Page 176

A dric had resigned himself to dying. He’d never surrender Merry in return for his own life.

But gods, it hurt to die leaving Rosana still trapped at New Moon. He had to believe that her brothers and Cleia would get her away from the prince.

Then Rosana made her offer. Let Adric live, and she’d join Langdon’s court as a Seer.

No. Fucking. Way.

Adric’s muscles bunched. If only he had his quartz… But without it, he couldn’t shift—or cloak himself.

Langdon’s gaze went past Rosana to a point behind Adric. His smile made Adric’s insides ice.

“Marjani Savonett.” The prince deliberately spoke her full name in an attempt to establish power over her. “Welcome to my court.”

Adric flung a look over his shoulder in time to see his sister enter the circle along with Luc and Blaer. And instead of helping her, Luc gripped her arm, urging her forward.

“No, Jani!” he said in a low, urgent voice. “Get the fuck out of here.”

Blaer came up on Marjani’s other side. A chill slipped up Adric’s spine. This woman knew the secret incantation. If she shared it with Langdon, his clan was well-and-truly fucked. With Blaer’s knowledge and Langdon’s resources, the night fae could enslave every single member.

Horror gripped him as he recalled Rosana’s prophecy.

The Darktime isn’t over. The prince will destroy your clan from the inside out.

“Peace to you and yours, my lord.” The tall blond fae lady bowed to Langdon. “I apologize for interrupting the ritual, but I believe you’ve been looking for this woman.”

No.

Adric bucked wildly, fighting to get free of the night fae pinning him down.

Neoma tightened her grip on his pendant. The pain was almost unbearable, but he gritted his teeth and kept fighting. He had to get free. Had to somehow stop this.

The prince jerked his head at Marjani. “Take her,” he commanded.

Twisting away from Luc, Marjani dropped into a crouch, a dagger in each hand. Two warriors broke from the circle to approach her, their own blades out, but she slashed about her, keeping them at bay.

At the same time, Luc saw Adric pinned down in the center of the circle. He growled and started forward.

“No.” Blaer slapped a hand on his chest.

Luc halted. He sent a shamed look at Adric. At his sides, his fingers flexed and unflexed.

Then Rosana grabbed Langdon’s hands. As her fingers closed around his, her body jolted and her braid lifted. The tie wrapped around the end slid off and the plait unwound itself to twist around her face in a sinuous black cloud.

“The old ways are no more,” she said in a low, eerie voice. “Change is coming.”

Everyone in the clearing froze, even the warriors attempting to capture Marjani.

Rosana moistened her lips. “Merry,” she said in a scratchy voice.

“Yes?” Langdon turned his hands so he was gripping her. “What do you See?”

“Merry’s a princess.” She faltered. “I See a crown.”

“Go on,” he urged.

“Your granddaughter will rule. But not in darkness. In light.”

The prince’s diamond-studded brows snapped together.

Rosana’s slender body shook. Adric could hardly bear to watch her, but she’d drawn everyone’s attention. Even the men trying to corral Marjani were distracted.

Now was his chance to get his quartz back.

“And you,” she told the prince. “Your life is a fine-spun web. Tear the wrong thread and you’re dead. Deus , no.” Her breath sobbed in.

Langdon’s handsome face hardened. “What?”

Rosana shook her head and tried to pull her hands away, but he tightened his grip on her. “Tell me, damn you!”

“Death,” Rosana whispered. “Death to your line…at the new ruler’s hand.”

“What new ruler?”

Rosana snatched her hands from the prince’s, backed away. He reached for her and then checked as if she’d burned him.

Her body shimmered as if lit from inside by starlight. The night fae shrank from her. She swung around, pointed.

“Her. Lady Blaer.”

Blaer straightened. “You lie,” she hissed. “You’d do anything to escape.” She motioned Luc forward. “Kill her. Kill the river fada.”

Luc’s hands fisted but he didn’t move.

Blaer grabbed his quartz, squeezed. “I said, Kill her .”

Luc growled, eyes wild. The man was near the breaking point—and Blaer either didn’t know or didn’t care.

The night fae pinning Adric down were still intent on the drama. He forced his body to relax completely, and as he’d hoped, their grip on him loosened.

Now.

Jerking out of their hold, Adric lunged at Neoma, ripping the pendant from her hand and dropping it over his head.

His body shuddered with relief at having his quartz back.

As the guards dove for him, he drew on its power with everything he had, leaping straight up so they passed beneath him—and shifted while he was still in mid-air.

He lost precious seconds during the change. When he came back to himself, he was a cougar, his clothes in shreds around him. The warriors tried again to grab him, but with a slash of his claws, he was free.

Luc had apparently started for Rosana at Blaer’s command, but Marjani had put herself between them. The two men who’d been trying to capture her were on the ground, bleeding from multiple wounds.

“No, Luc. You can’t! She’s his mate.”

“Get out of the way,” Luc said in a dull voice.

“No.” Marjani took a fighting stance, daggers at the ready. “You want to kill her, you’ll have to go through me.”

Adric went invisible. The three warriors circling him swore. One of them shot a fae ball at the spot where he’d been standing, but he’d already slipped between two of them. He reached Rosana right as she came out of her trance.

She glanced around, blinking. “Adric?” she asked on a rising note of fear—and collapsed to the ground.

In an instant, he was standing over her, ready to protect her at all costs.

He nuzzled Rosana’s neck, sending reassurance through their bond. To his relief, her eyelids fluttered and then opened.

“You’re here,” she whispered, sinking her fingers into his fur.

He rumbled in response.

“What—?” Her gaze went past him and Marjani to Luc. She sucked in a breath and tried to stand but could only manage to bring herself to sitting. She leaned against Adric, lungs working, face as drawn as if she’d run a marathon.

Luc’s claws slid out. “Don’t make me hurt you,” he told Marjani in flat, emotionless tones. “Just get the fuck out of the way.”

“ No .” She jabbed a dagger at him, forcing him to back off. “I won’t let you do this.”

Langdon stalked toward Blaer. Adric could almost see the prince recalling his earlier insinuation—that Blaer had manipulated events so Adric could assassinate him.

“A Seer in the grip of a vision doesn’t lie,” Langdon stated. He seemed to grow taller, darker as he spoke.

Blaer licked her lips. “She’s a fada Seer,” she said with a scornful glance at Rosana. “Who knows what she can do?” She looked at Luc. “I gave you an order—kill Rosana do Rio. If the Savonett woman is in the way, then kill her, too.”

Luc’s irises turned pure wolf, twin orange embers in the dark clearing. He glanced from Blaer to Marjani, and then he withdrew his claws and turned away. “No.”

Blaer cast him an incredulous look. “What did you say?”

“No,” Luc repeated.

Blaer lunged. “I said, Kill them both. Now!” She squeezed Luc’s quartz, her lips moving, adding the power of the incantation to the geas .

Luc jolted and dropped to his knees, his body a man, his scent all wolf. He was seconds from going feral, and Blaer either didn’t know, or she just didn’t care. He dropped his head back and howled at the sky, a sad, lost song that had even the night fae tensing.

Blaer bent with him, tightening her grip on his quartz. “Kill. Them. Both.”

It was a fatal mistake. Luc had accepted the geas to save Marjani’s life. By ordering him to kill Marjani, the fae lady had broken their bargain, releasing Luc from the geas .

Luc tore off his clothes and shifted. Blaer went stick-still as the brown wolf’s fierce, half-mad growls filled the clearing. She threw up her hands and began to call on some other kind of magic, but it was too late. Luc sprang, slamming her to the ground.

With a muttered incantation, the prince raised a long-fingered hand. The leaves and twigs scattered around the clearing levitated off the ground and streamed toward Luc and Blaer.

The other night fae edged to the clearing’s outskirts, giving the prince a wide berth.

Marjani inched back to stand by Rosana. A brief caress of Adric’s back told him that she knew he was there, too, but her gaze was glued on Luc and Blaer and the debris swirling around them.

“What the fuck?” she breathed.

A twig formed itself into a wolf that knocked Luc off Blaer, tossing him three yards away before falling back to the ground, a twig again. Langdon rotated his wrist and the other leaves spiraled around Blaer, faster and faster, before morphing into ravens that flew around her in tight circles.

Blaer scrambled to her feet, but it was too late. She was enclosed inside a living cage of ravens.

Luc got off the ground and gave himself a shake. He bounded back to Blaer, lips peeled in a furious snarl—and then stopped short. He prowled around the circling birds, searching for a way to get at Blaer.

She locked gazes with Langdon. “You want a fight, my lord?” Her chin jutted. “You forget I’m half ice fae.”

“No,” was the prince’s reply. “I haven’t forgotten.”

The ravens’ harsh caws filled the clearing.

Blaer raised her hands. Frost crept up Langdon’s shoes.

He flicked a finger and the birds dove, pecking at her eyes and face. She shrieked and dropped to her knees, arms flung up to protect herself.

At a murmur from Langdon, the ravens backed off but continued to twine around Blaer so she was forced to remain crouched on the ground.

Luc crept closer, eyes burning.

She tossed her head, the cuts on her face already healing. “Go,” she told him bitterly. “The geas is broken. You have your freedom.”

But he didn’t leave. Instead, he paced a circle around her, not attacking the ravens, but clearly guarding her.