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The male she’d come to know in their small cabin was gone.

Rion’s gaze searched the field, pausing on face after face as if he were counting them. He lingered on a few, then stopped altogether when he spotted her. Rion looked her up and down, pausing first at Eoghan’s hand around her arm then at the shackles around her wrists. He didn’t smile, nor did he offer a shred of comfort, only an unspoken, icy promise.

No mercy.

Eoghan’s superior stepped forward and drew a long blade from across his back. Rion’s gaze shot toward him. His lips pulled back from his teeth and he let out the most horrendous snarl she’d ever heard. It echoed deep in his throat and lifted every hair on her body. Several warriors took a retreating step back.

Rion smiled then the world exploded.

Vines with thorns as wide as her wrist shot from the ground while the earth itself rose and shattered into a million particles. They danced around Rion’s body and the warriors ran for him, their battle cries echoing deep in her bones. More Fae flew from the trees, threatening to come down on top of him. Arianna wanted to cry out a warning. She wanted to rush into the fray and demand they stop, but fear seized her heart, and the words wouldn’t leave her lips.

It was a swarm of blades and magic and bodies, but with a single shift of his hand, Rion’s magic burst outward. It tore flesh from bone, ripped their magic from their grasps, and left a pile of skinless bodies in its wake.

Rion didn’t pause to finish them off, he leapt from the circle of pain-racked Fae writhing on the ground and grabbed the jaw of the nearest warrior, ripping it clean off before spinning to bury his blade in the next one’s chest.

Rion moved so fast her eyes struggled to keep up. He dodged, danced, and twisted as if he’d been practicing the steps to this song his entire life. Nothing in his body hesitated and he glided across the battlefield with envious grace. It was like he’d done this a thousand times over.

He had.She reminded herself. Rion was the most feared male in Alastríona for a reason. This group had gathered dozens of seasoned warriors for a reason.

Rion shifted the ground at his feet, and it swallowed his attackers. She tried to ignore the crunch of their bones and the blood-curdling screams that followed. Arianna flinched at the carnage, her stomach rolling as it always did. Arianna tried to catch Rion’s eye, but something in her froze.

He was smiling. He was killing warrior after warrior, his own people, and Rion was smiling.

This was him she realized. This was The Demon in his full, terrifying glory. A male who’d grown up fighting for his life. A male who had gotten so good at bloodshed that he craved it like one craves warmth or food.

Brutal was a word she’d once heard others use to describe him, but Arianna saw efficiency. A quick strike to end his enemies and nothing more. Her teachers claimed The Demon liked to savor his kills. But if that were true, he didn’t do it now. He tore through flesh as fast as it came at him and walked through these warriors as if they were novices.

It was no wonder he always reeked of blood.

That smile on his face though. That part disturbed her. He was a different being now. A creature who relished in the lives he stole.

A monster. A murderer. A demon.

An image of Rion seated in the cabin returned to her. Gentle eyes, careful actions, a rare smile. Fear gripped her anew. Would he eventually lose himself to the bloodlust? Would The Demon take over and consume the Rion she’d just started to see?

Eoghan’s superior, the apparent leader of this failed assassination attempt, hissed and stalked toward her. Arianna stepped back.

“Go,” he commanded Eoghan. “I’ll see to the female.”

Eoghan placed his body between the leader and Arianna. “I told you before, I’m only here for her.”

“Go,” he said again. “That’s an order.”

“I told you this was a suici—” Eoghan barely had time to raise his hands before a blade plunged into his forearm. He growled, but his superior kicked Eoghan in the leg and shoved him to the ground.

Arianna tried to scramble back, but the male grabbed her arm, spun her around, and pressed another blade to her throat. “Demon!”

The warriors paused at their commander’s voice, but Rion kept moving, tearing the throat from another in his path. Those facing The Demon took a step back and Rion turned, his gaze searching.

Lethal rage burned in those green eyes when he spotted the knife.

“She’s what you came for, isn’t she?” The blade bit into her skin so hard she scarcely risked a breath. Blood trickled down Arianna’s throat. Rion let out another fierce growl and snapped his jaws like an animal. “Surrender, or the female dies.”

Rion’s eyes flickered to hers, his breathing ragged. Sweat coated his brow and he no longer smiled, only stared at the male holding her with undiluted rage.

No. She wanted to say. He couldn’t give himself up for her. Because he knew as well as she did that this male wouldn’t let her go. He’d kill them both and celebrate afterward, spouting his victory to anyone who’d listen.

Rion’s eyes met hers again and despite the blade digging into her flesh and the way she’d watched Rion rip through warrior after warrior, her body calmed. Like he was trying to tell her—