It’s… it’s… it doesn’t matter. Only Issy matters.
Tell me what’s happening,I try again.Talk to me!
Another voice answers, one I don’t want to hear, so I don’t listen or discern the words.
Issy!
I curl tightly into a ball, tears pouring from my eyes. I can’t see. I can barely breathe. All I feel is my sister’spain.
I won’t!I hear her yell, the fury in those two words dragging across my psyche like sharp claws.I won’t give her that order!
Who? What are you talking about?I ask her, bewildered and lost.Issy…
No! Fallon can’t die!she screams, her words not making sense.Klas’s crimes are his own, not hers. Fuck your orders!
I gasp as another spear goes right through my chest, the sensation reminding me of electric volts, shaking my spirit and demanding submission.
Several more follow, stealing my ability to do anything other than lie on the floor in a complacent ball.
Something warm touches my shoulders. That voice is near my ear. But I’m too focused on Issy, too consumed by her mental exhaustion, to consider anything else.
She’s weeping.
Screaming.
Shaking.
Dying.
Something is choking her.
Power.
I try to reach through our bond, to push every ounce of my strength to her, but I feel the moment she snaps, her spirit shattering beneath an explosion of intense energy. She gasps into my mind, her voice a rasp as she says,The Outcast Coven has spoken.
I frown at her flat tone, the words unlike anything she’s ever said.
If Nikolas O’Neely is subject to death, so is Fallon Doyle,she continues.Fallon Doyle will honor the Outcast Coven by adhering to our ancient pledge—loyal mates die with their beloved. Or those mates will be punished with fates worse than death.
CHAPTERTWO
NOX
A FEW MINUTES EARLIER
I checkmy watch for the fifth time, scowling when I see only sixty seconds have passed since my last glance.
Guard duty doesn’t suit me. I would much rather be playing in the lab or sparring with Bane. But this assignment is important to King Kaspian, thereby making it important to me.
And I can’t say I really mind looking after the pretty charge in the guest suite behind this door. She’s a fiery little thing with curves I’ve thought about more than once over the last year.
Which is why I volunteered to remain on this assignment, even after Kaspian offered me a different option.
I like Fallon. She’s cute. Intelligent.Alluring.
Of course, she also possesses death magic, marking her as decidedly off-limits to a phantom like me. But what fun is life without a little danger? Besides, it’s not like Fallon Doyle has tried anything on me or Bane. The worst she’s done is stare for a few beats too long, betraying her curiosity about us.
Bane and I are used to that, though. We’re considered new in this world, our powers and abilities as phantoms unknown to the majority of the population. The fact that King Kaspian keeps us both close only incites more interest in our presence here.
