Pure agony took over me, blurring my vision as my body was lifted from the floor, the High Witch guiding me upwards as she raised her hand toward the ceiling.
A scream tore from my throat as my body remained stiff as a board, levitating twenty feet above them in the center of the throne room. The witch was slowing the movement of the blood within my veins by slipping her magic through my bleeding wounds.
A banging rattled the bond as Jace slammed his mental fists on the shield. I desperately fought to keep it up as I heard the distant echo of his voice in my mind, begging me to let him in.
“Ah, and who might that be, Heir of the Realm?” Azenna asked, forcing my gaze down to where she remained on the floor beneath me.
I tried to lash out, but the grasp that her magic held me in kept me utterly still.
“Who whispers into your mind, Elianna Valderre?”
Even through my blurry vision, I saw Idina take a step toward the High Witch. “What are you talking about? Surely her false speech of amatewas to distract us,” she snapped.
“A bond,” she answered as her eyes remained on me. “Someone calls to her through it, but she won’t let them in.”
“That is impossible,” Idina whispered, but then her voice rose. “She married a human. I saw it with my own eyes. I sawthemthe night of their wedding.”
A laugh left me through the pain, but it was filled with nothing but rage. “That’s right, Idina. My husband andmateis a halfling. And until he met me, he acknowledged only the parts of him that are human because of being sired by one of your vile soldiers. He wanted nothing more than to see every last fae head on a spike…until he met me. Until helovedme!”
“Once again, that is not possible,” she hissed. “Why would the gods grant someone of lesser blood a mate? And what makes you or Jamesonthinkthemselves worthy of such a bond?!”
Her tone was a swirling mix of wrath and heartache, making my brows furrow. My entire body was screaming in anguish as Jace continued to tear his way through the wall that I desperately clung to. I tried to force words out but couldn’t bring myself to move as Azenna continued to make my blood work against my own body.
“A mate,” the queen scoffed, crossing her arms as she glared up at me. “You are not worthy of such a bond, and neither was your father. It is beautiful, ancient, and all-knowing. Not only is a bastard born not worthy of such,but a halfling is even less. So, why would the gods place such beings together?” She paused as her lips curled back. “They wouldn’t! So you are aliar, Elianna.”
My lips parted as I gave her a blood-stained smile. “The malevolent gods wouldn’t have granted such a bond, but their mother goddess, Terra, would. For I am her heir and she has always wished for peace among her children.”
I chuckled at the look of disgust on her face, the ache of it rattling my body. A thought hit me then.
My eyes darted back and forth, all over the throne room as quickly as the pain would allow, realizing that Callius wasn’t here with her—nor was he atop the city gates when we had first arrived. He would never be on that battlefield with it being this close to the castle, no. Callius would be right here at her side, as he had always been.
The queen was getting emotional—an ache in her voice I had never heard. A defensive notion against mates, saying we weren’t worthy of such a thing. That my father wasn’t worthy of such a thing when he claimed to have found that with my mother.
I forced my eyes back down to her. “Where is Callius, Idina?”
Her jaw locked; the veins in her neck were pulsating beneath her skin—amber eyes radiating a blaze as if they would burn a hole through me.
“Release her,” she demanded of Azenna.
“Your Majesty?” the High Witch asked, half turning to her as she held me in the air.
“Now!” she roared.
Azenna dropped her hand, releasing me from the despair of the blood spell, but also from her hold in the air. My body violently slammed onto the floor, the tile beneath me cracking from the force of it. My ribs fractured from the impact, and every open wound I had from the wyvern attack was pouring blood even worse than before as its natural flow in my veins returned.
My shield dropped as the pain of everything overwhelmed me, letting Jace’s voice through.
“Lia!” My name was desperate from his lips, pleading for an answer, but I could barely focus enough to respond. “Lia, please, are you alright? I will come and find you. Just tell me where you are! Nox is here and you’re not with him! Sweetheart, please.”
I groaned from the agony tearing through me as I moved to push myself up to sit. My eyes locked with Idina, who was standing not even two feet before me, waiting to end me here and now herself.
“I love you,” was all I was able to push through to him before I put the wall back into place, his fists beating into it once more. I knew he could still sense my pain with the shield, but neither of us could afford the distraction of each other’s voice.
My thoughts were consumed by the thought that the bitch was this close to me. All I had to do was reach for my dagger quick enough to cut her throat, and this would be over.
“Keep her still,” she ordered Azenna, and I lost all use of my limbs.
My body fell to the floor as the arm I used to hold myself up slid out from beneath me—my skull felt as if it had cracked as it slammed into the marble. Idina approached me then. She reached down and grabbed my face, squeezing my cheeks tightly between her fingers, pulling me closer to her as her eyes bore into mine.
