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Blood stained her hair, tendrils of it falling over her face. Every step looked like an effort, a battle she fought with herself to take. But she managed, clutching the cloak around her body with bloody, broken fingers.

She bent down, hefting a sword as she shuffled forward. She lacked the strength to carry it so the tip dragged on the ground behind her, metal scraping against stone.

She had him picked out.

The man tried to run, but the crowd pushed him back into the open.

“Please,” he begged, voice small behind his shadows. “Please, have mercy.”

Odd that he would beg for something he had not offered himself. Skye would’ve laughed if Taly wasn’t shaking so violently.

“I told you,Dareth.” The thorns had shredded her vocal cords, but she continued in a pained rasp, “I told you I was going to kill you, but you didn’t fucking listen.”

Then with a yell, she mustered the last of her strength and swung the sword in a wide, clean arc. The man’s head rolled into the crowd. People screamed and lurched back. A few cheered.

The sword dropped from her hand with a clatter. Taly was panting, hunched over at the waist and close to collapsing. Skye’s whole body tensed, ready to go to her. But he didn’t. He knew she needed to do this, needed to walk out of here on her own two feet—that was the only victory she would accept.

So, he reached for the bond instead, pushing aether down that bridge connecting their minds, breathing it into her like air into a drowning man’s lungs.

And somehow, something must have reached her. She stood a little straighter. Her limp didn’t look quite so painful as she staggered back to him.

“Not that one,” she said to Sarina, pointing to a Sanctifier with a slight build. The armor looked huge on him, ill-suited. “He’s not like the others.”

Sarina ran her eyes over him, cold and disinterested. “Very well,” she said through the flames rippling around her body.

Taly limped past him, and Skye followed her through the crowd that parted for them. They looked at her in curiosity, some in fear. They looked at him like he was a wild animal ready to strike.

There was a sound like flint cracking as Sarina’s magic flared to life. Skye smiled, knowing she would take her time.

And he was right. Their screams followed them all the way back to the townhouse.

Chapter 76

Skye burst through the kitchen door, Taly limp in his arms. She’d collapsed as soon as they were out of sight of any onlookers. Blood soaked his shirt, now dripping down the front of his trousers and disappearing into the dark fabric.

“Put her there,” Aiden ordered from behind him.

Aimee rushed to clear the long prep table that split the kitchen, clearing plates and silverware with a jet of water. “What happened to her?” she demanded.

“I don’t know,” Skye said tightly, easing Taly face-down onto the table.

Her eyes were open, but she’d stopped responding halfway to the townhouse. All she did now was shake, teeth clenched. Her breaths were sharp, shallow, rattling around the blood-spattered thorns curling from her lips.

Skye smoothed a lock of blood-soaked hair from her face. “What can I do?” he asked. “Just… just tell me what you need. Crystals, medicine—”

“I need you to leave,” Aiden said, clipped and brusque, hefting a healer’s kit up onto the table. Skye opened his mouth to protest, but Aiden snapped, “I’m serious. Unless you want your mate to bleed out on this table, you need to leave and let me do my job.”

Then he peeled back the cloak. Blood had soaked through it. The fabric stuck to her wounds. And maybe… maybe Skye just hadn’t really seen it before. He’d been so consumed by rage,blindedby it. But now, looking at it, really looking…

His pulse thrummed in his ears. Quiet at first. Then building.

Her back was raw. Gone. Carved to the spine, the muscle shredded, raw tissue glistening beneath torn skin and thorns buried so deep they moved when she breathed.

Trembling, his fists curled tight. Aether pulsed hot beneath his skin, begging to be loosed. He didn’t let it. He already knew who had done this, had already made them pay.

With a tight nod, he took the vials of Faeflower Aimee handed him and made his feet move towards the door.

“Take the mimic too,” Aiden barked.