Page 78 of Blade of the Nightking

Aedric’s laughter died. “You wouldn’t dare.”

“I’ll make it simple,” Rìan said, clasping his hands before him. “Tell me where Dannis is, and I won’t hurt her.”

Aedric’s face twisted, but he said nothing.

Rìan tilted his head. “How interesting.”

“You’d never risk it,” Aedric bit out. “If you break her, you’ll end yourself.”

“I never said I’d kill her.” Rìan answered smoothly. “I have no intention of dying, Aedric—not yet. But you… I’ve waited three hundred years for this moment.”

He stepped in front of me, his towering frame swallowing the space between us. It took everything in me not to shrink away from him.

Up close, he was immense. He loomed over me, broad-shouldered and powerfully built, forcing me to tip my chin back just to meet his gaze. Every line of him radiated effortless, lethal strength.

I couldn't look away from that brilliant, dangerous stare. Rìan wasn't in my mind—but I could feel him, his power pressing against me, against the thin barrier of flesh and bone. My magic stirred in response, hungry, reaching, even as I struggled to force it down.

He tilted his head. “Can you feel me, Eidra?”

Aedric stood rigid in his restraints, every muscle trembling with barely contained fury. A pulse of rage crashed through our bond. Then, as abruptly as it had come, it cut off.

Rìan tipped his head, studying me for a long, unreadable moment before pivoting sharply toward the dais. He climbed the steps to the throne and stopped before it, his back to us.

"Believe it or not, Aedric... we want the same thing."

Aedric scoffed. “Oh?”

“I want this bond broken as much as you do.” His hand lifted, fingers hovering just short of the throne, before falling again. He turned his back on it and faced us once more. “A simple bond is one thing. My life tied to hers is not.” He clasped his hands in front of him. “It interferes with my plans. And I did not spend three centuries in darkness preparing the downfall of the Fae to be undone by such… inconvenience. Rest assured, Aedric—the bond will be broken.” A cold glint touched Rìan's eyes. “You just won’t live to see it.”

Aedric bared his teeth in a defiant grin. “And I thought I had a flair for the dramatic. I⁠—”

Veylan’s shadows lashed around his mouth again, gagging him mid-sentence. He jerked against them.

“Levinica.”

She hovered beside the throne, staring through the open doors as though she hadn't heard him. Rìan came to her side and laid a hand against her elbow, turning her gently to face him. Her eyes lifted sluggishly to his, struggling to focus.

“Are you certain you can do this?” he asked quietly. “Now?”

She blinked hard. It was as though the sound of his voice had reached some buried part of her, drawing her back to the surface.

“Yes,” she croaked.

He studied her for a long moment before giving a single nod. He reached for her arm and guided her down the steps of the dais.

She stopped before me, Rìan beside her. Without hurry, Levinica lifted trembling hands and began peeling away the black silk gloves shielding her skin.

Beside me, Aedric thrashed against his bindings, muffled sounds of fury swallowed by the shadows wrapped around his mouth. Rìan took no notice.

The gloves fluttered soundlessly to the floor.

“Eidra,” Levinica said softly.

I forced myself to meet her gaze. Her eyes were still glassy, distant somehow, but earnest.

“I won’t hurt you,” she whispered. “On Dannis’s life… I won’t.”

I could feel Rìan's stare resting on me like a physical weight, but I couldn’t bear to look at him—to meet those silver eyes and whatever horrors waited inside them. His fingers tightened briefly against Levinica’s arm before he released her.