Page 91 of Once the Skies Fade (Immortal Reveries #2)

Chapter 91

Calla

M y eyes squeezed shut.

I started to slide down the wall, as if my body insisted I sit and rest, but Graham’s fingers wrapped around my neck under my jaw. His hot breath hovered over my ear, the scent of blood and sweat and betrayal pulling bile up into my throat.

“The King of Wrenwick may have been the one to order Brennan’s death,” he said slowly, taunting me as if he were dangling a treat before a hound. “But I’m the one who forced him to—a little blackmail over infidelity can accomplish a lot, even the assassination of a king.” He squeezed my jaw harder. “I will have a crown one way or the other, Calla. Brennan would still be alive if you had simply chosen me instead of him. And now Matthias will die unnecessarily—along with all the other pitiful males in these trials—because you could never accept my hand.”

Sliding my eyes open, I shifted my chin toward him and pressed into his grip.

“Let me see my mate,” I commanded.

His eyes narrowed slightly, and I half-expected him to deny my request out of spite, but as I’d hoped, his need to boast won out. Sighing deeply, he pulled me away from the wall and dragged me into the other room. My legs nearly gave out at the sight of Matthias chained to a metal chair in the center, a large chunk of skin missing from between his shoulders—his tattoo, the one honoring his family, gone. More bile gathered when I realized it was his skin—and were those his fingernails?—on the ground near his feet.

“What did you do to him?” I whimpered, but my heart lit up when Matthias shifted and uttered a quiet groan.

Graham chuckled darkly in my ear. “You haven’t even seen the worst of it.” He shoved me away from him, and I barely kept from tumbling to the blood-splattered floor before I made it around to face my mate.

Dropping to my knees, my hands hovered over Matthias’s knees as I surveyed his injuries. Tears welled in my eyes, making it difficult to assess his condition. Below his swollen jawline, his chest rose and fell with slow, shallow breaths. My gaze trailed down his chest, and I nearly fell backwards in horror at the sight of blood still flowing from the wound in his gut.

Reaching for his face, I stroked his cheeks with my thumbs. “Matthias, I need you to wake up now. I need you to hold on, to stay with me.” His eyelids fluttered weakly but remained closed. Slowly, he leaned into one of my hands and released a hum of a sigh. “I hate you, general. Remember? You promised to take all of my hate, and I refuse to let you go back on your word.”

Matthias still didn’t look at me, but deep in my chest a wave of comforting love and refreshed hope poured in from our bond. Wincing as I lifted onto my knees, I pulled his head forward as far as I dared and pressed a kiss to his forehead.

Graham’s slow footsteps grated on my nerves, poking holes in my heart. “As sweet as this is, I’m afraid that’s all the time you’ll get together.” He paused, and in my periphery I noticed him wave his fingers in the air. Behind him, Ami walked in, dwarfed by the tall man from earlier standing beside her, dropping an unconscious Asher—now in his human form—to the ground.