Page 60

IRIS

Simms and Tan are waiting for us in the tunnel to hell. I’m ready to apologize for wasting time, but Tan’s lips are more swollen than mine.

I guess we all needed a few minutes.

I clear my throat. “How far are we from the lich?”

“Hard to tell,” Simms says, shifting his feet through the loosened rock.

“There’s a cave system. Feels pretty twisty, but I can punch through walls, and that death aura is like a fucking beacon.

I’ll drop us vertical here, and we can track the rest of the way through the caves.

But what happens when we meet the monster? ”

He turns to me. So does Tan.

Vhex and Remy don’t have to turn—they never stopped looking.

A shiver rolls down my spine.

I’m not going to let them down.

Luckily, I know everything about liches.

“We’ll face the lich king’s guardians,” I begin. “They’ll be stronger as we move closer to the lich king’s host body. Trolls. Wyverns. Sentinels.” I shudder. That’s just the start . “Expect to be reunited with all the monsters whose corpses you didn’t burn.”

Vhex huffs for attention.

I pat his horn. “I know. You burned yours.”

Thank the stars . His hellfire may have halved the number of enemies in our path.

“Simms will slow the mobs,” Remy says, rolling a shadow between his long fingers. “I’ll bind and decapitate those that can be killed. Trezzoran?—”

“Admit it,” he interrupts with a devilish grin. “You’d be fucked without my fire.”

“Vhex.” Just a touch of his hot, toned forearm, and Vhex’s full focus slingshots to me.

“Iris,” he says huskily.

His soul clings as if one drop of my attention is better than anything else in the world.

It makes me want to cling back.

It makes me want to believe that his obsession is more than just a passing wind.

I love the texture of his horn—diamond hard but velvet smooth. Its ridges tease my fingers. When I stroke to the base, silky pieces of dark, raspberry hair brush my skin like fur.

“We’d be fucked without your fire,” I admit softly, letting myself indulge in a few deep strokes with fingers and silks.

Not just any power can destroy a lich’s soul and soul-vessels.

Hellfire is one of the few that can. “I need you to ash anything that moves. Try to stop the lich’s soul from hopping hosts. ”

Vhex tongues his fang. His eyes do that lava-lamp swirl, half red, half pink, burning so intensely that my lips dry out.

He rubs his horn deeper into my palm and purrs. “I’ll melt you first.”

Someone gags.

I turn just as Tan covers the sound with a cough. “Sorry. It’s dusty down here.”

Taking back my fingers, I move both hands to my glaive where they won’t get me into more trouble.

Stop fucking needy monster men in caves.

That’s the behavior that got us into this situation.

Simms plucks the back of Tan’s coat, dragging the Guide protectively into his arms.

“Mobs can be crushed,” Simms offers, “but what the fuck are we doing about the king lich?”

I glance at Remy. “Do you remember how Azrid Supreme tricked the lich into those chains?”

A shadow tendril curled around my arm shakes its tip back and forth to say nope, nada .

“If I ever knew, the memories are fractured,” Remy continues. “But given the powdered dragon bone and the strength of the arrays still holding on below, the royal family would’ve played a role.”

The information isn’t super helpful, but at least his short-term memory is holding.

If Remy stays lucid and I can keep Vhex on his leash, we may have more chance of winning than I thought.

“Don’t destroy any working arrays,” I say with a pointed glance at Vhex. “We’ll gather any enchanted chains that survived and aim to keep the king bound. Hellfire can burn its body, but we don’t want to force out its soul.”

That’s the danger with a lich.

It’ll keep soul-jumping.

My warning glance swings to Remy. “The lich wanted your body before it went after Kevan’s. Don’t leave my side in case it tries to take you again.”

I reach for his hand.

His skin is pale, almost translucent, with dark blue veins peeking through instead of the pure black of his vampire transformation. I expect his touch to be cool, but our temperatures match.

There’s no sense of separation when Remy curls our fingers.

It’s like we’re part of the same whole.

“I wouldn’t dare,” he murmurs.

I’m still gripping my glaive. Since Vhex can’t grab my hand, he takes my whole arm.

“You can’t send me away.” Vhex bites into my shoulder.

I jerk against his teeth.

His fang presses deep, just shy of breaking of skin.

I feel the need rattling between his scrambled thoughts.

He wants to mark.

A shiver flows like custard down my spine.

Breathing through the feeling, I grip his hair to yank him off. His fang holds on with a stubborn pinch. His aura fucking sparkles, begging me to make him let go.

I snap my teeth to stop a groan.

“Did I give you permission to bite?” I try to sound stern but end with a breathy growl.

Vhex’s hot chuckle hits my shoulder.

Instead of letting go, he licks my fang-pinched skin.

“Enough,” I straight-up snarl. Shifting my grip, I dig my nails into the base of his horn, at that sensitive spot where its hardness melts into skin.

Vhex’s body trembles so wildly that his jaw pulses like a hinge.

Losing the grip of his teeth, he sags against my shoulder. “ Fuuuuuuuck .”

Fuck is right.

It’s my fault.

He’s not trained well enough.

“Focus,” I say a little softer. “I need you ready to fight.” I loosen my nails and gently tease the horn-skin I just scratched. “Didn’t you want to earn a reward?”

“Please. Iris .”

His soul-silks divide, splitting finer and finer, desperate to cling to me tighter and tighter, touching me in as many places and ways as they can.

At this point, I kind of have to admit.

I am clinging back.

Shadows tug, blocking Vhex from taking more than his share. Remy’s growl sounds deceptively soft as he licks the other side of my throat.

While they un-subtly fight for territory in my body and soul, I finally catch the view straight ahead.

Simms leans over Tan’s shoulders. Tan holds onto the Sentinel’s forearms, but the way he’s watching us fool around, he may as well be clutching a popcorn bucket.

I shrug the guys off. “Start digging.”

While they drag their feet, I jerk my chin at Tan.

He and Simms trade quick kisses and whispers. Then Tan follows me to stand against the wall.

With Simms draped all over him, Tan had a lazy posture. Now he stands fully alert. He wears a thin sword at his hip and dagger hilts peek from underneath his cape.

The sloped tunnel isn’t very wide, but when Tan and I step off to the side, the Sentinels’ brains mostly come back online.

They communicate in glares and pulses of psychic chatter that I can feel but can’t hear.

Tan chuckles and drops his voice to a surly impersonation. “Crazy bastards. Stay the fuck out of my way and let me get this shit drilled.”

I choke.

Tan’s voice is much softer than a Sentinel’s, but he nails Simms’s gravelly tone.

“You’re good.” I sigh.

Voice-dubbing moody Sentinels is the favorite hobby of Guides forced to stand at the side. It’s a way to bond and de-stress, but I’ve never been invited to the game.

I wasn’t welcome to chit-chat in the Deathguard. Even if I’d forced myself into the group, the only Sentinel I could’ve spoken for was Kevan.

That would be mocking the duke.

No way in hell.

Tan’s eyebrows lift as he turns, waiting for my reply.

A giddy tingle flows under my skin.

Tan isn’t afraid of me. I wouldn’t say that he likes me, but I’ve saved his life and seen him fucked upside down, so we’re at least on cordial terms?

Vhex and Remy don’t care about being mocked.

As long as it’s me, they’ll like the attention.

I watch Remy. He waves a dismissive hand at their psychic conversation, and shadows scatter in its wake.

“Fool,” I mimic Remy’s haughtiest prince-of-the-night voice, trying to mix in a touch of his sexy laziness. “Do I have to teach you how to dig a hole?”

Vhex is rolling his eyes while sneaking glances at our corner.

I puff my chest, trying to hit sulky and belligerent, all wrapped up in irresistible smoke. “Fuck all this. I just wanna bite my wife.”

Tan whistles softly. “Is that how they sound?”

“Isn’t it?” I think my take was pretty accurate?

“No. At least, not to me,” he says and shudders. “Major Azrid usually gives more, ‘ die peasant ’ and Duke Trezzoran… I’ve actually never heard him speak until now. I heard him cackle once. He was covered in wyvern entrails.”

It hurts that Vhex and Remy have been so damaged for so long that no one even knows who they are.

But also?

I chew my lip, trying not to grin.

I like that only I know.

Only I can know.

They’re treating me differently.

I like that the most.

“Brace yourself,” Tan warns. “He’s starting.”

I turn back to Simms.

The earth-type Sentinel isn’t wearing his jacket. In just an undershirt, his bulky arms are bared. He spreads his palms. Yellowy earth magic ripples, and Simms controls the shape into a spinning drill.

The pulse of power rattles my teeth.

Simms is stronger than I expected.

If we botch our plan, I bet he can collapse most of the cave system. As long as he escapes, he can warn everyone on the surface.

I hope they run.

We deserve to stay dead after we die.

I shiver.

At the first drop of anxiety, Vhex and Remy spin.

Godsdamnit.

I can’t shut down my nerves without shutting down our connection. I won’t risk another tug-of-war with the lich.

“It’s fine,” I reassure them as I smooth their silks. “I won’t let anything happen.” Not to you or anyone else.

Tan mutters something.

His voice is lost to the roar when Simms’s magic drill attacks the rock.

“What did you say?” I half-shout.

Vhex and Remy help the dig. Remy’s shadows scoop rubble from Simms’s pile, then Vhex melts the scattered rocks into cherry-red clay and flicks it down to strengthen the walls of the widening chute at their feet.

“Nothing, Commander,” Tan says, stiffening.

“You can call me Iris.” My title will be stripped soon enough. I’d rather have friends than titles.

“Iris.” Tan’s head rocks from side to side as he wrestles with himself. Finally, he pushes out a breath. “Can I ask a personal question?”

“Sure?”

Tan squints. “How come I never heard of you at the academy?”

“Private education.” I read a lot of guiding theory books, got a few tutors when I turned out stronger than the Ashbournes expected, then filled in my knowledge gaps in live battle.

It worked out. I’m still here.

“So that’s why.”

“Why what?”

“You’re like… That ” he makes a vague wave that encompasses my whole body.

I tighten my grip on my glaive. Maybe we’re not as cordial as I thought . “Just say what you want to say, Tan.”

“I don’t know how to explain.” He takes a step closer and makes a face. I feel a slight flutter as he brushes me with his power. “You don’t have any sense of the hierarchy?”

“What do you mean?” I casually meet his energy with a thread of soul-silk.

He jumps away from me like a startled cat and backs himself against the rough-hewn wall.

“ That’s what I mean,” Tan says, rubbing his arms through his coat.

“You’re that strong. Did you slap the emperor?

I can’t think of any other reason you’re not protected under fifty layers of arrays, wearing the pharos badge while desperate imperial Sentinels fight for the chance to suck your toes. ”

My feet curl in my boots. No, thank you . “I’d be more likely to guide them if they asked the normal way.”

Tan mock sighs. “What a waste of talent.”

I shrug.

The conversation can’t continue, anyway. The earth-drill roars between Simms’s hands.

Loud and fast will have to work.

The lich king’s power hangs so thick, we never had a chance of sneaking up on him.

My ears hum when the sound finally cuts.

Tan and I join the Sentinels around the rim of the fresh pit. It’s black and misty with spectral energy.

A chill rises through my feet.

“There’s a straight drop into the caves,” Simms says, pulling Tan close.

“Can anyone sense anything?” I stretch my soul-silks as far as I dare, but after a few chilly feet, I hit some kind of magical wall.

“Nothing,” Remy says. “My shadows are blocked.”

Vhex sneers down the hole. “He’s down there. Fucking bastard is suppressing my bloodline.”

“Can you still fight?” I ask.

Vhex laughs. “It’s just a corpse. I’ll teach him a lesson.”

Right.

Nothing could stop Vhex from fighting.

I strap my glaive to its loop on my pack, freeing myself to take Vhex and Remy’s hands.

They clasp back, warming my fingers.

I move to the edge of the hole. “We’ll go first.”

Tan nods. “Be careful.”

Two very different souls coil around me, unafraid. Their wings follow—one set velvety black, the other made of flames that light the walls below.

The pit is too narrow for them to unfurl. Instead, their wings curl protectively around my shoulders.

Together, we jump into the dark.