Page 49

DARK

T here was something wrong with the air. Emryn shot out of sleep, looking into a pair of very unfamiliar eyes. She couldn’t gather the breath to scream before something sharp like a cruel word, or a slicing light came to rest at her throat.

“Breathe wrong and he dies.” There was a voice in her ear. “Come quietly and he lives.”

Emryn nodded. She wouldn’t let them hurt Cas and her guards were right outside the door.

She got up, setting her bare feet on the floor and staggering when whoever had her shoved her toward the rear door.

But that was where Brutus slept.

The dog was up in an instant, wanting to play before Emryn watched him figure out that she was in trouble, and then he changed. Into the guard dog that he descended from.

His bark shook the windows, like a cymbal clash or thunder and he leaped at the man holding her as Cas ran into the room with a sword in his hands.

Emryn felt the knife slice her throat as the assailant was shoved down and away from her by Brutus’ weight. And then there was a tearing sound, and a horrid gurgle and the wet sound of blood flowing from a wound.

Emryn connected the arteries. She needed light, and that was the only way her jumbled brain could think to get it.

She threw her wings out, shredding the nightgown she was wearing and throwing light up the walls. Sunlight, starlight, and she nearly vomited when she saw what Brutus had done.

He’d torn the man’s throat out and was sitting next to the corpse like he was waiting for a treat.

“Good lad, Brutus,” Cas said in a shaking voice, stepping over the corpse to get to Emryn. “Are-” He saw the cut on her throat. “You need a healer, Emryn.”

“They won’t be able to help,” Emryn raised a hand to her throat and felt the wetness there. “I can heal it, I just need a moment.”

“I’ll call the guard,” Cas said, watching her closely. “Once you put them away, and then we can-” he reached out, steadying her as she wobbled. “Emryn?”

“It-” She swallowed against the burning in the wound. “I think there was poison on the knife.”

“What can I do?” He looked desperate, sweeping her off her feet and nearly slipping in the congealing blood on the floor. “Emryn-”

“I’ll be alright.” She managed the words over a growing weakness. “I just have to burn it out.”

“Rest,” he said, laying her down on the bed. “I’ll find Asan, and-”

“I am here,” Asan said, stepping out of the mirror. “My alarms were set off, what happened?”

“She’s been poisoned.” Cas pointed a shaking hand at Emryn. “Asan, I don’t- I didn’t-”

“Don’t panic, Cas,” Asan said sternly. “We will mend this.”

Emryn watched Cas take a shaking breath. “Can I help?”

“I have to burn it out,” Emryn choked out the words. “I need an anchor.”

Cas crossed to the bed, reaching out and taking her hands. “Use me.”

Emryn nodded, wrapping a loop of her flame around Cas and diving down into the flame that lived in the well. Somewhere down here was her soul, but she wasn’t seeking him today.

She gathered her fire, condensing it into something hard and hot before she rose and looked at her systems. They were struggling, choking on the poison, and she held the flame to her veins and released it.

It hurt beyond pain, beyond anything she had ever felt, but she wanted to live. To see the future with Cas, to be a family with him.

The poison immolated, dying to the fire in her veins, and being swept out by the tides of her blood.

She would be ill, but that was better than the alternative.

Emryn struggled up out of her head, exhausted and nauseated, but alive. She looked up at Cas and smiled.

“I’m alright.”

He slumped, sighing brokenly. “Why didn’t you wake me, Emryn?”

“There was a knife to your throat,” she said, tears rising. “I just wanted you to be safe.”

“Hush.” He reached for her, cradling her against his chest. “Hush now, let’s rest.”

Emryn curled into his warmth, shaking cold. “I’m cold,” she whispered. “I’m going to be sick for three days, Cas. Please don’t worry. I’ll be ok.”

“Double the guard,” Cas demanded as Emryn faded. “I want them posted on every door, and bring the dogs. Brutus will guard the inside, but I want them on patrol outside as well.”

“I will see it done,” was the last thing that Emryn heard before the darkness claimed her.

When she woke again, it was to pitch darkness and soreness in every muscle. But she was awake, and that meant that the poison was finally gone from her system.

She shifted in the bed and Cas was immediately awake, leaning over her in the darkness of their room, peering down at her through the dimness.

“Emryn?”

“It’s gone,” she said, reaching a shaking hand to touch his face. “I’ll be weak for another two days, but I’ll be fine.”

“Are you hungry?”

“It’s the middle of the night,” she told him. “I can wait for breakfast.”

“Alright.” He laid back down, arms tight around her. “Are you sure you’re alright?”

She nodded against his shoulder, letting sleep claim her again.

In the morning, they had breakfast and Emryn crawled back into bed. The investigation of how the assailant had gotten in had been concluded while she was sleeping off the poison.

He’d come down the chimney of all places and the top of it was now blocked with an iron grid so that avenue was closed.

But the question that was bothering Emryn was twofold. Myconia was under the umbrella of the Eternal Empire, so did the Empire have a hand in sending someone after her.

And if that was the truth, then why? And if the answer to that was because the Eternal Empress knew about Emryn’s wings, then who had told the Empire?

But those weren’t questions that she was going to be able to answer on her own. She was going to need help, and her Three.