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Thane
Colin turned his icy gaze on Edric, who had slumped in the guards’ hold, tears streaming down his cheeks. “Thank you for bringing them to me. You’ve outlived your usefulness.”
He nodded to a guard, who stepped behind the wailing prince and seized his head in two gigantic hands. The guard broke Edric’s neck with a quick jerk to the side, and the other two dropped his body to the floor with a thud.
Beside me, Angela went silent and stiffened, dropping her hand from her mouth back to the staff. Her knuckles whitened as she gripped it in both hands, and her wide eyes moved from Edric to Fiadh to Colin. “How could you? You said you loved her.”
“I did, yes. Before she betrayed me.” Nodding, Colin pressed his lips together as he approached us.
I stepped in front of Angela, and black scales erupted across my skin. My scythe flicked to life in my hand, and I clenched it, ready to make this fucker pay for his sins.
Colin’s eyebrows lifted with a look of amusement. “I’d heard you gained that unique side effect. I look forward to gaining it myself when I take Veronica as my bride. She’s a queen far worthier to be by my side, wouldn’t you agree?”
A vise gripped my heart and lungs as he confessed that his obsession had moved from Fiadh to Veronica. But even if I couldn’t stop him here and now, Veronica would never let him touch her. He was in for a rude awakening.
I smirked, enjoying the way it made him shift his weight with unease. “You have no idea how much I’d enjoy watching you say that to her.”
“Such a pity you won’t be there.” Colin switched his attention to Angela and the staff. “I hear you’re the bearer of Abaddon’s Last Hope, which is rightfully mine.”
“Rightfully?” I repeated with a laugh.
“As the most powerful fae necromancer of this time, yes, rightfully.” He snapped his fingers, and an inhuman groan came from Fiadh’s mouth.
The dead queen’s body twitched and spasmed, her mouth opening and closing. With growing horror, I watched as Fiadh pushed herself upright with jerky movements and stood on wobbly legs. Black stains streaked down her chin, and her glossy black eyes stared forward.
My palms grew clammy, and I gripped my scythe tighter. At the snap of Colin’s fingers, she’d become one of the Risen.
How in God’s name was that possible?
“As I said, the Last Hope belongs to me.” Colin held out his hand toward Angela. “Surely you don’t want me to pry it from your cold, dead hands.”
There was no more time to waste. I ran at Colin with a roar, swinging my scythe at his neck.
He flicked his wrist, and my stomach dropped to my feet as I went flying. I slammed into a wall, and the back of my head hit hard enough to shake debris loose from the ceiling. My vision spun and blurred as I collapsed in a heap.
Angela raised the staff to deflect a spell from Colin. Shadowy tendrils slithered from the steel and snatched the spell from the air, swallowing it whole. As the shadows retracted into the weapon and disappeared, I stared, bewildered.
The Last Hope hadn’t done that trick during training.
The witch shrieked my name, stirring me from my trance. More like a concussion but still healing faster than a human. I grunted as I got back to my feet, shaking my head to stabilize my vision.
Fiadh shuffled toward Angela, who backed away and stumbled into a bedpost. I had to trust that she could handle a walking corpse.
The guards took a step toward me, but Colin held up a hand and smiled. “Oh no. This one is mine.”
I went for him again.
Over and over, he knocked me aside like I was little more than a pesky fly. It was infuriating and demeaning, fueling my limbs with rage and hatred as my body dragged from fatigue. Slowly healing broken bones screamed in agony, but I refused to give up until he or I was dead.
Unfortunately, it was looking more likely that it would be me dying first. If that was the case, then I would deplete his magic, or come as close to it as possible, so that Angela could finish the job.
Somehow harnessing Winter Court magic, Colin’s warped spell crushed against the scales covering my chest, coating them with a stream of frost. As my boots slid across the floor from the constant force, I gritted my teeth and raised my scythe, hoping to slice through the spell.
Angela rushed toward Colin, releasing an eardrum-shattering scream. Holding the staff like a baseball bat, she smacked him hard across the head, then gripped the weapon in both hands. She followed up with a jab beneath his chin, knocking him backward.
As his magic attack on me ceased, I stumbled forward off-balance and grabbed the vanity to stop my fall.
