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“I always wondered,” he said softly before he clapped me on the shoulder. “I always wondered what fell magic the king used to lock down such power.”
He shook his head, anger blazing in his eyes. “Younevershould have waited. You should have thrown that collar off and burned the whole fucking Keep to the ground.”
There was no one in this world who knew me better than Zor. We would die for each other.
But actually doing it…
Fuck. I’d never deserved Zor. But hearing those words, knowing he’d rather I’d sacrificed him for my freedom made me dizzy. I swallowed, rubbing my eyes, telling myself it was the dust making them water.
“Anaria has no magic, Zor. She can’t protect herself. I need to get to her before it’s too late.”
Zor nodded solemnly. Then I was crushed up against him in an embrace so tight I couldn’t breathe. “Take off the collar, leave me here.” Unlike me, he didn’t wipe his tears away, he let them flow down his face. “Tell her…tell her I loved her. I would have been proud to be a part of…” His lips twisted into a lopsided smile. “Whatever this is between us.”
I slid my finger between my throat and the collar, a now-familiar tell that happened every time I imagined how easily I could free myself. But the collar had never been what held me captive, only my love for the male standing before me.
“Fuck.”I might as well drive my knife into his heart as do this. “Godsdamn it, Zor.” I’d never felt so alone, and he was still standing right in front of me.
Zorander watched intently, eyes burning. “Do it, Raz. Even if watching you take that fucking collar off is the last thing I see in my life, it’ll be worth it. Promise me you’ll save Anaria and kill the kings, and I’ll go to my grave happy.”
I…couldn’t do this. Couldn’t wield the death blow that would end Zor’s life.
“I can’t. Itcan’t fucking end like this. You are my oldest friend.” I could barely get the words out, then Zor placed his hand firmly over mine, over the collar that would end our friendship—would endhim—forever.
“It’s okay, Raziel. She’s worth dying for.”
A smile like I’d never seen cracked Zor’s face in half, his eyes dancing with vicious humor. “When you and Anaria have a son, name him after me.”
Those words broke me. The thought of a future he’d never be part of. I wanted to scream my wrath to the sky above. This morning, it had all been so close. A family, one I chose for myself. Love between all of us. Trust.
Now that future was gone.
“Promise me,” Zor ordered, low and vicious.
“We will.” I didn’t know if my magic or Zor’s cracked the iron in half, maybe both, but the collar fell at the same time Zor did, his eyes wide and staring, the tendons of his neck straining as he fought for his last breath of life.
The weight of the collar vanished, and Zor shuddered, a low broken groan coming out of this male who I had never heard utter a single sound of pain. I caught my friend before he went down and lowered him between the roots of a great oak where moss softened the rough bark.
“Sleep well,” I told him, closing his eyes, settling his limp form into place, crossing his arms over his chest.
“I will find you on the other side, my friend.”
* * *
Zor remainedan invisible force behind me as I drew on strength I hadn’t touched in a century, locking down the magic tight so the resurgence didn’t rip me apart before I got a chance to wield my own godsdamned power.
Magic filled me to the point of agony, the tang of copper coating my tongue, the unrelenting rush turning my muscles loose.
This magic was different than I remembered, hungrier, meaner, changed. Some part of me remembered the shadowy wings rising behind Zor, Anaria’s seemingly endless power when she’d killed the Reaper army, then I couldn’t think anymore.
Pain grew distant, even the horror of Zorander’s death fading away beneath the onslaught, darkness rising inside me like a great beast waking from a long sleep.
Save Anaria.
My power had always been temperamental and raging, more of a curse than a blessing, useful in war but in little else, and I forced that darkness to carry me across the divide between Zor’s final resting place and the Citadelle in the space of one breath, my boots colliding with the stone steps hard enough to crack them, muscles screaming from the impact.
All around me I scented Anaria’s blood, her fear, the stench of the Soul Reapers.
And the rotten smell of Carex Centaria.
