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“You can trust her, Dane. I certainly do, so skip the interrogation. We won’t be here long.”
“Who else did you bring?” Dane shifted until he was closer. “Don’t even deny it, nephew. I smell them in our forest. You know the rules, Tavion. No strangers on Montgomery lands.” Tavion moved, too, without even seeming to, until he was between me and Dane.
I had mere seconds to choose—attack or run. The male’s suspicious, narrowed gaze never left me, and his clothes were well worn, the hilts of his knives polished from years of use, the callouses on his hands speaking of his skill in wielding them.
Not someone I wanted to go up against.
But I would if I was forced to.
“Like I said, we’re not staying long.” Tavion tightened his grip while I stared down Dane every bit as viciously as he studied me. “Two are friends…werefriends of Julian’s.”
Tavion’s frown became a hungry leer filled with too sharp teeth. “Two are the Shadow King’s enforcers. Unfortunately, we can’t kill them; they must return to Blackcastle unharmed.” As I watched, Tavion’s teeth lengthened and his face grew darker, more wolfish. “But that doesn’t mean we can’t have some fun.”
Just when I thought the tension would explode into action, Dane chuckled softly. “It’s good to have you back, Tav. I’ve fucking missed you.”
Dane shook his head like an enormous black dog, his hair spilling free as he clasped Tavion’s shoulder. “Let’s drive these pieces of shite from our forest, while you tell me what you’ve been doing these past two decades.” His gaze slid to me and went flat. “Including about your delightful wife.”
“Stay inside, Anaria,” Tavion warned, brushing his fingers lightly down my back before he stepped away. “This won’t take long.”
They vanished the way we’d come, leaving me alone in the cavernous, empty space—some sort of midway point that hadn’t been used in a very long time—lined with open doorways cloaked in shadow and a grand staircase leading to an equally dark upstairs. Every inch of this place felt abandoned and unused, draped in cobwebs and neglect, and yet, there was a presence here.
I pulled my other knife free, the hair on my neck prickling as I fought the urge to spin around to see who was watching me. Because I wasn’t alone.
This whole fucking visit was a giant mistake.
We should have figured out a different way to shake Lyrae and Crux off our tail and we’d already be on our way to Tempeste.But no. My gaze skimmed the empty doorways and the pressing shadows beyond them as I waited for something, or someone, to burst out of the darkness and throttle me.
Had Lyrae and Crux gotten into the castle somehow?
Crux was a mindless brute, but Lyrae…Lyrae was clever and cunning and utterly lethal. I gripped my knife tighter, searching the darkness for signs of movement.
I hated to do this—Ishouldn’tdo this—but I loosened one of the iron bands on my arms enough for a hint of power to slither through my veins and white starry magic to cling to my skin like mist. The icy bite of power was both a relief and a curse, but now I could protect myself.
I might decimate this entire castle in the process, but I could keep myself safe.
No need to rely on Tavion fucking Montgomery.
“He called you Anaria.” My throat closed off when the deep, raspy voice echoed from the room on my left, too dark for me to distinguish shadow from form. The voice thrummed with curiosity…but nothing more. No threat, no violence.
“What is your surname?”
“I don’t have one.”
Rather, I did, but telling anyone I was Carex Centaria’s only daughter would not win me any favors. In fact, that revelation might get me killed. “It’s just Anaria.”
“My older son knew a girl named Anaria. Talked about her all the time.” There was a groan, a thump, like a piece of heavy furniture dragged across the floor. “But he’s gone now. Dead, somewhere over in Caladrius, another victim of this fucking useless war.”
The male emerged from the shadows like an ungodly apparition, half Fae male, half white wolf, pale-blue eyes glowing from an elongated face caught between mortal and animal, sharp teeth spilling over soft lips drawn back in a vicious snarl.
I backed away until my shoulders hit the wall behind me.
I had nowhere left to go.
My pathetic knives would do nothing against him, and my magic…guttered and stalled, a heavy silence stretching between us when he halted, hands hanging loose at his sides. Each finger ended in a long black claw, curved and deadly, flexing compulsively, as if he imagined tearing into me.
Where the fuck was everyone?
I’d even take Tavion right now over facing this thing alone.
