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Calanthe took her silence as submission. “I plan to make you my star-wife. Once Rylec is dead, your tether will be broken. You will be tethered to me again and this time, I will tether myself to you. You’ll be Empress Consort of Sollir, the first star-maid to ever claim the title. We will raise our daughters—”
Inez didn’t want to hear a minute more of this nightmare. “My daughters, you evil bitch.”
Calanthe’s eyes went hard—
Inez pulled on Rylec’s magic and slammed out, focusing it on the empress. It blasted through the room like a tidal wave. Powered by her anger and her fear and her love. She would reclaim Soriya. She would save Rylec. Inez would never be weak again. She would never again be Calanthe’s pet.
The bed and the chairs skid across the floor. Calanthe flew across the room and whacked into the wall, her head snapping back. She dropped to the floor in a mass of pale skirts.
A slow and steady pool of red stained the white.
Empress Calanthe didn’t move again.
Chapter 13
Rylec paced the small cell, his fists clenched at his side. He went reluctantly when the empress’s guards came for him after his and Inez’s hour was up. Inez hadn’t smiled or nodded as they escorted him out, but he saw the determination in her eyes. Calanthe would slip up. She never saw his star-wife as a threat—only as a possession. She had pawned her off to Rylec when she was bored, only to try to claim her back after Soriya’s birth.
But still. Rylec was a Sollirian male. It was his duty to protect his wife and child.
Children.
Rylec pressed his back to the cell’s icy wall and closed his eyes. His magic was distant with the cuff on his wrist, but he sensed it there within him, a swaying sea of energy. A normal lord wouldn’t be able to access his magic, but archlords were archlords for a reason. And Rylec was more than an archlord. He was an archlord with a star-wife, her lifeforce boosting his magic with just her presence.
He weaved his magic through the cuff, examining their mechanism. Since the guards placed them on him hours ago, hehad already tweaked and prodded them closer to opening. With a few more minutes—
His cage clanged open.
Rylec didn’t move, but he opened his eyes with a glare at the ready. One of the empress’s guards pushed open the door, but it was Archlord Eliaz who entered.
Rylec didn’t bother to avert his eyes. He knew how to hide from the Tertian lord.
The blue-eyed male smiled brightly. “Rylec. I hear congratulations are in order. Star-maid Inez is pregnant.”
A wave of possessiveness swept through Rylec. Inez, pregnant with his child. The first time it had happened, he had hidden his star-wife away from the public, hoping to slow the spread of news to Calanthe. This time, he couldn’t protect her by taking her away. His enemies were circling and needed to be dealt with once and for all.
“Is that all you’re here for, Eliaz?”
“No, of course not. You’re being moved.”
“Ah.” Rylec didn’t say any more. He didn’t need to. By moved, Eliaz meant killed. The empress had promised Rylec his life if they did what she wanted, but Rylec had always doubted it. Calanthe wasn’t ever to be trusted.
But it had bought them time, and that was all that mattered. Rylec gestured for Eliaz to lead the way. Once the male turned around, Rylec returned his focus to the cuff on his wrist. He just needed a few more minutes.
The Imperial Guards slammed the cell’s door shut behind him before taking position at the rear. Eliaz strolled ahead, hands linked behind his back. The guards pushed Rylec forward, but they couldn’t challenge Eliaz’s pace. Without their empress’s presence, Archlord Eliaz was the highest-ranked Sollirian here.
“Where am I being moved to?” Rylec didn’t want to start a conversation, but if he didn’t at least ask, the archlord might wonder what else was preoccupying his mind.
“A more… permanent cell.”
Otherwise known as death. The archlord was usually more subtle than this. But Eliaz hated Calanthe. Most of the lords on Tertia did, which was why they were assigned territory as far as possible from her. Inez had asked him who his contact was on the Tertian council. Was it Eliaz? The male loved risks, but this seemed extreme, even for him. If he helped Rylec and failed, Eliaz would be put to death beside him.
Rylec would ask once he had the upper hand.
Which he would in three… two… one.
His cuff clicked open.
The sound was soft, but in the silent hallway, it echoed like the shot of a cannon. One of the Imperial Guards grabbed his shoulder—
