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A bolt of lightning crackled through the air close to my ears. My grip on the reins tightened, instincts kicking in swiftly as I maneuvered Nightclaw, evading the assault.
“Fuck,” I bellowed. “That was too close for comfort.”
In response, I heard a sizzling sound from behind me. I turned my head to see Draven crouching forward, his hands extended, unleashing a blazing sphere of flame from the palms of his hand. He hurled them towards the rider on our tail.
The hunter and their mount burst into flames. With a shriek, the menacing figure slipped from the winged raptor's back, catapulting down to the ground below.
“One down,” Draven shouted back at me.
“Don't be so smug. One down, forty-nine or so to go,” I reminded him.
“Don't be so defeatist,” he countered. “We're an unstoppable pair, together like this, and you know it.”
“Unstoppable? You mean because you stole my magic, you treacherous motherfucker,” I shouted back.
“That was Avriel, need I remind you. And he's dead. Good job, by the way. It was over too quickly, wasn't it?”
Begrudgingly, I knew he was right. Avriel's death had been far too easy. Too swift. He had deserved to suffer. Suffer like he had made Selwyn suffer.
“Yes,” I admitted.
“You saved Lyrastra though, that's what matters.”
“Speaking of Lyrastra, since when have you and Ulpheas been so fucking close?” I demanded.
“Oh, you know, since I set him straight about his place in all of this and made it clear that if he ever fucked with you again, he was a dead man.”
“A dead fae,” I corrected.
I felt Draven shrug. “Same thing.”
“You told Ulpheas about the bloodwraith. Why?”
Draven was quiet. “It served my purpose.”
“Your purpose was to get yourself poisoned? You could have died. Did you remember nothing from Nethervale?”
“I remember that I lived,” he responded. “Thanks to you.”
“Yes, but...” I stopped. “You knew you'd live. Because of the bond. Your healing abilities. It intensified them.”
“Ah, so you admit it's there. The bond.”
“The fucking bond,” I snarled. “We can find a way to break it. We have to try.”
“It's an unbreakable bond, Morgan. How do you think it works exactly? If you die, I die.”
I froze in the saddle. ‘What?”
“Which is why it's a good thing we both came into this marriage with such exceptional abilities, isn't it? We’re much harder to kill.”
I growled and heard him laugh.
“What? Marriage? You really hate that word, don't you?”
“I hate the sound of it on your lips. That and ‘wife’ and also ‘husband.’”
It was a lie. The three words hung between us. But deep down, beneath my facade of frustration, a different sensation stirred within me. A spark that ignited at the mere mention of our supposed union.
