My sister Gray had said something about a spell with the ancestors. If I remembered it right, there was a way you could summon them and resurrect them into new vessels.Livingvessels.
Is that what Keradoc intended?
To resurrect Darkwinter ancestors into the bodies of Midnight soldiers?
Holy shit. The existing Darkwinter soldiers—Keradoc’s invaders—would have no choice but to surrender. Not unless they wanted to dishonor their entire bloodline and slaughter their own family members.
Sort of.
I opened my eyes again, my head spinning. This was insane. All of it.Theywere insane. Melantha, Keradoc, the Darkwinter fae… Why didn’t they just fuck off to their own private island and kill each other there? Leave everyone else out of it?
“Youwillhelp me, Haley,” Keradoc said.
I lifted my chin, just like the wolf shifters had done earlier. “And if I refuse? You can take my blood, but you can’t force me to do a summoning spell. The magick won’t work if my heart isn’t in it.”
He retrieved a dagger from inside his jacket—my dagger. Fresh blood had only just begun to dry on the blade.
I shuddered to think whose it might be.
Keradoc grinned, then dragged his tongue along the blade, his eyes wicked and cold.
How could Ieverhave mistaken Keradoc for Elian?
Yet… he wasn’t the real Keradoc either, was he? Just someone wearing theillusionof Keradoc.
How many layers deep did the glamour magick go?
And who the hellwasthe guy behind all the masks?
“If you refuse to aid me in defeating my enemies,” he said, “your friends will suffer the same fate as the wolf shifters you so ardently defended earlier.”
Alarm shot through my chest.
“What friends?” I forced a laugh. “If I had friends, don’t you think they would’ve rescued me by now? I came alone at the behest of Melantha. If you don’t like how this little blind date of ours is turning out, take it up withthatbitch.”
“Tsk tsk,” he said. “Lying, on top of all the crimes you’ve already committed? Unwise.”
Before I could say anything else, he snapped his fingers, and the door at the rear of the room creaked open.
Four guards entered, once again dragging prisoners.
Only this time, they weren’t treasonous wolf shifters.
They were my men.
My monsters.
My fucking heart.
Hudson wasn’t with them—the only glimmer of hope.
But Jax and Elian were. It was the first I’d seen my vampire-fae in days.
The guards dropped them on their knees at the bottom of the dais, barely conscious, both bleeding from multiple wounds—hawthorn stakes for Elian, metal bolts for Jax, likely cursed to trap demons. It was the only thing that would’ve rendered him so weak.
They both looked up at me, agony twisting their faces when they saw me tied to the throne.
I couldn’t help the pained gasp that escaped, the tears that leaked from my eyes.
