Chapter Eighty-Seven #2
Chains clink behind me, and another soldier materializes holding heavy silver chains. A Shadowweave cloak. They’ve been hiding in plain sight.
I hiss in pain.
They wrap the chains around my wrists behind my back. I cry out in agony as they sizzle against my skin, and the tether to Kael snuffs out, going completely silent. The tingle of my magic that hums under my skin quiets, and I feel... empty.
“KAEL!” I cry, and that’s when I see it.
Jax, Merrik and Daelen are already on the ground. Faces pressed to the forest floor, knees digging heavy into their backs, cutting off their air.
Five men crowd around Kael, dragging him to his knees, chains hanging from his wrists, too. He fights, snarling at the men who played a cowardly game.
Seren is dragged down by men twice her size, knees pressing into her delicate back, shoving her body into the dirt, “They’re lillath chains, El. They nullify magic.” She wheezes the words, and a soldier presses their boot to her neck to stop her from talking.
“NO!” I cry, desperation pressing down on my chest, clawing at me to do something. Anything.
Ronyn’s bow is crumpled and broken, lying splintered under a looming tree.
Panic seizes me. I can’t see him.
Ronyn!
We’re vastly outnumbered. More soldiers with the Mark of Morrathys break through the treeline, descending on us in droves.
Kael’s roar of defiance ripples through the jungle, a battle cry, but the cowards who hold him down in chains of lillath land a hit on his jaw, and blood trickles down his chin. “You fucking cowards!” He grits out, his jaw clenched in unhinged resistance.
A strangled grunt escapes me as I throw my head back, connecting with the soldier behind me.
“You fucking bitch,” he snarls, and the blunt force of his hilt cracks into my head.
My vision blurs, but in the distance, I can make out a figure lying unmoving in the dirt.
I beg my sight to clear.
Come on! Come on!
It clears enough to take in Ronyn’s limp frame, a cracked and bleeding split in his head.
NO!
But I can’t do anything.
Because that’s when I see him.
A tall, imposing figure cloaked in black strides through the treeline, gold chains hanging from his neck in a show of blatant ostentatiousness. His ocean blue eyes are the same hue as Kael’s, but that’s where the similarities end.
“Ah, it’s so good to see you again, nephew,” he croons with an arrogant smile.
Kael spits blood onto the ground in greeting, drawing his mouth back in a snarl.
“You always were an untrained animal, Kael. Your father raised you to be weak—always acting with your soft hearts instead of your brains and blades,” Maldrak growls.
Kael’s breath hitches, but not at the insult. His eyes dart to a rocky outcropping beside Maldrak, and then back again, flicking back and forth. Confusion, or terror, or something else entirely fall across his face.
I can’t see.
I fight desperately against the lillath.
What the fuck is over there?
Kael groans, fighting against the restraints, but the soldiers push him down, a blade at his throat. A soldier with a leather strap fixing his hair in a long, tangled tail of dirty blonde hair leans down to Kael, whispering something that makes Kael’s jaw clench.
“We had a deal, nephew. Or should I call you prince?” Maldrak mocks.
Kael doesn’t respond, veins bulging in his neck at the tension.
“I’m just so glad you could make it today, nephew.
I thought you wouldn’t come. After all, I know you thought you could change your plans without my knowing,” Maldrak sings, but there’s no denying he’s toying with Kael.
“But then, it’s so fortunate that we have a mutual friend who could keep me informed. ”
The crowd of soldiers jostle around, parting to make way for someone moving to the front.
“Rhyven,” I whisper, barely believing my eyes.
“RHYVEN!” Kael’s voice is murder incarnate.
My heart cleaves in two. He fucking sold us out.
“Did you think you wouldn’t pay for what you did to Zak?” Rhyven growls, animalistic fury taking over his body, his fists clenched at his sides with barely leashed rage.
“You fucking rat!” Kael screams, and I can hear Therion and Daelen snarling into the dirt with boots and blades keeping them in place.
“Why?” I breathe, almost inaudibly.
“Why?” Rhyven snarls, his voice cracking under the weight of his hatred.
“Because you are no one. You are nothing. You don’t belong to Zerynthia. You don’t belong to us. You were a curse from the moment you crawled into our world—an infection we should have burned out long ago.”
His chest heaves with barely leashed rage.
“You ruined my brother. You ruined my family. You made us weak when we needed to be strong—and now look where we are.”
His voice lowers into something even uglier.
“Zak was right. We should have let him rip you apart when we had the chance.”
A desperate roar rips from Kael’s throat.
A soldier charges toward Kael to shut him up, but he throws himself forward.
Shoulder launching in a frenzied arc that uppercuts the soldier under the chin.
All I hear is the sickening crack of bones before the dirty blonde soldier swipes at Kael with the back of his hand.
Kael drops to the ground.
“NO!” I cry, desperate to get to him.
The soldiers drag him back to his knees, blood and dirt mingling on his face, hair falling forward into his eyes.
“Let’s not get distracted here, children,” Maldrak says calmly. “We came to make a deal, did we not?”
The dirty blonde soldier leans down, whispering something into Kael’s ear, and his eyes dart to the rocky outcropping again. What can he see?
He shakes his head in defiance, but says nothing.
“We made a deal, didn’t we, nephew?” Maldrak pushes again, calculating, calm.
“Yes,” Kael grits out.
I whip my gaze to him.
What?
But he keeps his eyes ahead, fixed on Maldrak.
“Care to share what that deal was, prince?” The last word is thick with venom.
Kael doesn’t speak. His body is pinned in place, except for his eyes, still frantic, as they race between the rocks and Maldrak.
“Did we not make a deal for the Lightborne in exchange for your dear sister?” He mocks.
The air is stolen from my lungs.
I can’t fucking breathe.
What is happening?
“Well?” Maldrak probes.
There’s a long pause, and I can’t breathe. My chest rises and falls too quickly. My hands tremble in the chains.
“Yes,” Kael confirms. “We have a fucking deal,” the words come out like a rasp.
My gut roils. Its contents threatening to spill out.
“I would really love to hear you say it, nephew. Just so the Lightborne is clear about the terms.”
Kael swallows thickly, eyes darting, but he refuses to meet my gaze.
“Elyssara for Nalya,” he admits, and I unleash a scream that rattles the world.