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Fingers pressed against my bloodied flesh, and that warmth I felt crawled across my gaping wound like spreading flames eating away at cloth. It consumed me in an instant, the agony not permitting me to scream.
Jude gripped me harshly, his fingers biting into my skin. Managing to peel open my lids, I glimpsed his determined stare, his injured eye a bright orb of liquid gold, his other filled with a dusky yellow.
“You’re not leaving me, Kiara,” he commanded, nostrils flaring. “I won’t allow it.” He let out a reverberating growl, more animal than man. “You say you’re a monster”—he dug deeper into the wound, and tears streaked my cheeks—“but a monster didn’t rescue me, didn’t make me believe in hope again.”
A strangled noise sounded from deep in my throat. Something was happening to me, my body quivering and burning and full of magic.
“Yousaved me. Kiara Frey. You are the only light I will vow to protect.”
I shattered then, gold flashing behind my eyes, a buzzing working its way from my toes to the crown of my head. And all the while, Jude held me, telling me to hold on, demanding I not leave him here alone.
I clung on to those words, to his pleas. They held me to this plane as I burned alive.
He wasn’t strong enough to endure what happened next.
One moment I was in Jude’s arms, and the next, I detonated, the force of power leaving my body sending me tumbling around and around across the gray soil. Dirt got into my mouth, my eyes, my nose. My limbs were so battered, I barely felt the impact. But my chest…that hurt in ways I didn’t know was possible. Jaw clenched in determination, I thrust up and onto my elbows, lifting my head and searching for the Knight who had thoroughly given me his heart.
“How predictable,” Patrick grumbled, moving to a curled-up figure ten feet away. Jude groaned, shifting onto his side, feebly reaching for his dagger.
I turned my head, finding Jake sprawled on the ground where he’d confronted Patrick, his eyes closed. I wasn’t sure he breathed.
“You’ve played the martyr before, haven’t you, commander? But did you ever wonder what it would be like to play a different role? One where you weren’t an afterthought. A side note.”
I screamed when Patrick kicked Jude’s side, his boot digging into the commander’s ribs.
“You used the precious time Jake afforded you to helpherwhen you could’ve come for me and ended this once and for all.”
He tutted, disappointed. “I’m surprised the prophecy those sun priestesses always whine about hasn’t worked. You’re both vessels for Raina’s light, both drawn to one another. If anyone could’ve made that inane prophecy come true, it would’ve been you.”
I didn’t know much of the lore, and I scrambled to understand his meaning.
But all thoughts of the mysterious prophecy were wiped away when Patrick grasped Jude’s hair, yanking his head up. He held a blade in his hand, and he swiped it across the uninjured side of Jude’s face. A river of red slid down Jude’s cheek, his new wound deep.
“Hmmm. Now it’ll match,” Patrick said darkly. “If youwereto live, I’d say this new scar would be a reminder to put yourself first for once.”
He dropped Jude without care and turned to the soil, bending to his knees. Holding out his hand, he sliced across his palm, adding more blood to the mix. “This clearing, before the curse, was sacred, blessed by Arlo himself. It’s the mysteriousXyou’ve been searching for, and we are the keys.” He gestured to me and Jude. “You, me, andhim.” He snarled out the word. “Only when I feed the soil with the blood of all three can I bring forth the Godslayer.” He rolled his eyes as if he’d made a silly mistake. “Or, in this case, the weapon I’ll use to create a god.”
I gritted my teeth, crawling over to where Jude lay motionless. From the corner of my eye, I saw Patrick plunge the bloodied weapon into the ground beside a patch of flourishing Midnight Blooms, his face lighting up as his plan slowly came to fruition. How long he must’ve waited for this moment of pain.
I’d just made it over to Jude’s side and turned back to Raina’s former lover when black roots sprouted from the earth, three Midnight Blooms growing around the hilt of an onyx dagger.
Patrick’s twisted smile grew, and he pulled the weapon from the earth.
It wasn’t the same weapon he’d used to stab me, nor was it the one he’d used to slice Jude’s face. That one had been dull and silver. This one was monstrous.
The intricate hilt was fashioned of gleaming vines, pointed thorns poking out at the sides and below the handle. The blade itself was sheer black metal, decorated with glowing white symbols I didn’t recognize.
“Finally,” Patrick sighed, twisting it from side to side. “Now I can do this properly. And this time, there’s no one standing in my way to claim what I worked so hard for. Love truly is overvalued.”
I gently prodded Jude’s shoulder as Patrick rose and started to stride over, but the commander remained unmoving. He let out a raspy groan, my name on his lips.
“You need to get up,” I breathed, clumsily rising. I peered down to my chest, expecting blood to be seeping from the stab wound, but through the shredded linen of my shirt, I saw only dry, raised skin, the gash seemingly stitched together and healed. I gasped, turning down to Jude.
Patrick was beaming, full of triumph.
“Jude probably didn’t even know what he was doing,” he mused, slowing five feet away. “All those years and he never used his gift, the magic inside of him.”
Patrick shook his head. “Only with you did he use it. And he used it fruitlessly. I merely needed you alive long enough to get to this place, to retrieve what is rightfully mine. The enchantment requires fresh blood, after all.”
