Chapter 11 Zadyn
ZADYN
Days pass as we wait for word from Ilayna that she’s been invited back to the castle. We are haggard, sleep-starved, and on edge. I watch Jace’s sanity withering away with each passing second she remains out of reach.
I know how he feels. I just do a better job of hiding it.
My eyes drift out over the shimmering black ocean as I feed more sticks into the fire. We decided to set up camp here along the shoreline to be closer to the keep. Closer to her.
It physically hurts to be separated like this. To not hear her voice, to know she’s suffering and I’m not there when every part of me is hard-wired to protect her. To keep her safe, to keep her happy. So far, I’m failing at all three.
The palms part as a cloaked figure steps out of the forest and drops her hood.
Ilayna.
The first time I saw her was in the marketplace.
It was late. She was stepping out of a carriage bearing Vod’s royal crest. I watched the footman help her down the steps before she disappeared into an old building.
I paid off the old fae with the glass eye and followed her as if guided by the Fates.
I didn’t expect to find myself inside a pleasure house.
“Why are you following me?” A honey-sweet voice called from behind me.
There she stood, eyes wide like saucers. Trusting. But I could read all the pain and suffering there, all the crushed innocence and stubborn hope in the face of bleak despair.
I could sense the goodness in her.
Before I could respond, I was thrown against a wall.
“We don’t tolerate stalkers here.” The guard double my size started hauling me toward the door.
“I’m not a stalker, I just need to speak with the lady. Please, it’s urgent.”
I was prepared to fight, but I didn’t have to.
“Holdyn, stop.” The guard froze as we both turned to look at her. “You may have five minutes of my time.”
Five minutes was all I needed to convince her. She didn’t give me her story, but she made her feelings toward the Trioris clear. They clearly harmed her in some way, but I didn’t pry.
It’s impossible not to feel sorry for her. Someone too kind and beautiful and delicate for such an ugly world. Someone forced to relinquish their power in order to survive. To resign themselves to being seen and used as an object for pleasure.
It sickens me. She doesn’t belong in this place.
“Any word from the castle?” I ask as she drops into the sand beside me.
“The madame received a request this morning. A dozen girls in two days’ time”—she pauses, nervously glancing from me to Jace—“for a wedding.”
My heart rate ticks up. “A wedding,” I repeat mechanically.
Jace shoots forward. “Whose wedding?”
“I doubt it’s Mal and Ilspeth’s,” Dover mumbles sardonically.
“It’s Kylian’s wedding,” Ilayna confirms.
No.
No, no, no. This cannot be happening. This is why he wanted her? Why he took her? I’m going to be sick.
“Damn it,” Jace hisses.
“Oh gods.” Mar lifts a hand to cover her mouth.
“There has to be some mistake. She would never agree to it.” I shake my head, baffled.
“You think he’s giving her a choice? He’ll force her!” Jace shouts. Then he turns to Mar. “Do another scrying. We need to see what’s going on.”
“Now?”
“Yes, now. I need to make sure she’s alright.”
“She’s being held against her will and forced into marriage. I doubt she’s alright, Jace,” Dover grumbles.
This has to be a misunderstanding.
But no matter how desperately I want to deny it, in my heart I know it’s true. It makes perfect sense.
He wants to bind them together using the Bloodfast—the ritual performed by royals and High Fae with powerful bloodlines to keep their lineage strong.
If he marries Serena and they complete the rite, he will not only bind them together, but he’ll come into his full generational power. And gain a dragon in the process.
He’ll be unstoppable.
Mar turns ghost white as Jace rears his head in the direction of the sea. “Look. All the water you could possibly need.”
A moment later, Mar is kneeling in the shallow tide with us huddled close behind.
She dunks her hands into the cool water, and the sea surrounding us begins to bubble and glow.
Mist swirls around the surface, then clears to an image of Kai on a stage, arms suspended from a rope, rocks flying at him until he goes limp and passes out.
I can barely watch the grotesque display, cringing as a large rock bashes in part of his skull.
“Oh, Kai.” Mar gasps, clasping her mouth.
The image pans to a box high up in an odd-looking theatre.
My breath catches at the sight of Serena dressed in crimson, wearing blood ore chains and that damned ruby collar.
She leans over the balcony, wailing Kai’s name.
Then she whirls and lunges for Ilspeth, mauling her with the ferocity of a lioness. My stomach curls as Mal steps in.
No.
His punch hits me in the gut, coiling around the white-hot rage burning there. I throw myself forward into the water, snarling.
The image shifts again to a candlelit bedroom.
I watch, sick to my stomach as Serena swings an iron poker at Kylian.
He uses it to yank her into his chest. His hands slide into her hair, his face hovering near hers as he whispers something I can’t hear, and the fury I feel could decimate an entire city.
The image fades as the water returns to its misty, opaque surface.
“No! I need to see more! If he hurts her—” Jace growls.
“That’s all I can see right now,” Mar murmurs apologetically. He turns on me with daggers for eyes.
“I told you. I told you that he would force her.”
“He won’t force her if he wants the Bloodfast, which I’m guessing he does. It has to be consensual. He’s a power-hungry fuck, but he can’t force her into it,” I remind him. That is the only sliver of hope I can cling to.
“No, but he can extort her. You saw what he was doing to Kai. You think she’s just going to sit by and allow it to continue? No, either he’ll force her or she’ll be a martyr.”
He’s right about that. Kylian is using Kai to wear her down. And from the look on her face in those tableaus, I know it’s only a matter of time before he succeeds.
Serena’s heart is so big. Leave it to Kylian to exploit that.
“Gods damn it!” Jace spits, pacing through the night-cooled sand. “We need to get in there. Now.”
I try to remain levelheaded when every fiber of my being wants to put my fist through a wall. To storm in there and massacre everyone on sight. I’m just as enraged as Jace right now. And it is because I feel completely powerless.
I turn to Loryn, who’s been watching us—silent and wary. “Loryn. Is two days enough time for you?”
He nods, his gray brows furrowing. “It’s enough time.”
“So we have a plan.” I eye each of them intently.
“Fuck the plan, she needs us now!” Jace snaps, stalking up to me.
“Careful, Jace.”
In a flash of speed, he has me gripped around the collar. “I don’t fucking care if I have to do this alone. I’m going in, and I will kill anyone who tries to stop me.”
He bolts toward the forest, but I’m just as quick, latching onto his jacket and slamming him into the nearest tree.
His punch hits me in the jaw, but it’s not enough for me to let go.
He thrashes, fangs flashing, golden eyes empty except for the compulsive need to rip something apart. And right now that something is me.
“Jace, stop!” Mar shouts.
Dover rushes to help restrain him, and Jace breaks loose, nearly biting off his hand.
“I know you love her,” I pant, holding up my hands. His crazed eyes slide back to mine. “I get it. Believe me, I do. But if you do this, you will set off every alarm in that castle, and we will be taken. We won’t be able to help her if we’re in chains. Be smart about this. We will get her out.”
“In what state?” Jace seems to slowly inch back to reason, the murderous glint in his eyes subsiding as his shoulders sag. “We are failing her. She is ours, and we are failing her. I’m failing her.”
He sinks to his knees in the sand, and I’ve never seen a male so broken. I never claimed to like him, never felt he was worth the breath or tears Serena wasted on him. But seeing him in this state—shaking with desperation—I feel sorry for him.
I know how he feels because it’s everything I feel. Everything I am fighting to keep down because I know what’s at stake. His head dips, his fingers curling in the sand. I lower myself beside him and brace a hand on his shoulder.
“This is not over. We have a plan. It is not over until she is safe and home. With us. She isn’t helpless. She knows how to survive. We will get her back, and they will pay for every hair out of place on her head.”