Page 123 of Claim Me

Again. And again. And again.

The death stone warms even more beneath me, seeming to grow hotter with my mounting ire.

Because this is all bullshit.

I’ve done everything for these soulless creatures, just to be knocked down at every turn.

And now they’ve taken my sister from me again? Threaten to make her suffer for my supposed failures?

Fuck. That.

“Klas failed, not me,” I tell them, surprised by my ability to speak so fluidly. Maybe they’re allowing me to speak. That would explain my ability to move, too. They must not have felt it necessary to chain me this time.

I push away from the death stone, no longer feeling the weight on my shoulders—the power that originally forced me to bow.

I’m free.

It’s a realization I prove by standing up. It feels good. Powerful.Right.

The deadly magic around me pulsates in agreement, the chilling strands swirling through the air and floating closer to kiss my skin.

“Fallon Doyle,” the voices echo sharply. “You will obey.”

“I have obeyed,” I tell them. “I’veobeyedyou my entire life. I’ve given up everything. All for Issy’s safety. But you started this discussion with an update about herfate.”

I step forward as more icy tendrils swim around me, each one seeming to melt the moment it touches my overheated form.

It doesn’t hurt. It actually feels quite good. Revitalizing, even. A strange sensation for a death plane, but I don’t second-guess it. Iembraceit.

“I mated Nikolas O’Neely andobeyedhim for four years.Hechose to attack the Gold and Garnet King.Hefailed. And you wanted to reward him for that failure with my soul in the afterlife.”

I take another step toward the hooded patriarchs.

“I wasn’t given a chance to obey.” Not that I intended to, but these assholes don’t need to know that. “The death plane sucked me in and returned me to new mates. And your response to that was tomate off my sister?”

Those last four words reverberate through the air, similar to how the patriarchs sound.

“You cut me off from her.Again. Inflicted an obedience spell on her.Subdued her. And you think to taunt me with that knowledge, to convince me to select an alternative fate?”

My words are all beginning to echo now, my voice vibrating in a way I’ve never experienced.

The patriarchs try to say my name again, a jolt of power seeming to pulsate around them.

But it doesn’t touch me.

I’m too wrapped up in all the frigid wisps that keep melting against my skin. It’s like I’ve formed a strange sort of shield. Or perhaps I’ve justabsorbedone. I’m not sure, but I feel safe. Empowered.Emboldened.

“What improvisations were made?” I demand.“How is my sister subdued? Where is she?!”

Those last three words leave me on a roar as a deadly wind whirls around me.

“Tell me who you mated her to. Tell me who has my sister!”

The wind turns into a cyclone of energy and rushes toward the patriarchs, knocking the hoods from their startled faces.

They resemble ghosts here, their souls quivering from the force of my chilly gust.

It’s strange that they’re ethereal in nature, yet I feel corporeal. A glance at my hands confirms my solid state.