Elyria’s faculties returned the instant he broke contact. She flexed her hand as she drew it back to her chest, an instinctive kind of retreat. Well, perhaps that wasn’t the whole truth. If she’d been following her instincts, if she listened to the call of her shadows, she would have grabbed Cedric’s hand instead.
Evander pressed his lips together into a tight line as he watched her. Like he knew.
Eager for distraction, she was quick to say, “You’ve been here before.”Been here all along, added her guilt. “Do you know what to do?”
Evander’s dark brow furrowed. “I fear I do.” He paced back and forth behind Kit and Elyria, as if in deliberation. But beyond the thoughtful crease on his forehead, the purse of his lips, there was a predatory grace to his movements that sent a chill up Elyria’s spine.
“You fear? What does that mean? What needs to happen next?”
His golden eyes locked on hers, and in that heartbeat, her world spun on its axis. Because there was nothing warm or jovial or kind in those eyes. Nothing familiar, only cool calculation and icy resolve.
It paralyzed her. So much so that her legs remained rooted to the floor, her voice trapped in her chest when Evander came to a stop right behind Kit and said, “Someone needs to die.”
And then it happened—too fast, too sudden.
A flash of darksteel.
A soft gasp.
Time froze.
Then, all at once, it resumed in a clangor of screams and shouts and cries, none of which were louder than Elyria’s as she stared at the deep crimson stain blooming across Kit’s chest.
And the bloody blade Evander had just thrust into his sister’s back.
43
ANGER & AGONY
CEDRIC
There wasblood on the table. Cedric watched a heavy droplet bead at the edge and drip, unhurried and languid, onto the stone floor.
He could hear no other sound, see no other movement. Logically, he knew there was plenty of both. The moment Evander’s sword burst through Kit’s chest the world erupted. Cedric was sure Elyria’s scream still rang in the air.
Nox and Thraigg leapt over the table, the former grabbing hold of Evander and shadowstepping him to the far side of the room, the latter there to catch Kit just before she crumpled to the ground.
And yet, to Cedric, it was like the entire universe had condensed into a single heartbeat of sickening stillness. Allhe could see was the small “oh” that Kit’s lips had formed, the betrayal and hurt—not just physical pain, but deep, soul-killinghurt—in her mismatched eyes.
In the silence, he thought he could hear that sole droplet of blood as it splashed onto the floor. His thoughts churned, rapid waves crashing into one another.I should have known. I should have done something. I could have prevented this.
He’d known something was off. Evander’s sudden appearance had struck Cedric all wrong. After twenty-five years of separation, how was the fae full of nothing but confident smiles and charming swagger?
From that first moment, he was too perfect. Too smooth. Cedric’s fingers had itched for his sword the instant he laid eyes on the man. But...Elyria. He saw it—the way the disbelief in her eyes had morphed into something else. More than relief, more than joy. Something likehope. He heard the way her breath hitched at the sound of Evander’s voice. And all of Cedric’s unease and wariness was suddenly blanketed with a thick cloud of something he had absolutely no right to feel.
He wasjealous.
And so, he’d forced himself to dismiss his better judgment, worried he was imposing his personal feelings on their reunion, chalking up the suspicion lurking in his gut to his own traitorous emotions.
He would never ignore those instincts again.
Kit’s ragged gasp pierced through his stupor, and Cedric came crashing back to the present. Back to the maelstrom of panic and shouting and screaming.
I could have prevented this.
Elyria fell to her knees, cradling Kit’s head in her lap. Zephyr seemed frozen by the shock of it all, hesitating before swarming the fallen fae, green light glowing in her hands. Pain radiated from Kit in waves so large and looming Cedric swore he could see it—misty clouds pulsing into the ether, as if her own magic was trying to escape the agony.
The metallic tang of blood coated the air.
