Chapter 35
K ade had come for me.
Even if we were still outnumbered, the thought alone gave me hope that nothing Andras said would ever come to fruition.
Kade’s eyes were deep pits of ebony storms as his wrath consumed the space around him.
His deadly stare focused solely on Andras and the tether of vines he’d weaved around me.
Ian fell to the ground, shifting from his hawk form alongside Kade, followed by Storm, who took out a dark one approaching us, as if it were nothing.
They’d all come to help. To fight for me.
“The Royal Guard is rounding up the last of your dark ones now, Andras.” Ian seethed. “It’s over.”
Andras tilted his head to the side, scoffing. The vine around my waist crawled up and over my breasts, inching toward my throat, my fingernail unable to reach the spot I’d been furiously cutting.
“Dark ones. What a precious nickname. But you have no idea what they’re capable of, Captain ,” Andras spat. “In fact, right now, there are more tearing through the streets of Ellevail. The cries of your people will echo here soon. You will not defeat us. Brookmere will be ripe for the taking.”
Andras yanked me backward, tugging me out of the arena as dark ones rushed past him, toward my friends. A chasm of thorns erupted, blocking their path to me.
“No,” I screamed, renewing my fight against him.
We reached the gardens, people running and screaming around us.
Someone bellowed in pain behind me. No, please don’t let them be hurt.
With a fury inside I had felt more than I cared to admit lately, I ripped my hand from beneath one of the vines and latched onto it, screaming all of the hatred I had for Andras.
An unfamiliar light sparked under my hand as the vine beneath me shriveled. Whatever nature blessed me with in these dire moments, I prayed would continue.
I whirled on the man who’d tortured me all those years, and he snarled as the doors to the palace behind him flung open.
Andras smiled as if he knew the dark ones were with him. He raised his hands to his side, roots crawling toward the surface, morphing into another thorny vine, and he flung it in my direction.
Everything happened too fast to process. I couldn’t move quickly enough, but someone else did.
Leif came out of nowhere, hurling his body in front of mine as the vine tore through his thigh, pushing out the other side.
“ Leif ,” I cried, falling to my knees next to him. “Why, Leif? Leif!”
“I’m fine.” He clenched his teeth. “Get out of here, somewhere safe, Lana. Go.” He pressed his hand toward my shoulder.
“I can’t leave you here. I won’t leave you.”
“I’ve got him.” Corbin appeared a second later and smirked at his friend. “Had to be the hero.”
“I told you, I’m fine. Go!” Leif shouted to me, before grasping Corbin’s arm.
I nodded, standing, only to notice Andras’s robes flowing behind him as he strode through the open doors and into the palace.
Someone shouted my name from behind, but I refused to stop.
Andras wouldn’t walk away unscathed today. I couldn’t watch him harm another person I cared for. Not if I could stop him.
And I would. I’d fight to the death if that’s what it took to rid Brookmere of his evil.
I chased after him, thankful for all the running Ian made me do. Every time I thought I’d caught him, he turned down another hallway. Then another.
I shouted his name, “Andras!”
He moved too fast. I had to get him to stop somehow.
“Are you too scared to fight me? Even without my magic?” I screamed.
He stopped and turned.
My chest heaved, and not from the run, but from the adrenaline flowing through my veins as I stood face-to-face with my enemy. There was no mistake.
Andras was the enemy.
Of me.
Of Ian.
Of all of Brookmere.
“You have no idea what’s coming,” he said. The grin on his face worried me, but I refused to acknowledge the emotion long enough to give it merit. “You being magicless is the least of my worries. Brookmere is ours. The kingdom will belong to the darkness forever.”
“Not if I have anything to say about it,” I said, whipping a dagger from my boot.
He laughed at the sight. “There’s nothing you can do. Casimir is hunting down the king now, and soon this will be an incredibly unfair fight when he has the king’s magic.”
“He will not get it from him,” I said, gripping my dagger tightly.
Andras remained unarmed and undeterred. It would take one dive if I could get close enough to make him bleed. Although he may heal fast, he couldn’t heal if I kept stabbing him.
“You worthless girl. Foolish and predictable,” he said. “Do you think because you made some powerful friends you can do anything to stop what’s been in motion for years?”
I kept my mouth shut, not understanding what he admitted.
“Your precious father is dying thanks to me .”
I stumbled back a step, but kept my dagger raised.
The candelabras in the hallway flickered as if reacting to the news as well.
“I’ve been poisoning him for years,” Andras hissed. “I gave up on our little sessions and moved onto the better part of our plans.”
Our? He hadn’t done this alone.
“He’s been fighting me so fiercely. But even he is no match for the power of the darkness.” He tilted his head to the side, studying my surprise. “When Casimir finds him and drains his magic, there will be nothing anyone can do to prevent me from invading his mind. The darkness will win, and with the king’s powerful magic under his control, there will be nothing anyone can do.” He stalked forward, pointing at me. “Especially a weak child with no magic in her bones.”
“You’ve been doing this to your King? You’re a traitor ,” I shouted, slowly taking a few steps toward him. I couldn’t startle him, or he’d run.
No, I wanted his blood dripping down my blade for what he’d done.
“I will be rewarded. Just like I have been given more power for eliminating Elisabeth.”
I froze, every fiber of my being ignited by his words, alighting with a fire never to be quenched unless I stood over this Fae’s dead body.
“Ah, surprised?” He sneered. “She got close to countering my poison, and I couldn't have that. So, in the chaos of the second trial, I killed her.” He grinned gleefully. “Soon everyone will be bowing before me or will be destroyed, just like her.”
“Bow to whom?” I bellowed. “You? In your dreams. You are nothing.”
He moved faster than I was prepared for, wrapping one hand around my throat, and the other around the wrist of the hand holding the dagger.
No.
He raised me from the ground, squeezing harder. I was running out of air. “I’d kill you now, but I want to see your face when I drain the magic from your pathetic father. I’ll watch your pain when he dies, when all those you love—Kalliah, Ian, all of them—die fighting to save your worthless life.”
He nuzzled his nose against my face. “I’ll take what I want from you, frame Casimir for what happened today, and ascend the throne beside your weak, compliant body. The hero who saved Illiana and Brookmere.” He inhaled, and slowly licked his tongue from the corner of my mouth to my cheek. “I will be King and take all of what’s mine.”
Nausea churned inside my gut at the thought of his hands on me. The way he bent my body, even now, to his will, all because I didn’t have the magic I needed to defend myself.
I am Illiana Dresden, and I am stronger than the darkness within me.
Energy danced inside of me, something growing—fury, rage, anger. I screamed, and that same precious light exploded from within me, sending Andras paces away.
I gasped, inhaling deep breaths as oxygen flowed into my lungs again.
“Has someone decided they’re ready to play?” he asked, his lip curling as he stared at me.
I didn’t care what had happened, it got him off of me. I lunged for the dagger, which had fallen from my hands, and ran toward him, ready to stab him.
I slashed downward, missing, and slicing through the forearm of his tunic as he barely avoided my attack.
He ripped at it, flinging it off with a fierce yell. “There are ways to get what I want with or without you cognizant, Illiana. But without you will mean pain for the ones you love.”
He spread his arms out arrogantly, and I caught sight of a mark on the forearm I’d stripped bare.
A black circle, surrounding an eye. The same mark I’d seen on the dark one Storm had on his knees a few weeks before. What the hell?
I narrowed my gaze, wrath burning within me. I needed him alive to provide answers to all of this. I ran toward him, but Andras tossed his hands in the air, laughter echoing around us.
And disappeared.
“No,” I yelled, frantically searching around the hallway.
He was gone. Running off again like a true coward.
With Andras out of sight, I knew I needed to go back. I needed to find Kade.
And more importantly, my father.
Whatever Andras had planned with Casimir wasn’t over yet. My father needed to be protected at all costs.
Now more than ever.