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He clacked his teeth and lunged for Fadey before I could plead with him to stop.

Fadey did not flee. He only laughed and laughed. As though he anticipated this. Skul Drek struck, lashed at the dark melder’s soul, but at the first touch, my phantom husband recoiled.

“No!” I rushed for him.

All at once, barbed coils of white threads burst from the center of Skul Drek’s chest. The shadows of his shoulders, his cowl, the darkness that made his shape chipped away, tangled in ropes of burning, sharp light.

I reached for him, his cold skin overheated beneath my touch. He was fading.

“What’s happening?” I clawed at the tendrils of darkness the more the white thorns spread, encircling him, breaking him. “Stop. Please.”

“Melder?” For the first time since I met the assassin in the darkness, fear was in his voice.

“No.” I clung to his fading shape. “No. Don’t you dare leave me. Roark. Gods.”

Skul Drek faded, there, then gone. Nothing more than the mists of the mirror.

All I heard was Fadey’s cruel laughter as the shadows retreated from the shelter of the cave.

Until Fadey’s laughter morphed into Brynn’s screams.

46

Roark

Lyra was crying.

Her sobs were muffled, like she screamed at me from behind a thick door. I rocked. Again. Again. I was shaking. No, someone was shaking me.

“Roark.” My wife’s voice cracked.

I hated it.

Slowly, I cracked my eyes. Through the haze of dim candlelight, I made out Lyra’s tearstained face. Behind her Brynn hugged her middle, Thane looked murderous, and Emi clung to Yrsa’s hand like she might snap off her fingers. Even Darkwin, clutching a new wound on his hip, looked despondent.

A wet, hot tongue teased my ear.

Gods. Kyrre, stupid wolf, licked the side of my head.

“Roark.” Lyra’s fingertips stroked the side of my face. “Roark, look at me.”

I reached for her cheek. What happened?

Lyra’s chin trembled. She shook her head, took my face in her palms, and kissed me. Deep and needy.

Fine enough with me. Answers would come later.

My palm went to the back of her head and I held her against my mouth, tasting her, needing more of her. The possessive nature I kept tamed felt unbalanced. Darkness clawed just beneath the surface.

Lyra broke the kiss but kept her brow to mine. She pressed her palms to my chest. “Fadey did something to you, do you remember?” A tear fell from her lashes to my cheek. “I think he summoned me because he wanted to get to you. He knew you—Skul Drek—would come for me.”

Fadey. Vague, uncertain thoughts filtered through my head. A haze shrouded them, but I could draw out the voices the deledan heard. Fadey ripping Lyra from me, the frenzy, the panic. I wanted to destroy him, and I…struck.

My brows cinched together. He burned me.

Lyra shook her head. “I don’t know what he did, but he wrapped you in these bright—ropes, thorns, I don’t know—and you…faded. Gods, I thought I’d wake to find you…” She didn’t finish and buried her face against my neck.

“I don’t want to point out the obvious, but something is still happening to him.” Thane’s voice was a sharp rasp.