Page 61 of House of Embers (Royal Houses #5)

Chapter Fifty-Two

The Broken Bonds

Wynter lay in Dozan’s arms, naked.

They shared his bed, which wasn’t as plush as her quarters, but sometimes she preferred how austere it was. How him it was.

She ran a hand down his bare chest. His breath tickled her hair, his body firm against hers. This was the only time that she saw him fully relax. In sleep, he looked so much younger, so much more fragile. Not that she’d ever let her fox know that.

She brushed her lips against his jaw, and he stirred.

“Round two?” he murmured.

“Three,” she teased.

His hand slipped to her hip. “If you insist.”

A click sounded in her chest.

She sat up abruptly. “What was that?”

“What was what?” Dozan asked, a faint crease in his brow. “Everything all right, love?”

She shook her head. She could still feel it. The click had latched on to her. Like it was hooked into her magic.

“Something’s wrong,” she said at once, throwing the covers off her and shimmying into a dress.

Dozan didn’t ask questions. He’d been in this profession long enough to know when to talk and when to move.

She was halfway to the door when the click snapped through her again. She fell to her knees, gasping.

“Dyta!” she cried.

Dozan was at her side at once. “What happened? Are we under attack?”

“She’s gone,” Wynter gasped. Tears fell from her eyes. “She’s not here anymore.”

“She can’t be, love. You’re bound. If something happened to her, you wouldn’t still be standing.”

Wynter clutched her chest. He was right, but he was wrong too. Her bond, that inherent knowledge of her dragon like nothing she had ever felt in her whole life.

It was gone.

***

Roake crept through the Bryonican woods at night.

He was still furious that Kerrigan and Fordham had tied him up and left him there to rot.

Luckily, he’d used his magic to slip free of the restraints before anyone but Isa had seen his predicament.

He’d thought for a time that Isa was going to tell Bastian what had happened.

That he’d be just as dead as Gerrond in those dungeons.

But things had gone as they were.

Save for the furious preparations for the Society forum and Bastian’s insistence on pushing forward with their plans.

Bastian wasn’t worried about Kerrigan though. So Roake wouldn’t worry about Kerrigan either. The Society was superior. Had been for generations. No upstart could take them down.

The only thing he needed to guarantee in all this was Audria’s safety. She was what mattered. She’d come around. He was sure of it.

“Don’t take another step,” a voice rang out from his left as he stepped into a clearing.

And there his beautiful love stood, wreathed in moonlight, her golden hair tucked up tight. She was out of her typical fancy dresses and in flying leathers. Her dragon must have been near to leave her here alone.

“Hello, love,” Roake said, taking that final step.

Audria raised her hands as if prepared to fight. “Roake, I’m warning you.”

“You showed up.”

“I shouldn’t have,” she said, pursing her lips.

“Are we truly on opposite sides of this battle?”

“We don’t have to be. You could come back with me and—”

“Be imprisoned,” he said. “Kerrigan and Fordham tied me up. They don’t trust me.”

“They’d listen to me.”

“Would they?”

“If you fought with us.”

“That’s never going to happen, love,” Roake said. “Kerrigan would kill me before letting me into her army. She only hasn’t because…well, I don’t know why.”

“I asked her not to,” Audria said on a breath.

“And why is that?”

“You know why.”

Roake tilted his head. “Because you love me.”

“No,” Audria said with a shake of her head. “I can’t love you. You lied to us for all these years. You believe what he’s saying. You work for him , Roake. Can’t you see that my heart is broken?”

Roake closed the few steps and pulled Audria into his arms. They were on opposite sides of this war. She did love him whether or not she’d admit it. He opened his mouth to try to beg her to come with him anyway when he felt a click in his chest.

Audria gasped. Her hand went to her chest. “What did you do?” she accused.

“Me?” he asked. His own hand was at his center. “Nothing.”

“Something attached to my magic,” Audria said, pushing away from him. “Make it stop.”

“I can’t. It attached to mine too.”

“What is it?” Audria asked.

Neither of them had answers as the click happened a second time, ripping their bonds free from their dragons. They both collapsed into the grass. Audria screamed. Roake had never known such pain. Even the love of his life couldn’t make up for the loss of his dragon.

***

A hand fell on Cyrene’s shoulder. “Must you?”

She turned with a wicked smile as she swung Shadowbreaker up and rested the tendrille blade at her lover’s throat. “Practice makes perfect.”

Dean pivoted, hitting her wrist. The move broke her hold, dropping the sword into his hand. He swept it up to his shoulder.

“Show-off,” she grumbled.

“I grew up royalty,” he said, brushing a kiss to her lips. “Some things are just ingrained.”

“I never wanted the stupid sword anyway.”

“You’re getting better with it,” he acknowledged, weighing the magic-repellant blade in his hand. “And it was made for you.”

“Give me magic, and I’m fine,” Cyrene said. “Or a pretty dress. I really kill in a pretty dress.”

Dean snorted. “Red’s your color.”

She winked at him. “You know me so well.”

“Creator, I hope so. I went to the ends of the world and back for you.”

Cyrene leaned forward, greedy for another kiss. As his lips landed on hers, a click registered in her chest.

“Uh…”

“Did you feel that?” he asked, instantly changing from her dreamy husband to the battle-hardened man he’d become.

Cyrene didn’t think this was an enemy they could fight.

“It’s on my magic,” he growled. “What monster has come for us?”

Cyrene didn’t have an answer for that, but her intuition blew through her.

It had not been that long ago that she had seen Kerrigan in that other world.

Walked her through her Doma entrance and seen her recover her magic.

She had known there would be repercussions. Had waited for them day in and day out.

All magic came with a price. Cyrene and Dean knew that well enough.

Was this the price?

She gasped as the second click brought her to her knees. “Sarielle!”

Her dragon.

Her dragon bond was…gone.

“Kerrigan, what have you done?”

***

Alura was in another damned council meeting about this forum. The thing had lasted for hours now. She wanted to stop listening to the other council members droning on about the importance of hearing the populace’s requests.

They didn’t really want to do that.

Or if they did, it was a select group of requests—the nobility, full Society members, full Fae only. At best, full Fae business owners only. The whole thing was a sham. It was to show that things were back to the way they were. Just like the ball was supposed to show.

Didn’t exactly work that way when Gelryn had been killed along with several Society dragons in the middle of the city of Kinkadia.

There had been a lot of arguments about whether to burn Gelryn’s body.

Bastian hadn’t wanted it done. It was an honor after all, and Gelryn was a war criminal.

The dragons had taken matters into their own hands.

Bastian hadn’t liked that either—a solid reminder that he had a dragon. He didn’t control the dragons.

But he continued onward as if it was all normal. Meanwhile, curfew still existed in the city, guard patrols had doubled, humans and half-Fae were practically being hunted. There were war crimes being committed by the government, and nothing could stop that from being true.

All she wanted to do was return home to Venatrix.

Her mother was in mourning. Kivrin’s death had blown out the last light left in her chest. She was being watched day and night by Arelina. Alura should be there.

She should be there and with Arelina, who she had spent many years courting. The knowledge had made her father furious. She had done it partly because of that. And to remain undercover at the mountain, she’d had to part ways with Arelina.

A means to an end.

She had to remember that it would be worth it. It would be one day.

A click sounded in her chest.

Everyone fell silent. Alura’s eyes were panicked. Had Kerrigan begun the attack? It was too soon. They were all still in the mountain.

People were shouting, demanding to know what was happening.

Alura’s eyes latched on to Bastian, who sat at the head of the council room. He had frozen to stone, his hand on his chest just as the rest of them were. It was affecting them all.

It hit Alura then what had happened.

“She’s done it,” she whispered.

Kerrigan had found the metal crown. She’d used it. She was going to change the bargain. Holy gods!

Then the bond was ripped from her.

The room filled with screams. Some of the council members had had their dragons for hundreds of years. Two Fae fainted entirely, unable to pull themselves together at the absence.

Bastian still hadn’t moved, and then he tipped his head back and he roared .

Alura couldn’t stop the satisfied smile even with the horrible absence in her chest.

“Even playing field,” Alura muttered. “Your move.”

***

Fordham reached for Kerrigan in the frost. Her body had gone limp as the ice rushed across the crypt.

“Kerrigan!” he yelled.

The crown was still on her head. He couldn’t wrench it off. He was going to lose her. He couldn’t lose her.

“Please,” he gasped. “Please, don’t take her. Not her goodness or her hope or her life. Not a single part of her. We need her. I need her.”

Then he felt a click as if her magic had latched on to him.

It wasn’t the bond. He could still feel her through their mating bond.

That was the only way he knew that she was still living, because she had stopped breathing, as if her entire body had gone into stasis.

But the mating bond said she was alive and well.

It made no sense. And this click made no sense either.

That was when he realized what it was—his bond to Netta.

He burrowed down into that bond, felt where his dragon settled into his chest, and leaned into it.

Her voice was soft in his mind. “Has she done it?”

“I don’t know. She is incapacitated. I might lose her.”

“You could never lose her.”

Netta put warmth down the bond.

And then with a terrifying efficiency, the click happened again, and the bond was severed.

His hand went to his chest as agony swept through him. Not from the loss. It felt more like it had never been there. Never existed at all. But that hurt more than ever. Because Netta was a part of him. Had been since they had locked eyes in the cavern at the end of the tournament. She was his .

And now…she wasn’t.

“What have you done?” Fordham whispered to Kerrigan.

Irena’s stone sarcophagus cracked down the middle. The ancestor of his house had been shattered. The crown at her temple was broken.

A gasp came from Kerrigan, and then with a clink , the crown fell off her head.

“Kerrigan!” Fordham cried, throwing his arms around her.

“I’m okay,” she whispered.

“What was the price?” he asked as his hands ran over her body like he could see through her to what had happened and what had been taken.

“The end of the bargain,” Kerrigan said simply. “You can’t reach Netta, can you?”

“No,” he confessed. “I thought you were just going to change the binding.”

“I couldn’t,” she said, her skin going pale as she tried to move.

“Stay here with me.”

“I could only…break it,” she whispered. “That was the only option.”

“How are we going to fight a war without dragons?”

“Guess we’ll find out,” Kerrigan said before her eyes fluttered closed and she passed out.