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“Thane,” Tenebris hit and clawed at his hand. “Stop this. Stop it! I had no choice. I had to ensure she was brought to him.”

He vaguely heard his father’s begging, barely registering the excuses. “Tell them,” Thane said. “Tell them who the High King is.”

“I am High King!” he spat.

His fist cracked Tenebris’s already bruised cheek, knocking him to the ground. He wrapped his fingers around his father’s throat and jerked him up again. Tenebris wheezed, trying to pry his hand away. Then Thane placed the sharp edge of his sword on his father’s neck. Once Layala was taken, his remorse, his hesitation when it came to Tenebris vanished. This was his fault. This battle, the fact that she wasn’t in his arms at this very moment. All of it.

The word began to spread through the field. Swords stopped clashing, arrows didn’t cut through the air, and the dragons landed, hanging back in the distance. The smell of burning flesh and charred earth overwhelmed the normally pleasant fresh air. The cries of the dying still lingered, and the vultures hovered above but those remaining stood at attention.

“Tell them Thane Athayel is High King of Palenor. Tell them or I will show them by spilling your blood all over this field.”

Tenebris’s throat bobbed. The caw of a raven circling overhead interrupted the silence, until he said, “I am stepping down. I relinquish my status.” He hesitated. “Thane Athayel is your High King.”

Both the Ravens and the Palenor soldiers, side by side, differing only in armor and who’d they’d been loyal to moments before, like a wave crashed to their knees.

Still gripping his father’s hair, he forced him to turn. The scrunch of pain on his father’s face only made him want to squeeze harder. He was so weak.

“I didn’t want to do this. I had no choice,” Tenebris started. “I made a deal with the Black Mage hundreds of years ago. Mathekis made sure I upheld it. I was driven to find her, or I’d turn. You understand, don’t you? I had to hold up my end of the bargain. Just like you once did.”

There was no sympathy for what his father did. He made a selfish choice. “This was for power, nothing more.”

“I was stupid. I wanted to be king. I wanted magic which I would only get when she woke him. And by the time I figured out I made a mistake, it was too late.”

“How could he know about Layala that long ago?”

“He said he remembered, and he knew she would come.”

“Remembered what?” Thane snarled, pressing the blade harder.

“That he was a god and so was she. I thought he was delusional, but I was only thinking of myself.”

Thane stared at his father, at the way his skin creased between his light eyebrows. He remembered they were gods? What did that mean? In another life?

“He said that they were being punished, that they had to repent, and they were sent here to learn their lesson…” he licked his lips in hesitation. “And that she was his wife—his eternally-bound mate. I truly didn’t know if your mate bond with her would work but you never finished the spell. You never joined your blood in a wedding ceremony to see.”

Thane felt the color drain from his face, and he released his father, moving back in a faltered step. “No.” He wouldn’t accept that. She washismate, his wife. He felt it in his soul. They belonged together. But something about that statement stirred at the back of his mind. He could almost hear music, a tune he didn’t know he knew. Dancing, gowns—a wedding. His? No—not his.

Tenebris stared down at his hands, opening and closing his fingers. It was an odd movement, like he was testing out if they were stiff. “I’m sorry, my son. I should have never dragged you into this.” He held out his palms. “My hands were tied.”

He wanted to be remorseful now? To apologize now? Thane watched him closely. The fear that once gripped his face vanished. So, he thought Thane would be lenient.

Thane shoved a finger at Tenebris. “The only reason I’m allowing you breath is so Layala can be the one to end you.” He looked to the soldiers to his right. “Bind him. And Aldrich, too. Wherever that snake slinked off to.”

He needed to get to Layala. The Void was quiet, too quiet for how close they were. Would they have followed Varlett and Layala? Where was Mathekis? Did they wait for the Black Mage to wake? “Battle formations!” Thane shouted. He wouldn’t allow them to be caught unprepared. “Make ready for a pale one attack!”

“Oh, Thane, one more thing before you rush off to her rescue.” Tenebris smiled while the soldiers held his arms behind his back. What did he have up his sleeve? What did he know?

He swept out his leg and dropped the Raven to his left. With confusion, Thane watched the other Raven’s skin turn an impossible shade of light blue then… frost covered his hair and even his armor until he was a frozen block of ice.

With a start, realization hit him. The Black Mage was awake, his father’s deal was upheld, and Tenebris could now wield magic. With Tenebris’s palm facing Thane, fingers splayed wide, a blast of frost hit Thane in the chest with the force of a ten-foot-tall ogre swinging a club. The blow sent him flying back into the group of soldiers, knocking them all down.

His body began to convulse. A cold so deep it felt hot seared his center. He watched in horror as the frost covered the Palenor sigil on his chest, then down his torso, moving like flame over oil. Thane slapped his hand over the cold, and it infected his hand and shot up his arm. The soldiers around him scrambled back.No no no no, he was paralyzed as the ice covered everything below his neck. It crept up to his chin—he wanted to scream, called his magic to stop it. It fought to warm him, to break free, then he felt it reach the top of his head.

Everything was dark.

An intense darkness like the stars fell from the heavens and the moon lost its luster.

He heard nothing.