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“Then I will repeat my offer to you. Let me make it simple and clear. If we combine our power, we can overthrow your father and rule in his stead.” He spun back around, pinning my gaze in place.

He waited, still, expectantly, as though he’d just offered pheasant to a starving woman.

A laugh bubbled up and out of my chest before I could stop it. He glowered, eyes darkening in response, and I clamped a hand over my mouth.

“You laugh?” The poison in his voice cut off any mirth I may have felt.

I stared, dropping my hand to my side. “You know he’s too dangerous.” Far more so than Serano ever was.

He scrunched his nose as though disgusted yet nodded like I’d confirmed a suspicion.

“I’d hoped,” Serano said, striding to his desk of oddities, “that you’d have become more like your shadow hand. But it seems you are still the same weak, pathetic fool you’ve always been.”

When he turned back around, he held something clutched in his hands. All I could make out was the glow from between his fingers as he drew closer. This time I did scoot away, backing up into the headboard.

He paid me no mind as he sat on the edge of the bed once again. He smiled, something I’d rarely seen, and it sent shivers down my back. He looked more like a hungry serpent than a man, especially when his eyes glowed gold. Another new sight.

“I have two options, as I see it,” he explained, leaning in conspiratorially. “One is marry you and sire the heir, which would be rather simple since I paid that man you murdered to kill your betrothed. The downside of course is that His Highness may find me expendable after I’ve planted my seed in you.”

He set a hand on the flat of my stomach and every muscle in my body clenched. I would have backed away had I anywhere else to go. But his words echoed in my head, distracting me. He’d paid Fiorge to kill Torvo. It was his fault my prince was dead.

Anger and grief threatened to split me in two. I stared at the man before me, tears clouding my vision as I willed my glare to incinerate him on the spot. If only I still had my magic⁠—

Had Serano been responsible for whatever had happened to Nyah?

Oblivious to my sudden mood shift, he continued. “The other option is to take what I want and use it to wrench power from the hands of a madman. Unfortunately for you, that means pain.” He opened his fist to reveal several sharp shards of crystal similar to the one Nyah had taken when Rivven’s mother had shattered the powerstone.

“What—” My words were cut off as he thrust the shards onto my shoulder, and magic I thought I’d lost flared to life inside of me, swelling in my chest like it had a life of its own. I grimaced, doubling over as the collar around my neck sent shock after shock of electricity sizzling along my flesh.

I raised my head just enough to see the spot where his hand splayed over my stomach. From beneath, light shown, glowing such a bright purple that the colors remained seared into the backs of my eyelids as I blinked.

“The…powerstone…” I managed to choke out, sliding back to the surface of the bed.

Serano climbed over me, pressing the shards harder against me. The sensation of my magic rising and flowing out of me was nothing new. My father had done this to me my entire life. Serano was stealing my power, siphoning it from my very being. I clawed at the choker, gasping as my fingers singed on contact. The smell of burning flesh mixed with the strong smell of anise that Serano always carried.

“All of it, Princess,” Serano demanded, yanking harder on the core of my magic.

The crystal had been so powerful that even the shards were enough to rip away what he wanted. And Serano knew how to wield them. He’d witnessed my father countless times. But if Serano had already taken Nyah, and my magic⁠—

Then it couldn’t have been Serano. He was still searching for my magic, I realized with a bolt of shock. Whatever the crystal was taking wasn’t the power I was used to. It wasn’t the power he was looking for. He was going to rip me apart in search of something that was no longer there. I tried to tell him, to mouth the words, but the collar was too tight, punishing me for attempting to use magic even though it was against my own will.

“Give it to me!” Serano shouted, eyes glowing and dark hair standing on end in the electric storm of purple lightning that sizzled between us.

My body arched upward as though trying to throw it all at him, and the metal collar around my throat constricted yet again, a nearly impossible feat. It branded what was left of my skin as it cut off my air supply. And still the shards drank, draining me of every ounce of strength. My fingers scrabbled helplessly at my throat until I could no longer hold them up. I went limp, unable to even moan as pain shredded through me, tearing me asunder.

My last thought as the corners of my vision blackened was that he intended to drain me completely and leave me for dead. But at least he couldn’t find what was already missing.

Forty-One

Rivven

Plunging into the freezing waves was only slightly more tolerable because of my abilities. The waters cleared for me, revealing the life beneath. And there was plenty of it, a veritable city of towering coral that glowed phosphorescent green with small bits of yellow and blue where various crustaceans and sea creatures made their homes.

My eyes trailed quickly along the maze below, searching for any sign of Torvo’s hulking frame. What I found wasn’t a body, or any trace of the man I sought, but two other figures, undulating in the current as they grinned up at me with sharp incisors bared.

Mermaids.

Fuck. I’d barely escaped these creatures when I’d been determined to save Nyah. And if she hadn’t helped, I’d have been fish food long ago. Still, the fact that the big guy was missing and the mermaids were here gave me some small hope that he might have survived.