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Dawsyn.
Knox’s faint voice echoed through the cyclone, but I ignored him and focused on Cillian. The bond I’d had with my true mate, while never completed, had ignited a warmth inside me that I’d never felt before. Something I knew I would never feel again with anyone other than him.
Cillian’s strength and resilience were all I needed to keep me grounded in this moment. It didn’t matter that our tether had been turned to ash. I could still imagine the power of knowing he was mine. Even if I’d wanted to reject him at first, a part of my heart had always known.
He was ours.
Not Knox. Not anyone else.
It would only ever be Cillian.
His brother was an unwanted houseguest who needed to get the fuck out of my mind and heart.
With a roar that started deep in my stomach and grew with every inch it rose through my body, I snarled and yelled, using the drive inside me to fuel whatever my grandmother was doing.
My body vibrated with energy, and with every beat of my heart and scorching pulse in my veins, I felt Knox getting further and further away.
You’re going to regret this, he taunted faintly.I will kill them all.
The howl in my mind turned into a growl that reverberated through my chest until the heat left my body and I had control again.
A bucket of water was poured over my head, and then the ropes were cut from my bruising skin. I swiped my hands over my eyes, then turned toward a magically restrained and very pissed-the-fuck-off-looking Cillian and Beatrix.
“We need to go,” I snarled. “Now.”
ChapterTwenty-Four
CILLIAN
Watching Dawsyn be stripped of the bond felt like someone had been cutting my heart out with a dull blade. When I couldn’t take her screams any longer, I’d lunged for my mate, wanting to do anything I could to help ease her agony, but Beatrix had been prepared for that.
Her magic had wrapped around my body like a rope, locking me into place, then somehow silenced my voice. I’d stood there helpless to do anything, my ire growing with every rapid beat of my heart. I had no clue how much time had passed, but it was like an eternity in hell, knowing there was nothing I could do to stop whatever was happening to Dawsyn.
The longer I’d had to stand there trapped, the more hate I began to feel formygrandmother, not the one who had restrained me. Estelle had been the only one who had suspected I’d met a woman while I was at the academy. She must have told Knox.Shewas the reason my mate was suffering.
I thought I’d known Estelle or at least understood her, but it seemed as if everything had been a lie. All these years of her caring for me… She’d merely been passing the time. But that was the least of my worries at the moment.
The green shit that Beatrix had poured over Dawsyn turned into smoke as soon as she dumped the bucket of water over my mate’s head. Then, Dawsyn’s vengeful eyes turned to us, and I knew something had gone wrong.
“We need to go,” she practically growled. “Now.”
Beatrix snapped her fingers, and the hold on my body was released. “You’d thank me if you understood the pain I just saved you both from by forcing you to stay put, but I won’t be offended by your lack of gratitude.”
I ignored the witch. I wasn’t angry or grateful for her. I just needed my hands on Dawsyn. I was at her side before she even had the chance to stand all the way up. “What happened?”
“Knox was in my head,” she said with a shudder. “I could hear his voice, faint yet clear. He wants to kill everyone because I broke the bond. We need to warn them.” She turned to Beatrix. “Can you get us back to the portal?”
I glanced at Beatrix, waiting for her answer, and noticed dark circles starting to form under her eyes. She might have been a powerful sorceress, but even she couldn’t hide her true age when she used the amount of magic that I suspected she’d just needed to.
“Do I look like a damn taxi to you?” she snarked, then walked over to the table she’d been at before, a slight wobble to her steps.
She lifted a stone cup to her lips and closed her eyes as she drank whatever was inside.
A visible shimmer started around her head and moved its way down her body. When I glanced back at her face, the dark circles were gone, but the lines and creases were still prominent.
The old witch rubbed her palms together and stepped around the table before thrusting them forward.
A silver circle formed, and a portal opened, but much slower than it had when she’d brought us here. As it opened, Beatrix turned to Dawsyn and waved a hand in her direction.
