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“You cannot stop it, Ari.”
My teeth ground together. My breaths quickened. All I could do was bleeding watch the creature threaten and torment my damn wife.
“Do you give yourself to another?” Davorin’s silky, snake-like voice lifted the hair on my arms. He dragged the backs of his fingers down Saga’s cheek, her throat, over her breasts until he reached her thighs. “Do you spread these legs and take any bastard who’ll have you?”
She cried out when he yanked her legs open under her gown.
“Dammit.” I glared at Wraith. “Why do you show me this when I can donothing?”
“Watch, Ari. Your fate as enemies was sealed this day.”
“Davorin,” Saga whispered. “You’re hurting me.”
He grinned, sickly sweet, and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Trust me, princess. I shall do much worse if you think of sharing your gift with any man but me. Mark me, the Night Folk will meet their ruin should they come near you.”
“W-What are you talking about?” Tears dripped onto her cheeks.
“I’m not sure yet.” His smile widened. “But I am certain that the woman in my bed is expected to prove her devotion, or I will find it elsewhere.” Another kiss to her nose, and Davorin finally stepped away. “Something to think about, Saga.”
The corridor bled to darkness again.
“You were his unraveling,” Wraith said. “His obsession, and he did not even realize who you were. A child’s prophecy undid an entire world.”
“This moment was when Davorin changed?”
“Fear does strange things to the mind. Fear of losing his power, his ambition, to one he considered lesser. It festered like a disease.”
My phantom guide offered no more warning, no more words, before he gripped my arm and once more, tore me away.
Chapter15
The Raven Queen
Blood drained from my cheeks,leaving my skin cold and dry.Lost to us. No. It wasn’t a reality I could willingly accept.
“I told you,” Calista whispered. “The Golden King has work to do as much as us.” In a rare show of affection, she slipped her fingers through mine. “He’ll fight to find you, that much I know.”
“Fate told you?”
She smiled sadly. “No. My heart.”
Niklas adjusted one of the rings on his fingers. A splatter of something like rust stained the edge. Blood, no doubt. “I have no plans to watch Ari sleep through whatever fight awaits us now. You have my word, I’ll not stop fighting until he is free.”
I nodded, numb and distant. “We need your help finding a cure for the poison that rots his blood. Even if he wakes—”
“When,” Ash muttered. “Whenhe wakes. You’ve got to believe he’ll wake. It’s what Mal had to do when Kase was lost.”
I blinked through a sting of emotion and stared at the boy for a moment too long. “Whenhe wakes, if we do not cure the poison in his blood, he will die.”
“I understand,” Niklas said. “Blood poisons are potent, but the good thing is we should have all we need.” He pointed at Bo. “Like him. I’ll need to test the corruption in his blood to get exact antidotes. He won’t like it, but we won’t give him much of a choice. Once I study that out, I’ll impress the lot of you with my skill.”
Niklas wiggled his fingers, chuckling, but there was still a glisten of fear in his brown eyes. “One of the swiftest ways to begin the purification of blood is to mix the ingredients with the blood of the cursed’s family. There is power in the bonds between bloodlines.”
“Familial blood?” My heart sunk. “Ari’s family is dead. All of them.”
Niklas tilted his head. “I thought I was looking at his family.”
Unbidden, the curl of a grin tugged at the corner of my mouth. Me. I was of House Sekundär. Not by blood, but by choice and heart. I tipped my chin at the Falkyn. “You are.”
