Page 274 of Blade of the Nightking

"When I find Dannis," Rìan rasped. "Then every one of you... will answer for what you've done. To my Court. To my family. To this realm."

The words lodged like a knife beneath my ribs.

"Your nephew?" Thalassis' laughter rolled across the beach, rich with contempt. "If you think your precious heir will survive this, you're more deluded than I thought. Levinica will die for harboring you, for betraying the Full Circle. And I'll find Dannis wherever Aedric has hidden him. I'll slit his throat myself."

Rìan met his gaze in silence, offering no correction about Levinica.

"As for the Eidra..." Thalassis continued. "Until Aedric is found, she belongs to the Court of Tides."

"She… belongs… to no one," Rìan growled.

"Oh, but she will. With you dead and Aedric gone, her magic will seek a new bond. It's already tasted mine—it will choose me." His smile twisted into a sneer. "She'll accept me as her mate. Willingly, if she's learned anything from this. By force, if she hasn't. And with her power, we'll finish what should have been done centuries ago. The Firstborn will die by her hand, and order will be restored."

He waved a hand at the guards. "Take her."

A net exploded open above me. I barely had time to throw up my hands before it crashed over me, the weighted edges slamming into the sand.

I cried out, pain screaming across my skin.

The net hissed wherever it touched me, each filament branding me with searing agony.

Iron. It was woven with iron.

Beneath my skin, my magic, which only moments ago had raged in blind panic, shrank violently from its touch, retreating deeper and deeper until only a distant ember remained.

I fought without it.

The iron bit deeper as I thrashed, the net tightening with every movement.

"No—!"

Rough hands seized the net.

The commander from Pelaga. The same male who’d hurled Rìan's daggers at him as though he were nothing more than a target. A feverish, almost ecstatic light blazed in his eyes as his gloved hands hauled on the mesh, dragging me bodily across the beach toward the surf. He beckoned, and the other guards advanced with spears and harpoons lowered, hemming me in.

Sand filled my mouth, the net biting into every inch of exposed skin. Still, I tore at the strands with desperate hands. A scream of pain and frustration ripped from my throat.

In the chaos, I caught sight of Rìan. He was dragging himself toward me on hands and knees, every movement a brutal struggle, his face moon-white beneath the blood smeared across it, contorted with equal parts rage and pain and determination.

Thalassis stepped into his path. With almost casual ease, he drove the sole of his boot into Rìan's chest. The impact threw him backward.

Rìan hit the sand hard, the breath bursting from his lungs in a wet gasp before he rolled onto his side, clutching the wound in his shoulder as fresh blood soaked the beach beneath him.

Thalassis looked down at him without an ounce of pity before lowering himself into a crouch. Unhurriedly, he rolled back one sleeve, then the other.

"I've been waiting a very long time for this moment, Prince." He licked his lips, his expression one of almost obscene anticipation. "At last, I'll watch the nightmare of Elantis draw his final breath. No legend. No savior. Just a corpse bleeding into the sand... exactly as you should have been three hundred years ago."

He reached forward with deliberate slowness and drove two fingers into the wound in Rìan's shoulder. Rìan's body bucked violently, his jaw locking so tightly I thought his teeth might crack, but no scream came. He would not give Thalassis that satisfaction.

I thrashed harder, but beneath the net my strength was ebbing away.

No.

I had to do something.

I had to get out.

My hand found the bone knife at my hip.