Page 28

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NARANUS

T he scent of rain and earth clings to us as we trudge through the thick underbrush, the night pressing against my back like a second skin. The stronghold is close. I can taste it, home, familiar ground, a place where I can keep her safe .

The fall from the cliff actually helped us to come back to the stronghold faster.

If she would just stop fighting me every damn step of the way.

Eryss walks beside me, her expression hard as flint, her shoulders stiff, her silence a blade pressing against my ribs. She hasn’t said much since the fall, since I pulled her from the river’s grip and warmed her body with mine. But it’s not silence from shock or exhaustion. No, this is a storm brewing, a hurricane ready to break.

Fine. Let it come. I welcome the fight.

“You need to open your damn eyes, purna,” I say, breaking the silence. “Your sisters if that’s what they are—are playing a game you don’t see.”

Her head snaps toward me, eyes burning with a fire that should have died in the cold waters. “Stop. Sowing. Discord.” Each word is razor-sharp, dripping with warning. “They saved me. They came for me. That is all that matters.”

I laugh, sharp and humorless. “Oh, you think that’s all that matters? That Catalina didn’t misfire that magic on purpose?”

She stops walking. Dead in her tracks.

I turn to face her, crossing my arms, waiting.

“You will not stand here,” she hisses, stepping closer, her voice barely contained, “and throw suspicion on my family.”

“They’re not your blood.”

“They are my everything .”

I tilt my head, studying her. Her jaw is clenched, her hands curled into fists, her chest rising and falling too fast. Beautiful, enraged, wrong .

“You think you mean the same to them?” I step into her space, forcing her to lift her chin. “You think they won’t betray you? Or have they already?”

The moment stretches, thick and heady, the tension between us no longer just anger.

It’s something darker.

Something worse .

She shoves me. Hard. “You don’t get to say that to me. Not after everything. Not when you don’t understand what it’s like to be alone.”

I catch her wrist before she can retreat, yanking her against me. She gasps, her body colliding with mine. The impact is a shock, a burst of heat where there should be nothing but fury.

“I understand everything , Eryss,” I murmur, pressing her back against the rough bark of a tree. “I understand that you are blind to what’s right in front of you.”

She glares at me, breath hitching as my grip tightens. “Let me go.”

My claws curl lightly against her skin, not enough to hurt. Just enough to remind her, I hold her now . Just like I have since the moment she stepped into my world, since she tried to kill me, since she nearly died .

“Say you trust them.”

“I do.”

I lean in, my lips a whisper from her ear. “Say it again.”

Her breathing turns erratic, fingers twitching against my chest as if she wants to push me away but can’t quite force herself to move.

I inhale her scent, rich and deep, magic lying dormant beneath her skin, taunting me with its absence.

I press my forehead against hers. “Say it and mean it.”

Her hands tremble. Her pulse is erratic. She is losing this fight, the truth bleeding out from the cracks.

“ You bastard ,” she breathes.

My lips brush her jaw, teasing, not quite kissing. Just enough to make her feel the weight of my control.

“Say it, Eryss.”

Before she can respond, the sky trembles with the sound of wings.

I release her instantly, my body twisting toward the sound, my claws extending. Eryss barely has time to catch her breath before I push her behind me, my wings flaring despite the ache in my muscles.

Shadows descend through the trees, massive shapes cutting through the canopy, fast and precise. My body coils, prepared to fight, but then.

“ Lord Naranus! ”

Relief barrels through me like a battering ram.

I lower my stance as the figure lands a few feet away, his large frame bowing slightly, his wings tucking in. A familiar face. A trusted warrior.

Thryx. He’s back from his mission.

The tension in my spine unknots slightly, but I don’t lower my guard completely.

The warrior steps forward, his sharp eyes flicking between me and Eryss, taking in our soaked clothes, our ragged forms. Then his lips twitch. “You look like shit.”

I grunt, rubbing a hand over my jaw. “Feel worse.”

Thryx snorts, shaking his head before turning his attention fully to Eryss. His gaze sharpens. Curious. He knows what she is, what she was meant to do, and yet he says nothing about it. Smart male.

“You were reported dead,” he tells me.

I arch a brow. “And you thought you’d find my corpse here?”

He smirks, crossing his arms. “Figured you were too damn stubborn to die.”

I roll my shoulders, exhaustion creeping in. “How bad is it back home?”

His expression darkens, amusement bleeding away. “Bad.”

I had hoped the mess we left behind would still be contained, that my warriors could hold the stronghold. But if Thryx came looking for me, it means things are unraveling faster than I thought.

Thryx gestures toward the trees. “We need to go. There are still rogue factions moving through the area, searching for you. If they find you with her—” He cuts himself off, his gaze flicking to Eryss again.

I stiffen.

“If they find her,” I say, my voice steel, “they won’t leave alive .”

Thryx nods once. “Then we move.”

I glance back at Eryss. She’s watching us, shoulders squared, expression unreadable. But something flickers in her eyes, something almost hesitant.

I don’t like it.

I dislike that she still doesn’t fully understand that the only people she can trust are the ones standing beside her right now.

I don’t like that Catalina’s magic was the last thing she felt before she fell.

I hate that the thought of her betraying me, killing me, no longer makes me angry.

It makes me desperate .

We need to get back. Because I need answers.

I need her alive long enough to get them.

I motion for Thryx to take the lead, stepping in beside Eryss, close enough that when I speak, only she can hear me.

“This conversation isn’t over.”

She exhales slowly, her voice quiet but firm. “I didn’t think it would be.”

Good.

When this is over, when we make it back, I’m going to rip the truth from her.

One way or another. I’m going to make her see.