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I scream, a burning pain biting at my hands.
The agony is surreal, blackening the edges of my vision, and it takes every ounce of self-control I have to hold on.
It hits me then that I am going to fall. The pain is causing the muscles in my arms to seize, and even my vampire instincts can’t guide me with the pain pounding in my skull.
It’s then I hear a voice, and this time, there’s no twinge of the parasite in it.
“Farin?” asks the queen—just the queen—peering up at Nox’s face. The one that should have held her son. The fate of her son must have pushed Abra hard enough to regain control of her body, even for just a moment.
“Farin’s gone,” says Nox, his voice trembling with cold triumph. “I made sure of that.”
Abra lets out a cry from above. It’s not the cry of a villain defeated, of a conqueror put to shame. It’s the scream of a mother who’s lost her child not once, but twice.
It’s then that I catch Nox’s gaze.
Everything goes still for a moment, like Time itself stops to watch the two of us.
He’s balancing on the rafter two levels above, Abra having just been sent to her knees by grief as she scrambles for purchase on the railing.
My fingers are slipping. Nox’s gaze flits to them, then back to my eyes.
“Nox,” I whisper, but it’s no use, because Abra is down, but not for long.
“I’m sorry,” he whispers back.
And rips Abra’s head from her body.
It’s the last thing I see before I fall.
CHAPTER 62
ZORA
“Why’d you save Nox?” I ask, trying and failing to chew the boar Farin roasted for dinner. It’s rather tough, though I suppose that’s more the boar’s fault than Farin’s. It’s just more satisfying to blame Farin.
Either way, my muscles are having trouble making a dent in my portion.
Flames flicker from the fire, casting shadows across the cave, as well as Farin’s masculine features. He sits across from me, having very little trouble chewing his food, though he’s not the one with a knife wound in his gut, I suppose.
“Perhaps I like to keep things interesting. I’m easily bored. It’s been a problem since I was a youth. My imagination’s gotten me into all sorts of trouble.”
“But you could have let him drown.”
Farin stares at me, his crystalline eyes glowing in the firelight. “When I first woke in this world, I didn’t know where I was. Who I was. I saw a male floating face first in the water, and I pulled him out. I didn’t know he was my enemy at the time. Not until the memories started flooding back in.”
I crane my neck at him. “And then when you realized who he was? Who you were?”
Farin sets down his piece of meat and pushes it away. “I’ve died once before. It isn’t an experience I’d like to replicate. The forces on the other side—well, let’s just say they don’t like me much. The first time I died, it was due to a curse placed upon me by the Old Magic. One that prevented me from lying. Rather, it punished me for it. I thought that, should I return to my world, the curse would still apply.”
“What does that have to do with Nox?”
“Because when Blaise looked me in the eye and asked me what happened to him, I wanted to be able to tell her honestly that I hadn’t touched him.”
“Until you learned you could lie. That the curse was broken.”
Farin breathes out, though it’s a subtle movement of his chest. “Until then.”
“So it wasn’t about not lying to the girl you claim to love. Just not having to suffer the consequences of lying.”
