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Chapter Twenty-Four
David
I could feel Skylar’s heart slowing and I knew I wasn’t the only one. We were losing her. It was too much blood loss. Rage simmered inside me but I couldn’t charge the queen. I knew if I so much as moved, she’d finish the job.
“The stone. Now.” Marcella looked at each of us in turn, then she pressed the blade in deeper.
Skylar’s head lolled to one side and her eyelids grew heavy.
“We don’t have a choice.” I turned to the others. “If either of you have the stone and don’t hand it over right now, I’ll kill you myself.”
“We can’t give it to her,” Elias said. “I’m not going to let you start a war.”
“This has nothing to do with me,” I hissed. “Skylar is going to die. Where is the stone?”
“Let her go, Marcella. You know this is wrong. It’s between us, don’t involve her,” Elias said.
“Has diplomacy ever worked for you?” she asked with a grin. “I don’t think so. That’s why you have the reputation you carry. You have no business lecturing me, fallen prince.”
Xander took a step closer, a low growl rumbling from him. “Release her.”
“You have the most to lose in this, alpha. But I treat my friends well. What do you say?” Marcella winked.
“You know my answer to that,” he said.
“Enough!” I stepped toward Marcella, then looked over at Elias. “We don’t have an option.”
Elias’s jaw was tense, his nostrils flaring. He had a deadly look in his eyes. If not for Skylar blocking the queen from him, I was pretty sure he would have taken her out. While my brother was rather ruthless with those who crossed him, he really was a diplomat at heart. He’d never harm another ruler. There were lines he wouldn’t cross.
This move, though, was going to be the cause of an exception. Marcella had gone too far.
“Hand it over,” Elias said.
I looked over to see Xander removing a necklace from his neck. It looked like an old locket and was definitely too small for his thick neck. It also didn’t look like his style.
He held it up. “Give us Skylar.”
Marcella lifted the knife and extended her other hand. Xander lowered the necklace into her palm.
Elias and I moved quickly, pulling Skylar away from the queen. I pressed my palm to her neck, trying to slow the bleeding. “We need a towel. Something to stop the blood.”
Elias passed me a blanket from the nearby couch and I pressed the fabric to Skylar’s neck.
A cloud of black smoke swirled around us and I pulled Skylar against my chest, gripping her with my arms. There was no way anyone was going to pry her from my grasp.
The smoke subsided and I looked around. Marcella was gone.
“How much time did you buy us?” I asked as I returned to treating Skylar’s wounds.
“Not sure,” Xander said.
“How long for her to open the locket and find out we duped her?” I asked.
“She has the stone,” Elias said. “It was the only way.”
My shoulders slumped. I was going to give her the stone as part of our bargain so I shouldn’t care. But the woman in my arms made me want to see this realm survive.
“We’ll get it back from her,” Xander said. “And we’ll get your sister.”
“Not right now we won’t.” I scooped Skylar into my arms so I could carry her. “First we have to find a healer. Then, we figure out a way to destroy the queen.”
