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“Do I terrify you, Roar? A female who knows her true worth? One who sees you for what you are too?”

A hiss sounded and then those green eyes moved up, up, up. Roar was pouncing.

Though I envisioned sharp extended claws, I waited. Waited until those gleaming eyes got terrifyingly close, before dropping and flattening myself to the cold stone.

The snow leopard hit the side of the gaping shaft. Rocks tumbled, and claws scraped against stone, fumbling for a grip, before a feline wail shook me in my soul.

The seconds ticked on, and the sound grew fainter and fainter. My heart skipped a beat, barely daring to believethat my plan had worked. Roar had taken the bait and was now descending into the deepest pits of the mountain. I rose and stood at the edge of the shaft in time to hear a distant crunch.

Then nothing.

Chapter 56

NEVE

“Neve!” Vale’s voice called out and torchlight flared in the darkness. “Where are you?!”

“Here!” I shouted back and began running toward him. “I’m safe and coming your way!”

He stopped, and I was at his side a minute later. Blood covered my prince, my husband, and my breath hitched.

“You’re hurt,” I breathed.

“Strike to the leg,” Vale acknowledged. “It’s superficial, though. Most of the blood isn’t mine.” His hand extended to hover over my shoulder. “What’s this?”

“Claws.”

He swallowed and his gaze then went to the scrapes marring one side of my face, my arm. “And I was batted into the wall, but I’m fine too. Much of this blood is Roar’s from when I struck with my sword.” I assured him when a feral expression came over his blood-spattered features. “Actually, I need your help to find my sword. It fell out of my hands.”

“After you slew Roar?” Vale asked, eyes scanning the darkness. Understandable. Roar was a great warrior in his own right. But he hadn’t been appropriately armed, because why would he be? He hadn’t been expecting a fight. No one stepped foot in these mines unless he wished it.

“I didn’t kill him. Not directly anyway.” I grabbed Vale’s hand and guided him back to where I thought I lost my sword. “He shifted and chased me. At least he chased me until the moment we came across a mine shaft large enough for him to fall into.”

Vale blew out a breath. “Clever little beast.”

My heart warmed. “I need to be sure the shaft is deep enough that he won’t survive.”

“I’ll check for you,” Vale said.

I nodded; glad he understood that I did not wish to do so. “Thank you.”

As much as I’d wanted to kill Roar for what he was, for selling so many into a life of misery, I didn’t want to see the body. I was not so bloodthirsty.

We searched for a few minutes before the torchlight cast upon my sword. I retrieved the weapon, sheathed it and then nodded in the wall's direction.

The shaft gaped open wide, far more intimidating with the firelight flickering on its edges.

“I can smell his blood.” Vale’s nose wrinkled. “And it’s large enough to have devoured him whole. All that’s left is to see how deep it goes.”

“Careful.” I took the torch from his hand.

He spread his black wings. “I will be. You never know what lurks in the depths of the mountains.”

Before I could so much as wonder at what he might mean, Vale dropped into the abyss. The faint beat of his wings assured me of his controlled descent, but it didn’t take long before I no longer saw him. In his absence, a cavern opened in my stomach that did not fill until an age later, when Vale reappeared, dust in his long dark hair.

“I didn’t reach the bottom but went far enough to know that Roar would not survive the fall.” He cleared his throat. “Stars save his soul.”

The phrase was meant to comfort, to honor, and I suspected that even though Vale disliked Roar, it was a knee-jerk reaction. Polite or not, no such words would leave my lips. If Roar had earned eternal damnation in the afterworld, that was because of the choices he’d made.