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“You traitorous—” she began in a hiss, spittle flying as her lip curled. She paused, her eyes darkening. “Get out of him.Now.”

Maia arranged Hew’s mouth into a smile and swung the sword again, driving Karmen back against the wall. Pressing the advantage Bryon gave her. She should have realised she was fightinga saint,that this fight didn’t play by ordinary rules. She should have realised she wouldn’t win.

“I thought you liked playing with other people’s men,” Maia said in a taunt that wasn’t quite natural coming from Hew’s mouth. She hadneverforgotten that awful, sickening touch Karmen forced on Bryon while her command held him still. “Can’t handle it when someone else is playing withyours?”

She’d noticed the lack of female guards. And Karmen was surrounded by languid, pretty men the first time she glimpsed her through the reflection pool. Only men. Every time since, there had been no female soldiers, no women enforcers. Because the Eversky was afflicted with deep, bitter jealousy. Maia had figured it out days ago, but she saw the evidence of it now in the saint’s flaring nostrils, the way her jaw ground, her body tightened.

Her rage hit Maia—hitHew—in a battering ram of power so severe, she roared, male and loud. She hadn’t expected Karmen to strike Hew. Fuck. She’d thought her soul was safe inside here, but clearly Karmen would rather have Hew dead than touched by another woman.

Maia ground her teeth—Hew’s teeth—and breathed through the pain. It was worse than before, so blinding that his legs weakened. She managed to stay on her feet by pressing the steely will of her soul into his bones, locking his knees. She forced him to swing the sword again.

Karmen was ready for it this time, Maia’s single advantage gone. The Eversky wasn’t stunned anymore; she wasfurious.The black oozing wrongness of her soul spread until it hurt to look at her aura, until it set Hew’s teeth on edge and Maia was forced to take a step back.

A mistake.

Lightning crashed from the ceiling, an electric bolt driving into Hew’s chest, a direct hit to his heart.

CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR

Maia threw herself out of Heweryion’s body and back into her own as fast as her magic would fly. Her knees hit the pale floor. Pain raced up her thighs and found a weakness in her hip. She clenched her teeth to trap a moan, her head spinning in an endless blur of silver, and caught herself on her hands. Her fingers slid through cold, sticky blood. Whose? Kheir’s?

“Maia?” Bryon demanded, his voice like cool water on a burn. “Speak to me, princess.”

“I’m… fine,” she groaned, palming her head where an ache pounded her skull and wincing as she spread blood across her brow. Fuck, spearing herself into someone else’s bodyhurt.

Because you’re out of practise,Sephanae said gently.The more you do it, the easier it will be. Watch out!

Maia snapped her head up, her eyes widening when she saw the jagged white lightning flying towards her. She threw herself sideways, rolling out of its crackling path, but her heart leapt into her throat, dragging a cry of anguish with it, when the bolt struck the pool of blood Kheir laid in. He’d lost so much, and he hadn’t moved in minutes. What if he never—

Maia, look!Sephanae urged with a rush of excitement and a ripple of laughter.She didn’t plan forthisto happen.

Maia scrambled to her feet, trying to ignore the drum of pain in her head as she stared at the place the lightning had struck Kheir’s blood. Magic covered the crimson pool like fire licking across oil, and when it reached Maia’s mate, he lurched upright with a horrid, dramatic gasp.

Maia fell over herself to get to Kheir, her hands finding his bloodied face, panicked eyes scanning his regal features. He was alive. Gasping and trembling, but alive.

“I’m here, I’m here,” she promised, kneeling beside him, stroking soaked black hair from his forehead. His blood rolled down her wrist to her arm. The crimson stuff covered his shoulder, chest, and head where he’d laid in the pool. But he wasalive.

His brown eyes were dull with pain but she watched panic fill them with sudden life.

“Maia!” he warned, pain crossing his face as he grabbed her arms and threw them both aside. The pain from his torn wing was blinding,excruciating;she felt it as she felt her own pain.

Tears sprang to her eyes when she crashed into the wall, impact spearing her shoulder. But a rough breath left her lungs when she saw they’d narrowly avoided being struck by a bolt of lightning.

It had shredded what was left of Bryon’s shield, and now her glaring soldier backed up towards them. Squalls of wind ripped into the hallway with every punch of his fists. Oh, he wasangry.A dark flutter of butterflies took flight in her belly. Watching him fight was… something else. Maia was momentarily distracted by the sight of him, furious and capable and surrounded by so much magic that the air shook. But then she saw the curl of Karmen’s smile, saw her focus on Bryon, and Maia knew he was going to suffer for what she’d done to Hew.

Hew… the soldier was sprawled on the floor where the lightning strike left him, unmoving, his eyes closed. He might still be alive. He might be dead. Maia didn’t care enough to check. Instead she snapped her wings tight to her back, carefully propped Kheir against the wall, allowing herself a single kiss to his cheek, and then she joined Bryon.

“It’s sad, really,” the saint remarked, fluttering her fingers to kill the sharp energy in the air around them. “How you thought you could win against atruesaint.”

Fuck. That was Bryon’s magic, and now it was just gone. Judging by his grunt, it hurt like a bitch, but Maia was too consumed with the agony coming from Kheir’s wing that she couldn’t feel anything else. Although… there was another pain just beneath it, screaming and sharp.Who?Oh saints, who else had been hurt?

“Well, notsad,”Karmen went on, striding closer, wind whipping up around her, far more destructive than anything Bryon had summoned. “Delusional. You really thought you could harm me?”

“I killed Enryr,” Maia said, but it came out too weak. She was shaking, too much pain carving through her soul. She needed rage, neededfury.But she was too afraid.

“Did you?” Karmen laughed, advancing. Maia stumbled back a step, but Bryon didn’t retreat. He’d taken the sword from Hew; when did he do that? Shit, Maia needed to get it together. This wasn’t the time to miss things and make mistakes. A single mistake and they were all dead. “Did youreallykill him?”

Did she? She shattered his bones and left him a broken mess of blood and flesh, but he was a saint. Could he heal that much damage? Maia suddenly couldn’t breathe.