The High Witch held her hand out to me. “Your wrist, Captain, if you wouldn’t mind.”
“And if I do?” My jaw ticked as my eyes narrowed in on her.
A soft smile graced her lips, but her eyes remained calculative. “I do not believe your queen is giving you a choice in the matter.”
“If he wishes to remain in his rank and eventually climb further, he will do this,” the queen’s voice echoed behind me.
Now the bitch was just playing mind games with me. Not even an hour ago, she stated that this is where I would remain under her reign.
I reluctantly strolled up to Azenna and offered her my hand. She took her taloned finger and swiped it across the top of it, and blood instantly pooled.
“What the fuck!” I barked, and as I was about to lash out at her, my blood started to float into the air, as if they were bubbles from a youngling’s bath.
My eyes drifted over to the crone, who held the wyvern in her mind control as she did the same thing to the underside of its stomach.
Azenna fused my blood with that of the wyvern and began mumbling more words in an ancient language, her eyes glowing once again. She held her hands out as our blood spun together at impossible speeds, and as she widened the stance of her arms, the spinning orb of mixing blood separated into two, parting at her will.
My gaze shot to the queen, who continued to watch in malicious awe.
Suddenly, Azenna’s arms shot out wide at her sides, and a gust of wind burst from the spinning orbs, making us all instinctively shield our faces.
I blinked through the dust and dirt that was kicked up from the force of the wind she created, and once my eyes were able to focus, they landed on twin cuffs levitating in the air, one significantly larger than the other.
“What are those?” I demanded.
“Your links,” she answered and then held her hand out to me once more. “It will also serve as a barrier for exterior magic cast by other creatures.”
My lip curled up, but I offered her my wrist. The smaller cuff shot out and clasped around it, locking itself onto me. An unbearable burning radiated from my wrist the moment it locked, and I hissed, vigorously shaking my hand from her grasp.
“What the fuck is this?!” My gaze snapped back to her just as she clasped the other around the beast's neck. The scales beneath its new collar glowed in flames for a moment before fading away.
I lifted my arm towards my face and observed what the witch had done, rotating it as my eyes glimpsed over every inch of my skin. The cuffs resembled metal but were the color of our blended blood. Where the cuff had clasped itself to my body, it left a burn mark on my skin, resembling licks of flames creeping up my forearm.
“Now that you bear its mark, you may test your newfound bond, Captain,” Azenna offered as she gestured to the wyvern and took a step to the side.
The crone followed her movements and dropped her control that she had on the beast. I took a step toward it, and it eyed me warily as he sized me up. He puffed his chestout at me, and his jaw cracked open as a growl rumbled through him.
“Command it, Adler,” the queen ordered.
“To do what?” I whispered to myself. I was a brave male and would die before I ever admitted otherwise, but what the fuck did they expect me to do withthis?
Several feet before the wyvern, my steps came to a halt, our eyes locked. I finally ordered it to do what I had always fantasized about commanding the realm itself to do.
“Bow,” I demanded, and as if placed into an immediate trance, the beast tucked in its wings and lowered its head to the ground at my feet.
My eyes flared as all sense of concern melted away, a grin now stretching ear-to-ear.
I turned on my heel to face the queen, and she gave me a nod of approval. She then pivoted to face the High Witch, her gown flowing around through the dirt at her feet. “You have yourself a bargain.”
Chapter thirty-nine
Elianna
A week had passedsince we returned from The Elora Isles, and all hands were on deck. The courthouse in the heart of Anerys became our war chamber for devising battle strategies, where we spent most of our time if we weren’t out in the fields training with the men.
I stood before the table that lay in the center of our space, which had been expertly carved from stone that served as a map of the realm—a true map—one that included all landmarks on this side of the Ezranian Mountains. My eyes drifted over the crevices engraved into it, representing every mountain, city, and forest that lay between the mortal lands and that of the fae.
Streams of sunlight filtered through the chamber’s windows, illuminating the intricate patterns carved before me.
