by Everly Frost
She slides her hand up into Slade’s hair, the triumph in her eyes making me ill. The Keres power thrums again, an icy blast in the air, before she releases him.
Slade sucks in a sharp breath, his arms becoming rigid as he jerks to the side, coughing out the sand he inhaled.
I shudder with relief, frantically checking him over, but Amalia bends to stroke my cheek, her soft fingers demanding my attention.
“I have an insurance policy, Hunter. I know what his soul tastes like now. It is deliciously angry, relentlessly fierce, and incredibly in love with you. If you don’t fulfill your promise, I will take his soul away when you least expect it.”
I snap away from her, holding Slade as he coughs out sand that would have killed him if he wasn’t Valkyrie. “Stay the hell away from us!”
She smiles at my anger and takes a step back.
Our surroundings shift again. The dunes dissolve into bright specks and fragments of light, the nature of our surroundings morphing into grays and blues, objects obscured by a growing white mist.
Amalia backs away through the thick haze. “I’m your Queen, Hunter. You can never escape me.”
Her voice fades as she disappears into the swirling fog.
I hold tight to Slade as the walls, chairs, and the table reappear around us. The carpet is soft under my bruised knees. My arms are grazed and bleeding. Slade’s lip is bleeding, too, while a cut above his eye swells. I sense that the boundary around the room hasn’t lifted yet. We have a few minutes until Cain and Vlad break through.
“Slade?”
He groans, still leaning forward on his knees, eyes pressed closed. I wrap my arms around his chest from the side and he responds by reaching for me, pulling me close, our thighs pressed together, his big arms folding around me, one hand tangling in my hair.
We survived our encounter with Lady Tirelli, but now we have to face the truth: I’ve signed my own death warrant and I’ve agreed to hand over the girl Mom died to protect.
The depth of Slade’s emotion is impossible to ignore. “I… won’t… lose you.”
I press my forehead to his, fighting the tears that burn behind my eyes. “I would save you again, Slade. Even knowing the consequences. A single day with you is worth more than a lifetime of being alone.”
Pain burns through me but it’s not physical. It’s taken me a long time to understand that having Slade in my life is not weakness. Loving someone is not a liability. It’s a strength.
His Valkyrie power is already healing his wounds. His bruises are slowly fading.
Mine are not.
I say, “I finally understand why Mom gave up everything to protect that girl. It’s because it will take both of us to beat the Queen. Both of our powers are needed.”
I take Slade’s worried face in my hands, making a promise to him and myself. “I will find that girl, no matter what it takes. And with our two powers combined, we will end Amalia. Then… finally… our war will be over.”
My heart hurts, my soul hurts, and every painful move I make, every sting of my wounds, reminds me that I’m dying.
I say, “I will end it.”
Read more in Assassin’s Menace (Assassin’s Magic 2.5) in Shadows and Sorcery.
Then continue the series with Assassin’s Maze (Assassin’s Magic 3).
Assassin’s Magic 2.5: Assassin’s Menace
An Assassin’s Magic Companion Story
Never step between an assassin and his prey...
Nobody would suspect curvy, blonde bookworm Grace Kennedy of being a cold-blooded killer. She just wants to keep her head down and escape the violent secrets of her past.
But when Grace unwittingly gets between an assassin and his target, she becomes prey to Boston's most ferocious legion of killers.
If finding a way out of the life-threatening mess she created isn't hard enough, her unexpected encounters with Cain Carter prove even more unsettling.
Ruthless millionaire on the outside, sexy as hell in private, Cain is determined to make sure Grace survives her own secret power, as well as his.
When the Legion closes in and the power inside Grace threatens to tear her apart, Cain will have to sacrifice what he loves the most if he wants Grace to survive.
Read more in Assassin’s Menace in Shadows and Sorcery.
Assassin’s Magic 3: Assassin’s Maze
Can love survive?
When Hunter Cassidy exposed the true identity of the underground's brutal leader, she also uncovered the devastating truth about her own life.
With her time running out, Hunter must ally herself with her mortal enemy—the only woman with the power to destroy Hunter and everything she loves, including Slade Baines.
Determined not to lose Hunter, Slade will do anything to find the final Realm that holds the secret to saving Hunter and destroying their enemies once and for all.
But within the Realm is a maze of dangers, magical creatures of myth and legend, and a labyrinth of traps that will force Hunter and Slade to make deadly sacrifices, threatening their alliances, their lives... and their love.
Read more in Assassin’s Maze.
Also by Everly Frost
Assassin’s Magic Series (Urban Fantasy Romance)
Book One: Assassin’s Magic
Book Two: Assassin’s Mask
Companion Book 2.5: Assassin’s Menace (in Shadows and Sorcery)
Book Three: Assassin’s Maze
The Storm Princess Saga (Fantasy Romance) (complete)
(coauthored with Jaymin Eve)
Book One: The Princess Must Die
Book Two: The Princess Must Strike
Book Three: The Princess Must Reign
The Mortality Series (complete)
Book One: Beyond the Ever Reach
Book Two: Beneath the Guarding Stars
Book Three: By the Icy Wild
Book Four: Before the Raging Lion
Mortality Complete Series: Books 1 to 4
Stand-alone fiction
The Crystal Prince (short story)
About the Author
Everly Frost is the author of YA and New Adult urban fantasy and science-fiction romance novels. She spent her childhood dreaming of other worlds and scribbling stories on the leftover blank pages at the back of school notebooks. She lives in Brisbane, Australia with her husband and two children.
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