Page 271 of The Edge of Darkness

“Where is she?” I growled, taking the queen by the arms the moment she stepped within reach.

“She is safe,” Corinne breathed, flinching under my stern grip. “She is with my Dionach and two others.”

I surveyed her. Not a scratch, not a blemish. She was unscathed. “Why isn’t she with you? What the fuck happened? Your message said you found the king!”

Corinne’s brows pinched. “What?! I never sent a message. I had a vision. I saw Auren being pulled across The Veil by someone who wasn’t what he seemed, and then I saw a woman in black waiting in the trees. By the time I found Auren, Skadi was already there. She . . . she had the king . . . and Auren’s brother.”

Oh gods . . .

I searched her eyes, watched them line with tears as she said, “The king is dead.” Her jaw quivered. “And . . . Auren’s brother was killed in front of her.”

Anger and devastation cascaded through me. My blood boiled in my veins. Shadows spun out from behind my shoulders, snapping at the air around me. A few of the guards nearby jumped back to avoid an unintentional lashing.

“Who was it?” I asked, my voice lethally low. “Who killed her brother?”

“He said his name was Killian. He was a shifter.”

“Was?”

She lifted her chin. “Auren drove an iron dagger into his heart.”

I couldn’t tell if the words brought me relief or added to my fear. What had this done to Auren? Seeing her brother murdered before her eyes after her parents had been slain in a similar way . . .

An experience like that can drive someone in one of two directions. It can lead to cold, calculated revenge, or it can trigger blind rage—effective, but dangerous because it overrides one’s ability to anticipate what comes next.

If she’d descended into blind rage . . .

Fuck. Fuck!

“Why isn’t she here?”

“Skadi got a hold of her. I offered the amulet in her stead, but the goddess wasn’t going to follow through with the trade, so one of the Dionachs stabbed her with a poisoned dagger. We got Auren, but Skadi brought forth one of her shadow creatures, and we were taken by surprise. It was immune to the Dionach’s weapons. I-I’ve never seen a creature like it. Then, a shaggy-haired, black thing that looked like a giant wolf came out of the forest. It fought the shadow being, and killed it, but . . .”

That word “but” . . . It made my heart drop to my feet.

“Auren was wounded, and so was the wolf—who was actually a fae⁠—”

I stopped hearing the rest of her words. The breath vacated my lungs. For a moment, I was skin and bone and nothing more. I was hollowed out.

My vision tunneled.

Auren was wounded. Wounded.

And I was here, in my fucking war tent. Doing nothing.

“She is safe, Niall,” the queen continued. “She took herself and the others to a place here in the mountains. Some place she claimed could heal her. I came here to deliver the news as quickly as I could.”

The wraith’s cave. She was at the wraith’s cave⁠—

“Um, do you mind . . .” Corinne glanced down at her arms, where my hands were still squeezing them with a painfully tight grip.

I released her and tried to find my breath and collect my thoughts.

I knew better than to trust that message. I shouldn’t have let Auren go. I should have foreseen this happening. She was hurt. She could have died. I needed to get to the cave. I needed to know she was all right⁠—

Auren? I yelled down the bond. Auren, talk to me, are you⁠—

Niall!? her voice echoed back.