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EMBER
“Raffe—” I whimper. “I’m sorry.”
He doesn’t respond, his dark gaze barely passing over me. He’s so angry—and rightfully so. It doesn’t matter that I had the best of intentions by leaving. Because I left. I abandoned him while he slept, and now I’ve risked all of their lives.
Behind me, the head of Taranus’s guard holds me tightly against his armored body, making it damn near impossible to draw a full breath. I try to recall everything that led me to this moment, from sneaking away with Fin to go home and die to making one mistake and ending up a prisoner yet again.
Which means the lives I risked to save Rafferty will have been for nothing if Taranus gets his hands on me again.
Taranus turns to me and cocks his head to the side, studying me curiously. My stomach churns beneath the weight of his gaze, and when he grins, the carnal expression cements the fact that I am a massive idiot.
I never should have left.
The bastard turns back to Rafferty and laughs, all while shaking his head as though he disapproves of something his eldest brother did. “Unbelievable. You already have a mate, yet you dare to claim mine?”
“Ember is not your mate,” Rafferty growls. “Not in any way, shape, or form.” The ownership in his voice is present and gives me hope. Surely we’ll find a way out of this, we always do…
“She is mine by right!” Taranus roars back. “Lloren has Seen it!” he repeats, his voice cracking. He’s weak, and I can’t help but feel joy that it’s because of my refusal of this bond. Conary chuckles, and I glance up at his face. The man holding me against his body is watching the exchange with curious amusement. Which means… he’s distracted. And I can use that. Slowly raising my leg, I slam it down on top of Conary’s foot.
Then, I throw the weight of my body forward, but it does no good. He yanks me back against him hard enough to knock the wind from my lungs. “Stay still or I’ll cut your fucking feet off.”
Beneath the intensity of his threat, I only fight harder. Horrible things will happen to me whether I’m here or gone—and I’ll be damned if I make any of this easy on them. I struggle, wiggling to gain my freedom, but it’s no use.
“Keep fighting. I’ve had a change of heart. I actually enjoy the way your body feels as it moves against mine,” he whispers in my ear, and I stiffen—the hot breath on the side of my face rancid.
“A mate bond is about more than power, you sick bastard,” Fin growls, pulling my attention back to him. “You both feel it, the inability to survive without the other.”
My gaze shifts to the man I endangered by telling him of my links to Taranus. He’d been all too happy to help me, at least until he discovered Rafferty hadn’t given his blessing. It was then he tried to push back, but I told him if he did that, I would kill myself, and Rafferty would have to find the body.
One way or another, I was going to die and take Taranus with me.
“Kill him already!” Taranus yells, and Lloren raises her hand as black magic swirls around her fingers.
“With pleasure.” She starts toward Fin but stops when a silver blade is shoved through her back. She gasps for breath, reminding me of the way a fish looks out of water. Then, she falls forward, revealing Heelean holding a bloodied blade.
“You see that coming?” Heelean asks, a twisted smile on her face.
Taranus bellows.
Fin charges where Conary holds me, and my captor brings his blade up to block it.
Rafferty rushes toward Taranus as the wish-he-was-king roars, “Close the portal!”
Lloren grips her abdomen and gets to her feet, backing away before raising her hand. Heelean flies backward, into a tree, then falls to the ground, unmoving. Lloren scrambles toward the portal, but most of my attention is on Rafferty.
He moves like a warrior. A beast with no master. And he’s going to rip Taranus apart.
“You going to kill me, brother?” Taranus questions, a sly grin on his face. He doesn’t think Rafferty will do it. He truly believes the elder fae will allow him to live.
And Taranus once called me a fool.
“Not yet.” Rafferty’s fist slams into Taranus’s jaw, and the sickening crack of breaking bones fills my ears. “But soon.”
Conary grips my hair as he continues to block Fin’s swords with one hand. He’s a practiced fighter, a man used to killing, and Fin is not.
Rafferty takes Taranus to the ground, and I prepare myself for death.
But then Conary drives his blade into Fin’s abdomen.
