EPILOGUE
SOUNDTRACK: Burn it Down by Added Color
~ VOSKI ~
I stood in the bleak, midnight shadows, staring down at the slack mouth and half-revealed shining pate of the sleeping Lord who thought he had a right to lay hands on my mate.
Moonlight angled through a small gap in the curtains left by a careless servant.
It cast the room in a blue hue that turned Breckon’s skin near-gray.
I gripped the hilt of my blade so tightly my arm shook.
All of me shook with the unadulterated desire to kill.
He thought he could slap my mate like a bratty child?
He thought he could steal her?
He thought he had a right to her body—to her blood?
‘Darkness will never be defeated by deeper darkness,’ Kham rumbled in my head.
‘He deserves to die.’
‘And he will,’ my dragon replied, unwavering.
I imagined that I exhaled loudly enough that Breckon’s eyes popped open, and we shared that split second when our eyes locked and his brain registered that the shadow I cast was deeper, and darker, and blood red—
I swallowed hard. ‘He deserves to die painfully,’ I sent sullenly to my dragon.
‘That is not your choice to make.’
Wasn’t it? I took a half-step closer so my shadow moved up his chest, just as the sensation of a soft, warm hand slid against my back.
For a moment, I thought the specters had come—but it was Grace, in the bond.
‘Walk away. We made the right plan. It’s a good one,’ she sent with weary conviction.
I glared down at Breckon once more and resisted her tug. But then I looked down at each of my hands, and something in my chest tightened.
One fist was full of a weapon for murder.
The other open—giving me the choice. To grip the throat of darkness? Or the hand of mercy?
Grace hovered in the bond. ‘I should come with you.’
I shook my head and braced. ‘No.’ I’d die to protect her. And knew she’d throw herself in the path of death just as quickly for me. I knew that—knew her—like I knew the texture of my own palms.
I didn’t know how a Cruor’s vow could draw us closer, but somehow it had.
‘It wasn’t a Cruor’s vow,’ Kham spat in my head, like he tasted something bitter.
‘She devoted herself to you. Surrendered. She gave herself, and honored the bond. Your joy in each other, your devotion tied you together, by the Creator’s hand.
Not by any dark means,’ he growled. ‘The sacrifice of self for the love of another will always strengthen the bond. Do not erode the powerful weapon he has given you by using it as a vehicle for evil.’
‘If I kill him, I remove evil from this world.’
‘The time for his death is not yours to decide!’ Kham was growing agitated.
I was unmoved. ‘I’ve killed before and you didn’t growl. You comforted me.’
‘You killed in battle, in defense. Even the Creator approves of using your strength for the protection of others.’
‘I would kill now in defense of her.’
‘Don’t fool yourself, Voski. If you use that blade now, you do so to soothe your fear. It isn’t the same at all.’
‘You’re splitting hairs.’
‘Am I? Then do it.’ His challenge surprised me. The sinking feeling in my chest didn’t. And he felt it. ‘I offer wisdom, and your heart sings with it. This is a trial, Voski, not your chance to indulge your rage.’
‘Indulge!?’ I almost spat the word out loud.
But Kham didn’t waver. ‘Go. Use the other weapons you’ve been armed with.
Prove to all of them that the power within both of you is for good, not evil.
Do not attempt to beat them at their own dark game.
It will only suck you into the dungeons that trap their souls.
Defeat them with the Godgiven power within you.
Crush them with the love and passion you and your mate hold for each other. Conquer them with the truth.’
A tremble rocked through me. Grace urged me through the link. ‘Please. Please… leave him. He’s nothing.’
I clenched my teeth, reluctantly sneaking past the bastard to the hidden passage panel in the wall.
The moment I’d inched that door closed, I continued on silent feet, through the walls of the castle, unseen, the blade still in my free hand in the event that I met an adversary.
I begged God to give me a reason to end one of these evil pricks tonight.
But, of course, I made it all the way out of the royal wing, and to the cold, deserted guest suite with access to the secret passageways that was currently unused.
The servants wouldn’t even come here to clean, because the furniture was covered in dustcloths, meaning there was no plan to place guests here. It was a relatively safe place to stop and recenter.
When I needed to be close to Grace, I’d hide here. Because, as much as it made my skin crawl, she wouldn’t be leaving the castle. Not yet.
Not until these fuckers learned who walked among them.
Once they had all seen her and knew what she was.
When they’d witnessed the light pouring out of her, as if she swallowed the sun.
After they’d learned her true value—and that it would not be accessible to them because I was here.
And she was mine.
A wave of jealousy, smug pride, and white-hot rage coursed through me.
I was forced to take a moment. I looked out the window into the thin light rising beyond it. Night was fading. It was almost dawn.
I felt ill.
And utterly certain.
It was time for Lord Vane Ashford, Heir to the House of Ashford, and Prince of the Old Blood, to return miraculously from the dead to claim his bride.
The rest of them could watch, and wonder. They could admire, and envy. They could whisper of my subterfuge, or her power.
But the first to harm her would meet the deadly end of my power.
Including, and most especially, my mother.