2. Chapter 2 #3
She scanned the audience and paused, her eyes locked onto the empty air around me. The weight of her attention pressed against Maxx's illusion, making me feel exposed and naked despite the glamours keeping us safe.
"They hide among you," she murmured. "They wear your faces. Speak your words. And all the while, they plot."
The crowd shifted. Uneasy now. Looking at their neighbors. Wondering.
This is what she does, I realized. She doesn't just lie. She makes everyone afraid of each other.
My Marks howled, the Unravel straining to rip her apart.
"Stay. Calm." Caden's voice, barely a breath. His hand gripped my shoulder fiercely.
Then movement at the edge of the dais.
Enforcers. Two of them, in midnight-blue cloaks and silver-banded helms.
And between them—
My heart stopped.
Eryndor.
They held him by the arms, disguising the restraint with a professional subtlety the crowd would mistake for ceremonial escort.
But I saw the tension in his shoulders. The locked jaw. The way he moved like a male walking to his own execution.
Gods. What have they done to you?
He looked drawn. Even from here I could see the strain in the hard set of his mouth, the hollows under his eyes, the way he held himself like one wrong breath might split him open. His dark hair was plastered to his forehead, dripping icy water into eyes that stared at nothing.
I left you here. I left you with them.
They positioned him beside Vivienne. Close enough to touch.
For one wild moment, I let myself hope. Maybe this was just ceremony. Maybe he'd found a way to play her game. Maybe—
Vivienne turned to him with a smile that made my blood freeze.
"My beloved husband."
Let her fingers skim the edge of his cheekbone like she owned every inch of him.
"Your prince stands with me in this holy work. Together—" She slid her hand down to his chest. Let it rest there. "—we will heal what was broken."
Her other hand drifted to her stomach.
Rested.
Lingered.
"Together," she whispered, loud enough for the crowd to hear, "we will build a future worthy of the light."
The implication hit them like a wave. More gasps. More tears. Somewhere behind me, a lady sobbed about blessings and heirs and answered prayers.
That lying bitch—
It didn't matter. The crowd believed it. The realm would believe it. And Eryndor would stand there and let them, because that was the price of Caden's freedom.
His hands clenched at his sides. Knuckles white. Face carved from stone.
He couldn't look at the crowd.
He couldn't look at me.
Vivienne turned back to face her subjects. That beatific smile still painted on her perfect face.
"Let this be a message to those who would defy the Crown."
Her eyes found mine.
Through the glamour. Through the crowd. Through everything.
She knew.
"There is nowhere to hide." Her smile widened—slow, carnivorous. "There is no one coming to save you."
She turned her body toward me. Eryndor at her back, eyes locked on mine, smile so wide her fangs cut over her full lips.
Don't. Whatever you're about to do—
Then she reached behind her and let the back of her hand graze his cock.
The world went red at the edges.
My teeth clenched. Every muscle in my body locked down. I will kill you—I will tear you apart with my bare hands and feed the pieces to your precious little mutt.
She turned her hand over. Cupped him. Her sneer deepened and then she gripped his cock hard.
A growl ripped out of me at the same time Eryndor stepped back and shoved her hand away.
I tasted blood as my fangs lengthened. The air around me turned to static, lifting my hair, snapping with raw power. Then the scar on my chest—that graveyard where our bond used to be—caught fire. I launched myself at the dais, my hand already ripping Voidbringer free.
Serenya's hand clamped over my mouth. Caden's arms locked around me from behind, hauling me back.
"Don't." Serenya's voice cracked. "She wants this. She's baiting you."
Vivienne pulled back from Eryndor and delicately licked her finger.
He stood frozen. Face blank. Eyes dead.
Vivienne raised her arms to the sky. Tilted her face toward the heavens like a saint receiving benediction.
"The beasts are gone." Her voice rang across the field. "The traitors will fall. The corruption will be cleansed."
She spread her arms wider. Let the dim light catch her gown, her crown, her perfect terrible face.
"And there is nothing left above us—"
Her smile was radiant. Holy. Insufferable.
"—but the Light."
The crowd's roar shook the earth.
Then, without warning, the rain stopped. A strange silence followed without the continuous splash of raindrops on mud.
A shadow spilled over the dais. Patient. Devouring. It stretched across the crowd, across the field, across Vivienne's upturned face, and the air went cold.
The crowd's cheering faltered. People looked up.
Vivienne's smile shuttered.
The white light of her gown went dark. The glittering stones in her crown stopped catching the light. The whole hill—the whole field—swallowed by something ancient and wrathful.
I looked up.
Vengeance spread its black wings and blotted out the sky. The roar that followed shook the entire city of Velmyra.
And for the first time since this nightmare began—
A shit-eating grin spread across my face.