." Thalassis whirled on Rìan, bringing the crossbow to bear once more. "Was this your plan from the beginning? Did you return to Elantis intending to bind the Eidra to yourself? To finish what you started all those centuries ago?"
"When I find Dannis," Rìan rasped. "Then every one of you... will answer for what you've done. To my Court. To my family. To this realm."
The words lodged like a knife beneath my ribs.
"Your nephew?" Thalassis' laughter rolled across the beach, rich with contempt.
"If you think your precious heir will survive this, you're more deluded than I thought.
Levinica will die for harboring you, for betraying the Full Circle.
And I'll find Dannis wherever Aedric has hidden him. I'll slit his throat myself."
Rìan met his gaze in silence, offering no correction about Levinica.
"As for the Eidra..." Thalassis continued. "Until Aedric is found, she belongs to the Court of Tides."
"She… belongs… to no one," Rìan growled.
"Oh, but she will. With you dead and Aedric gone, her magic will seek a new bond.
It's already tasted mine—it will choose me.
" His smile twisted into a sneer. "She'll accept me as her mate.
Willingly, if she's learned anything from this.
By force, if she hasn't. And with her power, we'll finish what should have been done centuries ago.
The Firstborn will die by her hand, and order will be restored. "
He waved a hand at the guards. "Take her."
A net exploded open above me. I barely had time to throw up my hands before it crashed over me, the weighted edges slamming into the sand.
I cried out, pain screaming across my skin.
The net hissed wherever it touched me, each filament branding me with searing agony.
Iron. It was woven with iron.
Beneath my skin, my magic, which only moments ago had raged in blind panic, shrank violently from its touch, retreating deeper and deeper until only a distant ember remained.
I fought without it.
The iron bit deeper as I thrashed, the net tightening with every movement.
"No—!"
Rough hands seized the net.
The commander from Pelaga. The same male who’d hurled Rìan's daggers at him as though he were nothing more than a target.
A feverish, almost ecstatic light blazed in his eyes as his gloved hands hauled on the mesh, dragging me bodily across the beach toward the surf.
He beckoned, and the other guards advanced with spears and harpoons lowered, hemming me in.
Sand filled my mouth, the net biting into every inch of exposed skin. Still, I tore at the strands with desperate hands. A scream of pain and frustration ripped from my throat.