The stonepecker began to writhe on my palm, causing me to drop it in alarm. Roots shot up out of it as it spun across the dark space at my feet.
“I’d grab those if I were you,” a deep voice said from the shadows.
“What?” I spun around, searching for the source.
Then the stonepecker began to whine, and my mates all yelled in my head.
I looked down to see the creature twisting into smoke, the roots the only part left behind.
Except, no… those weren’t roots.They’re souls,I realized, recognizing the essence from Shade’s Death Blood magic courses.
The beings twisted in agony, their hums of magic familiar.
I reached for them on instinct—all four strands—then jolted as they shot out in all different directions, their ends securing themselves to the inky walls around me.
What…?
The beings began to stretch, causing me to cry out as they dug their opposite ends into my palms, their roots deep and solid and joining with my being.Again.Like they had always been a part of me and it was the atmosphere around us that had forced me to release them.
What’s happening?
“Poor Aflora,” the deep voice murmured, Constantine’s tones familiar and recognizable. “Always choosing her mates over herself.”
I couldn’t see him, but I felt him all around me, his power pulsing against mine, demanding I stay put until he finished toying with his prey. My mind stroked through his spell, trying to learn the nuances of it and how to counteract it, but the yanking on my strands had me focusing on the here and now and my innate need tohold on. They rooted deeper, securing themselves to my soul… their voices beginning to return…
“Did you know that stonepecker is how I first confirmed your connection to my grandson?” Constantine asked conversationally, like I wasn’t being ripped apart by the vines digging into my hands. “I originally sent it with the expectation of it being found among his things during the search. But a falcon disrupted my spell. A familiar.Yourfamiliar. Which I found deeply fascinating at the time. Until I realizedwhythat familiar had interfered.”
Aflora?Kols’s voice trickled through my mind in a whisper, the soul in my palm vibrating.
I’m here,I told him.I’m?—
“You mated my grandson, the heir to the Midnight Fae kingdom. No doubt because you bewitched him with your abomination magic. I’d hoped he’d be stronger. I had also hoped the Death Blood had been lying. Alas, here we are. And it seems Shadow was attempting to outmaneuver me, too. But I’m the one holding the final play in this game.” He paused. “Actually, no, that’s not quite right.Youare holding it.”
The souls writhed against my palms, their agony touching my soul as the space began to move, stretching them… taking them from myheart.
“Who will you sacrifice?” Constantine asked, his voice low and menacing. “Which soul will you release to survive?” His energy kissed my skin. “Let the trial begin.”
Aflora’s agonyshredded my heart into a thousand pieces. I hit her with another defensive spell, trying in vain to pull her from this magical coma.
She didn’t move. Didn’t respond. Barely breathed.
Zakkai had caught her when she’d fainted, the stonepecker disappearing into black mist. His familiar had howled and cowered in a corner, his tail firmly between his legs. He was still there now, shaking with fright as Zakkai ran a spell over him.
Kols and I had moved Aflora to the couch, where Shade paced frantically back and forth. He kept fisting his hair and cursing himself for not seeing this sooner. “Your grandfather did this,” he said, looking at Kols. “He used to send me messages via Draco all the time, always in the form of dead crows. He thought it was symbolic.”
“Of Night,” Kols inferred darkly. “That piece of information would have been useful ten minutes ago.”
“He’s never used Zimney for that purpose before,” Zakkai interjected. “Ishould have sensed what was wrong. He tried to tell me by disobeying my word and looking to Aflora for direction. But I deduced incorrectly that he was deferring to her as the queen.” He ran his hand over his face, his frustration palpable. “That fucking grandfather of yours needs to die.”
“Indeed,” Kols agreed.
Aflora’s shriek inside my head sent me to my knees beside her, along with the others. “What is he doing?” I demanded, my chest aching as though I’d just finished an intense battle session with a fellow Warrior Blood.
I felt drained.
Ruined.
Exhausted.
