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This argument was pointless. And I didn’t care who they were or who I was as I said to Beron, “Get out if you’re not going to be helpful.”
At his side, Eris had the wits to actually look worried. But Beron continued to ignore his son’s pointed stare and hissed at me, “Did you know that while your mate was warming Amarantha’s bed, most of our people were locked beneath that mountain?”
I didn’t deign responding.
“Did you know that while he had his head between her legs, most of us were fighting to keep our families from becoming the nightly entertainment?”
I tried to shut out the images. The blinding fury at what had been done, what he’d done to keep Amarantha distracted—the secrets he still kept from shame or disinterest in sharing, I didn’t know. Cassian was now trembling two seats down—with restraint. And Rhys said nothing.
Tarquin murmured, “That’s enough, Beron.”
Tarquin, who had guessed at Rhysand’s sacrifice, his motives.
Beron ignored him. “And now Rhysand wants to play hero. Amarantha’s Whore becomes Hybern’s Destroyer. But if it goes badly …” A cruel, cold smile. “Will he get on his knees for Hybern? Or just spread his—”
I stopped hearing the words. Stopped hearing anything other than my heart, my breathing.
Fire exploded out of me.
Raging, white-hot flame that blasted into Beron like a lance.
CHAPTER
Beron shielded barely fast enough to block me, but the wake singed Eris’s arm—right through the cloth. And the pale, lovely arm of Lucien’s mother.
The others shouted, shooting to their feet, but I couldn’t think, couldn’t hear anything but Eris’s words, see those moments Under the Mountain, see that nightmare of Amarantha leading Rhys down the hall, what Rhys had endured—
I ignored it as I stood. And sent a wave of water from the reflection pond to encircle Beron and his chair. A bubble without air.
Flame pounded against it, turning water to steam, but I pushed harder.
I’d kill him. Kill him and gladly be done with it.
I couldn’t tell if Rhysand was yelling it, if he was murmuring it down the bond. Maybe both.
Beron’s flame barrier slammed into my water, hard enough that ripples began to form, steam hissing amongst them.
So I bared my teeth and sent a fist of white light punching into that fiery shield—the white light of Day. Spell-breaker. Ward-cleaver.
Beron’s eyes widened as his shields began to fray. As that water pushed in.
Then hands were on my face. And violet eyes were before mine, calm and yet insistent. “You’ve proved your point, my love,” Rhys said. “Kill him, and horrible Eris will take his place.”
Then I’ll kill all of them.
“As interesting an experiment as that might be,” Rhys crooned, “it would only complicate the matters at hand.”
Into my mind he whispered, I love you. The words of that hateful bastard don’t mean anything. He has nothing of joy in his life. Nothing good. We do.
I began to hear things—the trickling water of the pool, the crackle of flames, the quick breathing of those around us, the cursing of Beron trapped in that tightening cocoon of light and water.
I love you, Rhys said again.
And I let go of my magic.
Beron’s flames exploded like an unfurling flower—and bounced harmlessly off the shield Rhys had thrown around us.
Not to shield against Beron.
But the other High Lords were now on their feet.
“That was how you got through my wards,” Tarquin murmured.
Beron was panting so hard he looked like he might spew fire.
But Helion rubbed his jaw as he sat down once more. “I wondered where it went—that little bit. So small—like a fish missing a single scale. But I still felt whenever something brushed against that empty spot.” A smirk at Rhys. “No wonder you made her High Lady.”
“I made her High Lady,” Rhys said simply, lowering his hands from my face but not leaving my side, “because I love her. Her power was the last thing I considered.”
I was beyond words, beyond basic feelings. Helion asked Tamlin, “You knew of her powers?”
Tamlin was only watching me and Rhys, my mate’s declaration hanging between us. “It was none of your business,” was all Tamlin said to Helion. To all of them.
“The power belongs to us. I think it is,” Beron seethed.
Mor leveled a look at Beron that would have sent lesser males running.
The Lady of Autumn was clutching her arm, angry red splattered along the moon-white skin. No glimmer of pain on that face, though. I said to her as I reclaimed my seat, “I’m sorry.”
Her eyes lifted toward mine, round as saucers.
Beron spat, “Don’t talk to her, you human filth.”
Rhys shattered through Beron’s shield, his fire, his defenses.
Shattered through them like a stone hurled into a window, and slammed his dark power into Beron so hard he rocked back in his seat. Then that seat disintegrated into black, sparkling dust beneath him.
Leaving Beron to fall on his ass.
Glittering ebony dust drifted away on a phantom wind, staining Beron’s crimson jacket, clinging like clumps of ash to his brown hair.
“Don’t ever,” Rhys said, hands sliding into his pockets, “speak to my mate like that again.”
Beron shot to his feet, not bothering to brush off the dust, and declared to no one in particular, “This meeting is over. I hope Hybern butchers you all.”
But Nesta rose from her chair. “This meeting is not over.”
Even Beron paused at her tone. Eris sized up the space between my sister and his father.
She stood tall, a pillar of steel. “You are all there is,” she said to Beron, to all of us. “You are all that there is between Hybern and the end of everything that is good and decent.” She settled her stare on Beron, unflinching and fierce. “You fought against Hybern in the last war. Why do you refuse to do so now?”
Beron did not deign to answer. But he did not leave. Eris subtly motioned his brothers to sit.
Nesta marked the gesture—hesitated. As if realizing she indeed held their complete attention. That every word mattered. “You may hate us. I don’t care if you do. But I do care if you let innocents suffer and die. At least stand for them. Your people. For Hybern will make an example of them. Of all of us.”