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“I might as well sign Dorada’s.” The Queen of Evil had taken a page from Lothaire’s book—in fact, she nowpossessedLothaire’s old ledger—and was supplementing it by making offers with her ring in exchange for a vow. “I could wish for Furie, my crown, and peace among my ranks.”

“You fought Dorada not long ago. If she deigned to bargain with you after that, would you pledge your future to a former mummy who chums around with wendigos?” Lothaire added, “And how do you think your Valkyrie Bride would feel about your being oathbound to a malevolent sorceress? Remind me: Aren’t the Valkyries the ‘good guys’?”

No one made a secret of Furie’s hatred for vampires. She would despise Kristoff doubly.

Though he’d never met her, he knew exactly what she would look like because he’d seen her identical twin, Cara the Fair.

Beautiful—in an eerie, lethal way.

Lothaire tapped his temple. “Starting to put together the bigger picture?” Knowing how trapped Kristoff was in every sense, Lothaire said, “Your Bride’s a Valkyrie born of a Fury. And more, she’s anarch-Fury, with wings of fire. Hunting evildoers is in her DNA.”

She’ll considermean evildoer.

“When I last met her six decades ago, she nearly incinerated me with those wings in a fiery embrace, right before I chained her to the bottom of the ocean.” He sighed to the sky,“Good times,”and walked on without a care in the worlds.

Rage welling, Kristoff followed Lothaire, beginning to sweat in the increasingly hot air. They headed toward that plain of piping lava, the heat mirroring his inner turmoil as he seethed over his options.

Oathbound to one of two evil beings: Lothaire or Dorada.

Or let Furie continue to drown.

Unless . . . Kristoff narrowed his eyes on Lothaire’s back as he devised another alternative.What if I change the rules of the entire game?

The checkmate of them all. He found his lips curving.Yes, brother, maybe we are more alike than I’ll admit.

Nineteen

Nightside

Power coursed through Mina’s body.

As if from a distance, she heard the sorcerer’s words, commanding her to breathe and . . . drink?

Yes!Immortal blood dripped onto her tongue. It raced through her veins, heating her from the inside out. She managed to open her eyes; the sorcerer filled her vision.

Gaze glowing, he held his gashed wrist above her mouth.

More drops landed on her tongue. The taste quickened her plague madness, sharpening her fangs and dulling her resistance. She tensed to seize him?—

Pressure rushed up from her lungs. She twisted onto her side and spat water mixed with blood.

He rubbed her back. “That’s it.” His voice was rough. “Easy, vampire. Easy.”

Struggling for control, she sucked in breaths. “Wh-what . . . happened?”

“You died. It didn’t take.”

Get hold of yourself, Mina!Had she truly just perished? And nearly bitten him? His blood had been as full of life and magic as she’d suspected.

“How did we get free?” Submerged in that churning water, she had been certain the end had come for them both. Yet here they were.

“We found the end of the lava tube.”

She sat up, swiping her hair out of her face. “And the basilisk?” Her gaze darted.

“Didn’t.” The sorcerer knelt beside her. “You need to drink more.”

More of his nectar. She’d never tasted anything like it—liquid bliss.