AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Ash Nevra, who didn’t seem privy to our magickal exchange, was still busy, stroking my mate. Watching her touch him made me want to break each and every single one of her fingers.
“My dark, dark Prince, how could you be so foolish?” She simpered. She pulled him closer to her; her arms wrapping around his waist. His gaze met mine, over her shoulder, his face taught with disgust.
“You spent how many centuries here with me? You never took the time to get to know the widowmakers.” She looked up at him through her eyelashes, her head resting on his chest. I watched her plant a slow, wet kiss against the underside of his chin, and I threw every ounce of myself into my aura. I struggled against The Flute’s spell and the palms of my hands burned. I couldn’t even fucking scream.
She pulled away and stalked around him, running her hands over his body as she spoke. Each ‘click’ of her stiletto heels sent a wave of revulsion through me.
“Didn’t you know that they can speak to spiders?” She crooned. “Did you think that my pet, who you have kept locked away in your dungeon, would not tell me everything?”
Amon’s eyes widened slightly, and I realized he had not known. The widowmakers had spied on us, through the eyes of the spiders. She had known all along.
Everything suddenly added up. She had wanted us to bring her The Flute. She knew the reason for our last visit. She had known we didn’t have it yet. That is why she let us leave. That is why she pretended to entertain our claim to her throne. That is how she knew about Jeremy, and that we would be here tonight.
She had known every move we were going to make before we made it.
81
Wrapping her hands around my mate’s waist from behind, she smirked at me over his shoulder. Every inch of me burned. I wanted so badly, to brush my aura against his, to comfort him. To be whatever he needed, as we pushed through this horrible moment in time.
“Thank you, Raven. For bringing my prince back to me. Who else did you bring me?” She asked, her eyes flashing to Kasha.
No.
She curled a finger and drew Kasha’s frozen form toward her. Kasha’s eyes widened, and though I couldn’t feel her aura, I knew she was terrified. Rycon’s mind roared down the bond, and I could feel his beast slam against the magick that bonded us.
“My pretty little chameleon,” Ash Nevra purred, taking her hands off Amon to sensually run her fingers over Kasha’s mouth. Kasha closed her eyes and swallowed. These tiny movements were likely the only things she could manage, in the face of her trauma. “So many have missed you.”
Rycon’s panther screamed against the bond. With a roar, I felt Rycon break through the magick that held him as he shifted. The pain was dull against my weakened metaphysical senses, but it was enough to make me shudder. His bones snapped and twisted beneath his skin, and fur erupted through his hair follicles while his fangs burst through his jaws.
In my peripheral vision, I saw him dart, a black streak, for Ash Nevra. He was so fast that for a moment, I truly thought he was going to make it. He arched through the air, great paws outstretched when The Siren hit the single note on The Flute that the widowmaker had told us would force a change of state. I suddenly felt like an idiot for not understanding what it had meant as I watched the magick take hold of Rycon, forcing his body to change again, back to human. He dropped, mid leap, to the floor.
I had never heard him scream like that before, as his joints popped and sinew tore. I waited in horror, for The Siren to stop, but she kept blowing into The Flute, forcing him to change again. He was not the only one affected. Kasha’s body, too, began to shimmer. Her face morphed and her hair changed length and color so quickly, that my eyes could barely keep track.
Again and again, they changed. Rycon’s voice shifted from screams to roars. The sickening sound of his body breaking beneath the oppressive magick of The Flute nearly drowned out Ash Nevra’s nauseating laughter.
‘Conrad! You have to try to break free!’ I cried into his mind. I couldn’t watch Rycon shift again. It was killing him. I could feel it deep in my soul. He was dying.
‘Mi trying,’ Conrad grunted across my mind. I believed him, but it was taking too long. A sob welled in my chest, I met Amon’s gaze, and the look in his eyes broke my heart. I could see Conrad’s mouth moving slightly and realized he was murmuring spells through his barely mobile lips. He was calling to the deities that gifted him his powers. Powers that didn’t follow the same rules as daemon magick.
Finally, I saw it happen, water began to spout from his restructium, and he used it to slash free of The Flute’s grasp.
The water snaked and flowed from his suit in ribbons. He gathered the rippling streams around himself before he threw them directly at The Siren. Her eyes widened minutely, and she was forced to stop playing that one long, horrible note so that she could effectively evade his attack. Rycon twitched violently on the ground in his human form. He seemed to barely be conscious. Curling onto his stomach, he crawled forward, reaching for Kasha. Who similarly had fallen to the ground. Unlike Rycon, she did not move.
Conrad didn’t give Nytara time to recover, he was on her instantly, driving the water toward her face. I had seen him use this tactic before. He was going to drown her on dry land.
However, The Siren was just as quick, and her power closely resembled Conrad's water magick.
Holding out a hand, she froze his attack in its tracks, turning his amorphous snakes to ice shards before firing them back at him. They pelted and exploded against his armor, and he melted the ice and rallied the water back to him before replying with a counterattack.
The Siren ducked, tossing The Flute to Kieran, who passed it smoothly to Ash Nevra. Drawing her rapier, the Siren tucked and rolled across the ground, stealing Conrad’s water from him as he attacked her again. Before I could blink, she was on her feet, and her rapier was buried into the exposed crook of his neck, right where it met his armor. Time seemed to freeze, as Conrad realized he had been stabbed. Almost in disbelief, he stared at The Siren as she withdrew her blade. Red blood immediately erupted from the puncture wound. Conrad fell to his knees before her, and she watched him go down, with the same cold, expressionless stare she had given me.
I couldn’t let the scream out of my body. My rage clawed at the inside of my skull with such force, I felt it might crack. My power welled and smashed against the curse of The Flute, but still it held me. I could not move.
Ash Nevra was watching me, as I stared at Conrad helplessly. He bled before me on the stone floor. Rycon collapsed next to him in another fit of full body spasms. Kasha still hadn’t opened her eyes, from where she had fallen.
“Would you look at that, all of your friends are nearly dead…” She turned to the motionless Kasha, smirking. She let out a crack of her energy, snaking it around Kasha’s lifeless form. “Unfortunately, the chameleon is too valuable to allow to die… despite her treasonous actions,” she sighed, as she settled the slavery bond over Kasha’s lifeless form. I felt my head would burst; it was filled with so many unuttered screams.
With another snap of her wrist, Ash Nevra tossed Kasha’s limp body to Kieran. “Take her. Make sure she is healed so we can get her back to work.” Kieran gave his Queen a sickening smile, before his signature swarm of magick enveloped them both, and he disappeared.
