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I raised another vine, trying like hell to keep it slim enough to escape the guards’ notice, but I only succeeded in causing them to tumble even harder together, off balance and rolling with snarls and shouts. Suddenly, the mist surged in and blocked everyone’s view while the crowd screamed for Luca’s blood.
If the mist didn’t eliminate him, he needed to disappear, and fast.
Hurriedly scanning the crowd for options, I found Vento only a dozen feet away. Shoving through the vampires, I snagged his arm, speaking close to his ear. “Get him out of here. I’ll lend him my glamor as far as the front door. Can you manage after that?”
Vento clapped a hand over mine and nodded. “Thank you. He’s going to be in rough shape during this transition.”
I looked at him sharply. “What transition?”
Vento growled under his breath. “They invoked the mating bond -aima- before she died. He took her blood.”
I looked at him blankly, not understanding.
“If Khione’s power comes through like we were promised and she’s still alive somewhere in the mist, Luca’s going to become a werewolf,” he hissed under his breath, spelling it out for me.
“Holy Goddess,” I breathed, my mind spinning with the implications.
Before I could ask more questions, the mist parted below us, revealing that Luca was alive. Thankfully, Kingston was trapped behind a wall of swirling mist, seething barred from attacking again.
“Surrender,” Luca hollered, his voice hoarse as he tried to stand. “I choose... to surrender.”
All the vampires around us were vibrating with rage and disgust for what he’d done to their beloved princess, and for a moment I worried Luca might not even make it out of the pit alive. But then Vento leaped down beside him, wrapping him in a long cloak he must have snatched from someone’s chair. The two wolves quickly disappeared into the tunnels of stacked bones, and I closed my eyes, following their energy beneath the ballroom floor.
My promise of glamor was useless now, but at least they were heading toward the far wall of the Vault. They would just have to find an exit or hide in the catacombs until this chaos was done.
I circled back to Acadian, covering him again with my magic as we sneaked away from the bloodthirsty crowd.
“Stay here,” I warned, leaving him safely in Kana’s rooms. “I need to find that bloody vampire and somehow convince him this was meant to happen.” I knew Kana would have chosen another way, if there had been one.
“Watch your back, fae,” Cade said with a dangerous gleam in his eye. “Wouldn’t want that pretty face to end up looking like Kingston’s.”
LUCA
It was pitch black in the tunnels, but somehow Vento found us a way out.
I was too delirious with pain to help. Maybe it was something about losing Kana so fast after we’d taken theaimavows, or maybe it had to do with her being my wolf mate.
But losing her had fucked me up physically, not just in my heart.
“I’ll never forgive myself for that,” I moaned as I slumped down against a tree.
“Khione will find a way,” Vento growled at me, shoving my arms aside so he could see my injuries. Kingston had gotten me good, but I deserved it. I never should have signed that fucking contract.
“I can’t go back to the Vault,” I pointed out, wincing when he prodded the ragged wound in my stomach. Ice wolves healed like vampires, just not quite as quickly.
“You’ll go to Saori Sang. Help Valanga with the gobbelin attacks until the Trials are over and Kingston takes the throne.”
I gritted my teeth as he cleaned the dirt and blood away from my leg, which I was pretty sure wasn’t broken. “Will I live, doc?”
He snorted. “You haven’t even felt the worst of it, yet. If your bond with Kana was true and Khione brings her back? You’re going to be a werewolf, pup. And while we may not have any living ones now, the legends are pretty fucking clear on how much that shift hurts the first time or two.”
I groaned. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I’d known this was a possibility. But in the mess of the Trials and the blood contract, I’d pretty much forgotten. “I still can’t believe she asked me to take vows. Do you think it worked?”
“Do you?” Vento asked, pointing to my chest, where my lungs and heart still hadn’t stopped spasming.
“Yeah. Yeah, I do. I wanted her for so long, and then... that,” I whispered, reeling with the sudden image of what my life might be like if Khione’s magic didn’t work the way we hoped. I’d let Kingston kill me then.
“Hey. Get some rest. I’ll go hunt some food, and everything will be okay soon. I feel it, pup. Change is in the air,” Vento added, breathing deeply. He was in a remarkably good mood considering his Goddess had just been killed - I’d half expected to be fighting him off, not Kingston.
