Page 148

“Desmond!” Mara shrieks from somewhere in the distance. “Coward! Come back and finish the fight.” She sounds like a broken woman.

Galleghar uses the momentary distraction to disappear. A second later the air behind me stirs. That’s all the warning I get.

The fairy’s arms wrap around me. Then I’m jerked off my feet and into the sky. He propels the two of us high into the night air.

“What do you think your mate desires more—love or life?” he whispers into my ear as my mate charges after us.

I struggle against him. Higher and higher, the two of us shoot into the sky.

“Why don’t we find out?” Des’s father says.

His arms open, and abruptly, I slip from them.

I hear Des shout as I pinwheel in the sky.

At the moment my wings might as well be useless. I can’t get my bearings, and the oak grove is growing bigger and bigger beneath me.

All at once I’m scooped out of the air and into Des’s arms.

“I’ve got you,” he says.

No sooner does he speak than Galleghar appears at the Bargainer’s back, his hands braced against Des’s wings. He jerks sharply on them, and I hear the snapping of bones.

He broke my mate’s wings!

Des roars in agony and anger, those massive wings folding at an unnatural angle. And his father, his damnable father, laughs before disappearing just as quickly as he appeared.

The Bargainer tucks his broken wings around me as the two of us tumble, trying to shield me from harm despite him being the injured one.

Several seconds later, we slam into the treetops, and Des grunts as he takes the brunt of the force. The two of us tumble from branch to branch until we finally hit the earth below.

I moan as I stare up at Des. His eyes are unfocused with pain, but he rises to his feet without hesitation, pulling me with him.

“Going so soon?” Galleghar appears on a branch before us.

Even battered and broken, Des is furious. My normally contained mate is losing his long-practiced control.

The shadows gather and spill over the forest.

The man above us may have sired my mate, he may even know a few tricks Des doesn’t, but right now the darkness is bending to the Bargainer’s will, not his father’s.

Des’s entire body hums with pent-up rage. Ifeelthat unnatural wrath churning beneath his skin.

“How did you escape death?” Des demands.

Galleghar gives his son an indulgent look. “As the Lord of Secrets, you should know better than to ask.” He hops off the branch, and I get my first good look at the wings spread out behind him.

They could be carbon copies of Des’s own wings except Galleghar’s talons look a little bigger, his wingspan might be a little narrower, and the skin of his wings is soot black, not silver. They fold behind him as his feet hit the ground, and he strides toward us.

“How I have longed for this reunion,” he says. “How I will savor killing you.” His eyes land on me. “Maybe I’ll be merciful and keep your mate for my new harem—I’ll save her for only my most unspeakable acts. Kings have their needs.”

Okay, this fucker needs to godown.

Des releases me slowly, stepping forward. Darkness pours off him in waves.

Galleghar disappears in the next instant before reappearing right in front of Des, his arm cocked.

The Bargainer dodges the hit, and then, grabbing the collar of Galleghar’s shirt, he thrusts his own fist into Galleghar’s face. Before he lands the blow, both men disappear. They materialize in the sky above me, grappling as they fall. And then they vanish once more, winking into and out of existence over and over.