All I could think was that I never got the chance to tell him I loved him back.
“Why are you doing this?” I asked, as the two humans bound my arms to my ankles with the chains. Snow soaked the thin material of my dress, but I ignored the cold. Shock numbed everything but the fear. “This is the legacy you honor Father with?”
If he was even still alive.
“Fuck his legacy,” Gideon spat, as he dismounted his horse and stalked to me. “He made our clan weak, pining after mother. Now he’ll suffer just as much as you will for underestimating me all these years.” His eyes glinted in the moonlight like the steel blade he brought against my throat.
“But you sent me to the temple. You wanted me to mate Rhys—”
“He was never supposed to save you. You were supposed to die the day your wine was poisoned before you ever left the Goddess-forsaken castle! Then the humans would have attacked the castle when it was most vulnerable and I would have been rid of you both and Seleste in one go! Instead, I had to kill her with my own hands, and now I’ve come to take care of you myself. When I’m done, I’ll be King and no one will ever forget my name again.”
There was a viciousness in his eyes that I’d never seen. A ruthlessness. I couldn’t reconcile the monster in front of me with the man who’d been there for me my whole life.
The tears that had been such a constant companion over the last few years were noticeably absent. As I stared up into my brother’s face, my face was dry. He wouldn’t get the satisfaction of seeing me squirm.
“Now you know what it’s like to lose everything,” Gideon said to Rhys, whose eyes had gone completely black. Not even the whites were visible. “I was going to get the throne until you came along and made the deal with father. If it hadn’t been for you, I would have been King twenty years ago.”
Any hope I had that Gideon was pretending for the humans’ sake was extinguished when he allowed the human closest to him to take the knife at my throat. The human eyed Rhys with barely contained glee.
“I’ve spent decades waiting for this moment,” Gideon taunted Rhys. “You and the other shifters have terrorized the mortals for too long.”
“Like you care what happens to them,” Rhys growled. “They’re a means to an end for you.”
The human with the knife at my throat laughed. “You know, after you killed most of my clan, I thought all I wanted was to see your head on a pike, but I think I’m feeling generous.” He circled me with the knife still at my throat. “Or maybe I’m enjoying the thought of you in pain and at my mercy, wondering, worrying, for the rest of your life what horrors I’m subjecting your sweet little mate to.”
“We don’t have all day,” Gideon said. “I want to get back to the castle and out of the cold. Take care of this now, or I’ll do it myself.”
“Gideon, how could you?”I whispered.
“How could I?” he said, striding to where I knelt. “Very easily. You spent your childhood traipsing around the castle like you didn’t have a care in the world,” he sneered. “You were to be Queen, even though you couldn’t even shift. You’re even more pathetic than I thought.”
He moved away, then, his face growing slack from boredom. I heard his footsteps, but I couldn’t track him. I wanted to shout, to rail at him, but one of the humans slammed the hilt of knife against my temple. Rhys howled in protest, and jerked away from the guards who’d had his arms. Three others piled on him, each battering him with their fists and heavy boots. He fought back valiantly, but took a hit to the head that had him going ever so still.
I tried to shout, but my mouth had filled with blood from the wound on my head where they’d hit me, which made breathing, let alone talking unbearable. Around me, the humans had batteredthe guards and Alaric was fighting four at once—and losing.
Rhys still hadn’t woken.
A part of me wasn’t sure if he ever would, which made the fact that my lungs were screaming from a shot to the ribs a little easier to bear. Somehow I knew the pain couldn’t last forever. It couldn’t last forever and once it was over, I’d be with Rhys again. There was some comfort to be found in that.
Spots dotted my vision, but I could still see where Rhys lay beside me. It took effort, strength that I didn’t even know I had, but I jerked my body sideways so I could reach him. It took all the rest of my energy, but I managed to get close enough to rest my head on his brow. Blood still poured freely from the wound on his cheek, but it didn’t matter.
I could sense him through the connection of our bond, but it was tenuous. I wasn’t sure if that was because I could feel myself fading fast or because he was unconscious. As the black spots began to cloud my vision and blot out the sight of his face, I decided I didn’t have the energy to figure it out. With the last of my strength, I screamed out for him with all that I had left, and I could only hope it reached him.
I wanted him to know I loved him, too.
25
Rhysander
When I woke, everything hurt. But not as much as the sight of my mate, bloodied and broken, in front of me. Her beautiful dark curls were sticky and matted with blood and mud and snow. Her face was covered with it and the growing shadows of bruises. The sight of her wounds filled me with immeasurable anger and sadness. The beast in me wanted to rip apart the men who’d done this to her with my bare hands. For so long, I’d kept him under control, but without her…
Without her, there’d be no point.
I reached out a hand to her lifeless body, needing to touch her, to feel her, at least once, but the chains now encircling my wrists stopped me just short of her too-still body.
“Not so fast,” Gideon said and I spit fire at the sight of his face, singeing the top of his hair.
I took pleasure in the sight of his hastily covered surprise and fear. I would enjoy ripping him apart limb from limb.
