“That was our belief, yes.”
“So what’s the issue? What’s causing the lights?” I turned around to meet his gaze, and he finally released my hand, searching my face like he was trying to decide how much to tell me.
“We’d always assumed no one—nothing—could survive such an inhospitable landscape,” he said. “Only dragons, and we’re not even sure they exist anymore.”
“There’s a but coming,” I whispered, the unspoken weight of it squeezing my lungs, making it hard to breathe.
“I’m afraid so.” With a sad smile that softened his eyes, he reached up and tucked a lock of hair behind my ear, holding it there against the chilly breeze. His touch was warm and protective, and for a moment I wondered who he saw when he looked at me like that.
His secret weapon? The witch who’d stolen into his castle and tried to steal his blood for an adversary? A prisoner he could bend to his will?
Or did he see me as a woman? One he’d wanted to kiss earlier? One he might want to kiss again?
And, million-dollar-question-of-the-century…
Why thefuckwas I even thinking about this again?
Therapy, girl. If you ever get back home again, the first thing you’re doing is making that appointment.
The breeze died down, and Keradoc lowered his hand, weariness seeping back into his gaze.
“Haley, I… I don’t know how to tell you this, other than to just say it. We’ve received intelligence—confirmed it—that Melantha has broken the banishment spell and returned to Midnight. She hasn’t yet manifested in her physical form, but her essence is here, making its way across the desert with the Army of the Dead, a force of nearly indestructible ghouls against which we don’t stand a chance. Not with our current numbers.”
It took a few seconds for his words to sink in. To rearrange themselves in my mind into something that made sense.
Melantha.
Broken spell.
Desert.
Army of the Dead.
Indestructible ghouls.
Don’t stand a chance.
And when those words finally clicked into place, the horror of the images they unleashed stole the last of the breath from my too-tight lungs.
“Melantha!” I gasped. Her vile name echoed through my skull, sending shockwaves of fear reverberating through my body. “But that’s… No. How could she break the… And if she’s…” I closed my eyes, forcing myself to take a deep breath. Then, glancing up into those enigmatic violet eyes, “Keradoc, if Melantha is here, what does that mean for my sisters?”
That was the most important thing. The thing I still cared about above all else, despite everything that’d happened here. With him. With the magick and wonder of this dark, beautiful, mysterious place.
My sisters.
“I don’t know, Haley. I’ve lost contact with the associates I’d sent to keep tabs on things in Blackmoon Bay. Melantha’s arrival is interfering with our travel spells and portals—withallof Midnight’s magick—in ways we can’t even predict, let alone counteract. I’ve sent two of my best witches to the Bay in hopes they have better luck than their predecessors, but I have no way of knowing whether they’ve even reached—”
“Luck?Luck?” I shoved my hands into my hair, damn near ripping it out of my head. Fear pounded through my veins, making me jittery and wild. “That’s not good enough! She knows by now I failed to complete her quest. And you promised me—”
“Melantha’s fight isn’t with you,” he said firmly, as if that would make everything better. “It’s with me. She used you because she saw you as a means to her next end against the enemy shetrulydespises. My hope is that she’s not interested in your family. That her focus will remain on me and—”
“We’re talking about the lives of the three sisters who’ve only just come back into my life. Sisters I fought and nearly died to protect just to give them a chance at a normal life. Yourhopeisn’t good enough for me, and neither are the promises you can’t even keep.”
“I didn’t mean to imply—Haley, wait. Where are you going?”
I tossed up my hands, stalking past him and back toward the drawbridge, wishing I could find a gargoyle to take me out of there. Wishing I could find some way to get back to Blackmoon Bay and leave all this behind me.
But of course Keradoc wouldn’t let me leave. He was on me in a flash, his grip tightening around my arm as if I was his pet. His property.
