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“The real threat is the succubus.” I said it aloud, and knew it was the truth.
Arthur had known it too. He’d sent aid to the humans in Eldermist. He’d put the weapons in my hands that could defeat this new darkness.
But it wasn’t new. I’d seen the carvings—in the water garden and then again in the jungle. “The succubus have come before.”
Taliya’s face wasn’t quite as angry. She looked more tired—exhausted, really.
Anger was an excellent way to get information—exhaustion worked nearly as well.
“What do you think the Great War was about?”
Understanding flooded through me. The carvings in the water gardens. The human forces had looked strangely disfigured—because they were not human at all. They were succubus.
A soft snarl flooded through. Soft, but full of menace. Death. IfeltArran’s overwhelming urge to shift, to wrap his beast’s huge body around me. To protect.
Down, beast.
The snarl turned into a growl.
A strangled, horrible sound ripped from Taliya’s throat. I hadn’t looked away from her, but my attention had been elsewhere. She earned it back in a second.
Her mouth hung open. “You are mates.”
Somehow, she’d felt the connection between us.How—not the time.
“Yes,” Arran growled.
Taliya shot into the air, buzzing around the room so quickly I almost lost track of her. She landed again, much closer. And though she hit the ground hard, was several feet shorter, the rage in her eyes was enough to give me pause.
She stared directly into my soul. “You. This is all your fault.”
Arran shoved me aside, battle axe drawn.
I shoved him back, raising my dagger. “Explain yourself, faerie, or I will cut your wings from your body.”
“You have the void power. It only appears in mated pairs—you are the reason the succubus has returned. You are the reason for the death. You! Always the fae, bringing death upon us all!”
She was insane. As she spoke, her wings started flapping again, pulling her backward. I had a million questions, but Arran was already in front of me, advancing.
Ready to make good on my threat and damn the consequences.
“Veyka has done nothing. She has no control—”
“Of course she has no control! She has summoned them! Where do you think those ghastly monsters come from—”
She shot into the air to avoid Arran.
Whether he would have actually killed her with the swipe, I didn’t know.
I stepped forward.
Lifted a hand to his shoulder.
I understood.
“They come through the rifts, using the void.” That realm of darkness and death. The smell was the same. The cold that reached inside and tried to steal my magic. The same. “The succubus come through the rifts to the human realm, to Annwyn. To take over or possess the humans. They use the void, and I am the one who opened it.”
Arran stared at me.
