Page 273 of Blade of the Nightking

"How?" My voice came out hoarse. "How did you know?"

A look of deep satisfaction settled over his face. "The moment he wrapped his hand around my throat." His blue stare drifted to Rìan and his smile turned triumphant. "Aedric’s grip would’ve burned."

Rìan held his gaze without yielding an inch. But his eyes were glazed with pain and blood loss, his skin ghostly white, the sand around him saturated with dark red.

Thalassis reached into his robes and withdrew a folded sheet of parchment. "And then this came soon after you left—a rather fascinating correspondence from the Court of Flames. Lady Calantha was gracious enough to inform the rest of us that the Dark Prince and Lord Aedric's Eidra slipped through her fingers in Illyra. Vanished without a trace from a pleasure house despite being surrounded on every side." He smiled knowingly. "A pleasure house which, incidentally, has its twin in my own Court, connected by a passage I discovered smashed beyond repair."

He folded the letter once more and slipped it back inside his robes, patting the pocket almost affectionately. "But that wasn't the most interesting part. She also mentioned your accomplice—a High Lady who, it seems, has spent centuries concealing a rather inconvenient truth." He tutted disapprovingly. "I’d assumed it was the Moiraithe who’d summoned you to their realm when the Full Circle met that day. Imagine my surprise to discover that Chronod magic runs through Lady Elyndra's lineage. Distant and diluted, admittedly, but enough to condemn her all the same. The Full Circle stripped her of her title immediately. She’s been questioned, but has revealed nothing. " His nose wrinkled as though he'd caught the scent of something rotten. "Admirable loyalty."

He ran an affectionate hand along the crossbow’s body. "Ordinarily, that loyalty would already have earned her an executioner's blade. But executions ordered by the Full Circle require every member’s vote." He pursed his lips thoughtfully. "And High Lord Aedric seems to have… disappeared.”

Blood rushed to my head.

"Tell me, Eidra." Thalassis's voice was almost conversational. "Did you kill him?"

"No!" The answer tore out of me like a snapped bowstring.

He tilted his head, his eyes narrowing. "Then where is he?"

"I..." My breath hitched. "I don't know."

"You don't know," Thalassis repeated slowly, as though tasting the words. "You expect me to believe Aedric willingly let you walk away with the one male he wants nothing more than to destroy?"

He took a measured step toward me. "No. Something happened to him. And I will discover what." His smile turned monstrous. "Even if I have to peel the pretty skin from your bones to do it."

"You..." Rìan's voice rasped beside me. "...will not... touch her."

I spun toward him. He was still on his knees, one hand clamped over his chest, but the words cost him what little breath he had. His next inhale dissolved into a wet, bubbling wheeze that sent a bolt of fear straight through me.

“Feeling the iron poison, Rìan?” Thalassis called. “It may take some time to stop your heart. A slow death, I’m afraid. Though I confess, I’m rather enjoying the spectacle.”

My magic reared at his words.

Rìan was dying—its mate. My mate.

Panic tore through it, spiraling into a desperate frenzy. If he died, I died—and the last spark of Eidrae magic would vanish from the world.

Rìan's remaining strength gave out. He pitched forward into the sand, catching himself on one shaking arm. His next inhale caught, ending in a thick, gurgling gasp.

I lunged toward him.

"I said don't move!" Thalassis' shout cracked across the beach.

The crossbow snapped upward. Around him, a dozen spears and harpoons leveled toward us in the same instant.

I froze. My gaze found Rìan's. Everything in me screamed at me to reach him, to stop the blood, to do something…

Thalassis followed my stare. His eyes moved from me to Rìan... then back again. His expression slowly changed.

"No..." The word came out barely louder than a whisper. "It can’t be."

Disbelief gave way to dawning comprehension, followed almost immediately by fury.

"You're bonded to him." Something savage ignited in Thalassis' eyes. Behind him, the sea answered. A wave crashed against the shore with enough force to send spray bursting high into the air.

I didn't answer. I didn't have to. He found the truth written plainly across my face.

"You." Thalassis whirled on Rìan, bringing the crossbow to bear once more. "Was this your plan from the beginning? Did you return to Elantis intending to bind the Eidra to yourself? To finish what you started all those centuries ago?"