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He had a hand in our queen’s humiliation, too. His heart is mine.
I bare my fangs.
“Oh, my,” he repeats, unperturbed, as he sits gracefully on the sofa and crosses his legs. “What bigteethyou have.”
I prowl toward him.
A familiar baleful look flashes in his eyes, stopping me in my tracks. His pompous rouged lips stretch.
“You bonded with the Hunt,” I say, eyes narrowing. “I’m impressed.”
Sarcasm lifts a single, lumpy brow. “You’re not impressed. But you will be.”
His confidence makes me twitch. I glance down at Sylvanar’s husk, then at Willow’s pendant on the table, and back to Puck’s unnatural eyes. “Try to stop me and see what happens.”
“Take the wisp.” He shrugs. “What do I care?”
I cross to the pendant, wrap the cord around my wrist, and slide him a wary glance. We both know I’ve stepped over the line. Covering this up is an impossible feat.
“I’ve never tasted dragon,” I note, cocking my head, studying the whirling mass of power in his core.
He opens his palm, and a moving picture of my queen materializes in the air above the stone he holds. Her sweet face, her stirring voice. “Phew. That was close?—”
He closes his fist around the stone, cutting the resonance repeat. “We both know what she says next.”
My lips curve on one side. “You’ve just bonded with the Baleful Hunt. These pairings take time to master. What makes you think you’ll be faster than me?”
“It only takes a second.”
“I can enter your mind in less,” I send to him.
Fear flashes in his eyes. My grin widens as I step over the husk toward him.
“And then what?” he asks, nostrils flaring. “Kill me, fine. But the Hunt will go to someone else, you know that. Every other dragon out there still exists for one purpose only—to keep your hive caged.”
A snarl rips from my lips. My wraith splits from my body, pins him down. Black, taloned fingers wrap around his throat.
“The last thing we want is a thousand manabeeze floating in the sky, announcing to the guards that I just raided the queen’s Cabinet of Curiosities.”
I pause at our angel’s voice, our falling star.
“There is a way we all walk out of this victorious,” he rasps against my chokehold. “A way you can save her.”
“We are all she needs.”
His arm moves at his side. My wraith tightens its grip.
“Just want to show you something. That’s all.”
I allow him the freedom of one arm. He digs into his pocket and holds up another stone. I ease my grip to hear his offer.
“I activate this,” he says, “and that resonance will play out on every receiver in Avorlorna. You won’t be enough to save her. She stole from the Crown. She will be executed... or banished immediately to the subterranean.”
“If this is meant to sway me, you’re doing a nasty job.”
“It’s either you, or it’s her.”
An incredulous laugh huffs out of me. “Do you not feel my hand around your neck?”
