by Ann Denton
I didn’t have time to be impressed. I ran over to Quinn and grabbed his arm.
Show me what’s happening to Declan! I demanded.
Quinn shook his head. I shook him roughly. That’s a damned royal order! You show me.
Quinn showed me Declan—still in my body. He was doubled over, clenching his arm. Abbas waved a severed hand in front of Declan. My hand. The hand he’d chopped off my knight. The sick shite was still naked.
“Oh, I wish you’d use that to pleasure yourself,” Ember murmured.
Gold sparkles ensued. Abbas took the severed hand and used it to stroke himself. His dick hadn’t even gone soft.
My heart tripled its beat. Panic soaked my thoughts. I was suddenly drenched in sweat.
Declan’s vision flickered.
I took off running, sliding my cloak up over myself so that I was completely invisible.
“Wait!” Connor yelled at me. “The trees are still—”
I ignored him, grabbing the sharpened hairpin from the strap on my arm and wielding it.
Blue swooped down near my head. But he couldn’t tell exactly where I was. Only where I was going.
I hurried toward the mouth of the cave.
I could still see Declan’s thoughts as Quinn projected them to us; Declan’s vision grew hazier as Abbas stabbed him in the thigh.
Sard. Sard.
I did not allow tears to fill my eyes. I shut that shite down. Only rage, I breathed to myself. Only rage.
My feet kept moving.
Suddenly, Declan looked up. There, rising from the water at the far side of the cave was the sea fairy. The one who’d sucked down a ship without a second glance.
Her white, accordion-style wings fluttered in the air, sending droplets of water splattering across the stone floor. Her body glimmered in the light of the lantern Ember had set on a desk at the far end of the cave. There were scales edging every feminine curve and they glowed, pearlescent.
A giant wave rose out of the subterranean river. It splashed across the floor, supporting her and surrounding her as she floated forward.
“A sea sprite,” Declan whispered in disbelief.
I tripped over a body on the side of the mountain. I had been too focused on Declan’s vision. I pulled myself up, still stumbling toward the cave entrance, still ignoring Ryan and Quinn and Connor as they fruitlessly chased after me.
In Declan’s vision, Ember bowed, going to her knees when she saw the sea sprite. She muttered, “I wish you’d bow,” before a golden mist full of sparkles forced Abbas abandoned his sadistic play with the severed hand and do the same.
The sprite’s black eyes took in Declan—in my body. “This one wears a crown.”
Ember nodded. “She’s the daughter of the thief who stole your Avia.”
That caused the sea sprite’s head to jerk as she took a second look at Declan. Her eyes narrowed.
Beneath the sea sprite, the water rose higher, as high as a castle wall. It moved her closer to Declan. His gaze lifted to track her.
That’s why he only noticed the water freezing from the bottom to the top at the last minute. Declan’s gaze went down just in time to see a dozen ice spears fly straight at him.
I love—
Declan’s vision faded to black. Quinn’s voice in my head cut off.
Numb disbelief filled me. My feet slowed, then stopped as I heard distinctive thumps behind me.
I turned away from the cave and ran back down the mountain.
I came upon Ryan first. He was face down in the dirt. I sheathed my weapon and dropped my cloak. I shoved and shoved his huge shoulder until I could turn him over. His curled eyelashes framed empty chocolate eyes. My giant. My protector.
A battering ram slammed into my chest.
No! I thought. This isn’t real.
I stumbled to my feet and ran back further. Quinn was laid out on his side, his dark hair hiding his grey eyes. I pushed his hair away and reached out with my mind. Nothing. There was nothing in his eyes. Nothing in his naughty mind to respond to me.
A tornado opened and howled in my ears, battering me with thoughts and emotions as jumbled and sharp as debris.
Connor was only steps behind Quinn. By the time I reached him, his body had already paled. He was already cold. My sweet, childhood love … was gone.
Donaloo and Cerena walked over to me, where I crouched.
“They had a bonding spell?” Cerena asked.
I nodded.
My husbands were dead. All four of them.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
My heart cracked like a glacier. My soul fell into the sea. I drowned.
My mind spun. I wanted to die. But I hadn’t yet, and it didn’t make sense that I hadn’t. It was like I had jumped from a cliff. But I couldn’t hit the bottom. I was simply falling, endlessly. I was stuck in midair in the moment between existence and non-existence.
There was nothing left for me. They were gone.
My Ryan wouldn’t keep me safe anymore. He wouldn’t sweep me into his arms and surround me with his strength or pin me down and make me feel like the most desired woman in the world.
My sweet Declan’s face flashed before me. I’d never get to rub my fingers over that little crease in his brow and smooth it down again. I’d never get to kiss the corner of his lips and tease him into admitting things that made him blush or have him rub my worries away.
I’d never get to joke with Quinn, never get to stare into his grey eyes and have my core grow slick with just a look. I’d never get to play commoner with him again.
I’d never learn every single one of Connor’s secrets. I’d only just started to fall back in love with him. And now, we’d never run through the secret passages. Never peek naughtily at the other nobles again. Never kiss sweetly over a midnight snack.
Because they were gone.
When I finally stood, I felt as if I was floating. Nothing felt real. I blinked when Blue settled on my shoulder. It took me a moment to remember who he was.
I swayed on my feet.
Donaloo somehow appeared in front of me. He put a hand on my shoulder. “I gave Cerena control of the trees. I’ll take the dragon. You go do what you need to do.”
I blinked. It was a full minute before my tongue seemed to work. “Your rhymes?”
He gave me a sad smile. “This doesn’t feel like the time to play the fool.”
I nodded, my head still fuzzy. I felt as if someone might have taken my head and stuffed it full of feathers. Because my thoughts were fluff and emptiness.
But my heart, it hurt. I opened my mouth and a wail began.
Cerena grabbed my hands and shook me hard. “No! You do not get to feel right now! Shut it off!” She leaned in, her wild white hair a tangle behind her. “You go and you kill. That’s all. You kill.”
I stared into her eyes and let her energy pour into me.
The lightheaded feeling faded as I recited. “Kill them. I’ll kill them.”
I pulled the cloak back up, restoring my invisibility and dislodging Blue. He’d have to fend for himself.
I unsheathed my sharpened hairpin and marched toward the cave. I wove around soldiers still trying to escape the trees. I walked lightly past the dragon as he flamed a pine tree that had made it into the cavern. He made a mistake, as he roasted six soldiers in the process and another couple were killed by the fallen tree.
I went down the tunnel, adjusting my grip on my weapon.
Why didn’t I grab a sword? I thought. But, two steps later, I was in the second cavern. It was too late.
The sea sprite was gone. The only thing left of her was a puddle. She must have left after she thought she’d killed me.
I saw the shadow of Declan’s body, where he’d fallen. The disguise spell was slowly wearing off in death. But he was faced away from the shites who’d murdered him.
And they hadn’t noticed yet that they’d killed the weapon they’d wanted. Because I was certain they’d wanted Declan’s power
s. Multiply arrows. Decrease enemy shields. Who wouldn’t want that power in a war?
My anger increased as I realized what an idiot I’d been. Isla had wanted him. When she hadn’t gotten him easily enough, they’d sent Malia to get him.
Where was Malia?
I looked into the shadows and saw a body lying there. Her skirts were ripped and bloody. Her bodice was open. It looked like Abbas had been forced to have his fun with her once the sea sprite killed Declan. If she wasn’t dead, I was certain the Duchess wished she was.
I couldn’t be bothered to care. My emotions were at bay right now. A sea wall held back the flood.
My eyes narrowed on Ember and Abbas. He’d dressed and they had unrolled a scroll and were talking quietly, standing by the desk, the sole piece of furniture in the cave. I walked silently over to them, waiting until one turned toward me, and I had an open shot.
As I waited, I fought pain in all its glory as it smashed against my defenses. Waiting let my anger build. I struggled not to let sorrow take me over. Not yet. It could have me soon. Death could have me soon. But not yet.
Ember moved first.
Quick as lightning, I shoved the hairpin up under her ribs. Her look of shock and disbelief was worth it.
“Ah!” she gasped.
I yanked out the hairpin and struck again. This time I twisted, trying to rip her black heart right out of her traitor body.
“Ember?” Abbas bumped into me as he reached for her. His eyes widened when he felt me.
I yanked the hairpin out and backed away quickly so he couldn’t grab me.
Abbas’ mouth opened in shock when he saw Ember grab at her stomach and her hands came away covered in blood.
Abbas shifted into black smoke. The sarding bastard.
The cloud of smoke flew at me as Ember fell to her knees. I ducked down to avoid the darting smoke and crawled over to her, struggling to hold the invisible cloak on me the entire way.
I yanked the black ring from her bloody fingers and slipped it onto my own.
Abbas wanted to play djinni. Then that’s what we’d play.
Then I stood, letting the cloak fall from my face as I screamed, “I wish you were dead!”
The swirling black smoke froze. But no golden sparkles appeared. No Abbas fell at my feet.
Sard, I realized. I can’t wish for death. But I can level the playing field.
I growled, “I wish you were a powerless human without any magic.”
Gold sparkles lit up the room and the smoke coalesced into a boy who looked like Abbas but was frail and weak. He looked younger, like a teenager. Not fully developed. He lay on the floor, chest rising and falling rapidly.
When I took a step toward him, the boy cringed and scrambled to his knees, backing away from me.
A ragged breath echoed in the cavern, distracting me.
I glanced from the dark-haired boy to Ember. She was already still.
It was Malia gasping.
“I wish you couldn’t run away,” I said to halt Abbas as I stalked toward the duchess.
When she saw me, Malia stiffened, “I’m sorry—”
I cut her off. “He do this to you?” I jerked my head in Abbas’ direction.
“She ordered him every step of the way,” Malia said.
“You defending him?”
She coughed up blood. “I know what it’s like to be coerced.”
I tilted my head. I’d been too lenient with Ember’s death.
I knelt next to Malia and pulled out my bloody weapon. “You’re sentenced to death, for betraying Evaness.”
She coughed, “Don’t.”
I shook my head. “It’s done.”
“No. Don’t kill me. I don’t deserve mercy. I deserve …”
I smiled down at her coldly. “I wasn’t going to show mercy. I wanted to give you hope, for a moment, and then rip it away. Just as you gave me hope when you fed Willard information. Hope that you might not be irredeemable. But you tried to take my—” I couldn’t say Declan’s name.
I didn’t bother to finish. I didn’t owe her explanations. I had a djinni to kill.
I walked over to Abbas, who was trembling in his human form, tears streaking down his cheeks.
I stared at him, my lip curled in disgust. How could he cry after all he’d done? He didn’t get to cry. Monsters shouldn’t cry.
But then I remembered what my knights had told me about the djinn. Quinn’s words echoed in my head. Djinn are slaves to wishes. Any wish short of death is fair game. If a djinn grants you a wish, he has to fulfill it. He has to do anything to see it fulfilled.
Full djinn had to grant wishes to anyone who wore the ring. Abbas had no choice. I curled my fingers into a fist and stared at the cave ceiling.
Why in the sarding name of the gods did I have to realize that now? I asked myself. I didn’t want to pity him. I wanted to kill him.
I looked down at the boy, who wiped a line of sob snot with his forearm.
My mother would have killed him.
I was not my mother.
I took a deep breath and said, “I wish you were fully human. I wish you’d forget everything you’d ever done or been before this moment. I wish this ring was broken.”
I strode toward Abbas, but something midair smacked me hard in the side of the face. I fell backward, hitting my head on the cave floor as gold light erupted from the ring.
My vision went black.
When I opened my eyes, I grabbed at my cheek, where I’d been hit.
It almost felt as though my bird had flown into me in the dark. “Blue?” I asked. My vision flickered as I rose to my elbows.
I didn’t see Blue crumpled on the ground beside me. A man leaned over me, naked.
Abbas stared down at me.
Sarding hell! The wish didn’t work! It was a trick. Somehow, it was a trick.
My stomach churned and I scrambled backwards.
Above me, Abbas smiled.
He was sarding with my mind.
Rage was a fireball. And my hands flew forward like flames. I struck out.
I hit him with enough peace magic to light the entire cavern an eerie green. If I bled out, so much the better.
Abbas eyes went wide, and his body swayed.
My hairpin hit its target. He gasped.
Good. The sarding demon deserved it. He’d tricked me. He’d made me pity him. See a boy who wasn’t there. A vision. Like—I pushed away any thought of Quinn. I twisted the hairpin.
“Wait,” his voice came out a gnarled scratch. “Bloss.”
I stabbed a second time and then scrambled backward before he fell onto me. I had no delusions. Abbas would kill me. But then I’d join my knights.
I just needed him to hasten my death. I needed him angry.
“I’ve killed every one of your brothers,” I lied. “I have soldiers marching right now to Cheryn. Your entire family will be dead in an hour.”
Abbas just clutched at his stomach, still crouched. Playing the victim. Trying to catch me off guard. I’d already fallen for that once.
“Bloss, I just want—I’m Blue. Can’t you tell? I’m Blue!” Blood bubbled on his lips.
Fury shot like lava through me. I stood and screamed. “Liar!”
“I just … wanted to give you a wish.”
The cruelty of it. The irony. He was toying with me. He’d heard me with Malia. Now he was giving me hope just so he could snatch it away.
My lips couldn’t resist the temptation—even though my head screamed that a djinni couldn’t give me back what I’d already had. “A wish! A wish! I wish my knights were alive and well, you sarding shite!”
I ran at him and tackled him to the ground, landing on top of him.
I expected him to grab me, choke me, bite me. But he didn’t as I scrambled backward.
Abbas’ breath grew jagged, ragged, he spit blood.
Abbas gasped out, “Granted.”
I waited for him to transform himself back into black smoke
. Waited for him to transform into a snake or a monster and attack me. End me. I waited for him to show he was toying with me yet again.
But his eyelids only fluttered.
And then a golden haze surrounded us.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
The entire cavern lit up with a cloud of sparkling golden light.
The cloud moved past us, obscuring my view of the rest of the cavern with its bright glow.
Then, a guttural cough disrupted my train of thought. Abbas was still gasping for breath. I slid closer, careful to stay out of reach, looking down at him.
But the sound wasn’t coming from him. He was still, lying on his stomach, one cheek on the stone floor; just a slight twitch came from his limbs as blood dripped from his lips.
I turned and scanned the cavern, clutching my hairpin.
The shimmering golden cloud settled over Declan’s body.
I heard the cough again and then a low, familiar groan.
My heart stopped. No. It couldn’t be—
I ran through the golden light, to Declan, and dropped to my knees. My hand sought out his. When I squeezed … he squeezed back.
My head exploded. Stars. Colors. Confusion. Hope. Delight. Awe.
“Dec! Declan?” I dropped his hand and shook him, until I saw his eyelids flutter.
I watched, in wonder, as the golden sparkles melded to his body. They reformed his hand in a shimmering glittering haze of magic. And suddenly his real hand was back, fingers stretching and bending. I ripped at the scraps of my gown where they still clung to him, checking Declan’s torso for wounds that stitched themselves up before my eyes.
I clutched at Declan, peppering his blond head with kisses. His ears. His face.
Tears marred my vision and I had to sit up to swipe angrily at them.
“Huh … huh?” Declan groaned and put a hand to his head. “What happened?”
I didn’t answer, my thoughts were cycling so quickly: It can’t be true, can it? It’s supposed to be impossible.
I stood, heart in my throat and screamed internally, QUINN! Quinn Hale, you answer me right now!
