Page 82 of The Frost Witch (The Covenants of Velora #1)

GARRICK

You cannot have her.

The words screamed through my head as I opened my eyes. I felt them with every beat of the heart that no longer belonged to me.

You cannot have her. That was what I’d tried to scream at my father and the evil witch whose favor he’d courted. But he’d stolen the words from my mouth, cutting off my ability to speak. Cutting me off at the legs, the way he’d been doing for years.

Why waste time on a bastard when you finally have a legitimate son?

But all grievances against my father faded in comparison to the one that truly mattered. He’d taken Koryn.

I would kill him.

I’d dreamed about it since the moment my magic awakened. But concern for my mother had always stayed my hand. Our deal was now done—my mother was free. And I was free to make him pay.

Night had fallen while I lay unconscious in the gorge. The priestess and her acolytes were nowhere to be seen. She’d decided to take that vow of impartiality seriously all of a sudden.

I did not need their help. Not yet. But if I did, I would have no scruples about going into the temple and begging for their allegiance. I would prostrate myself before the altars of each of the Seven Gods. I would do whatever it took to get my bonded back.

Nothing mattered now except for Koryn.

I scrubbed a hand down my face, trying to clear away the cobwebs of unconsciousness.

A twinge of pain came from my mouth as I scraped my hand over it. My lip was split. Someone had gotten in a few kicks while I was unconscious. But already it was half-healed, the fae blood in my veins doing its magical work.

They could kick me and beat me, split my lips and break my bones. They could peel my skin from my body. But if they laid a hand on Koryn, I would kill them all.

I’d entered the temple to save my mother. I’d played their games at the Mercy Gate. But despite the head witch’s rantings, things had not gone perfectly according to their plan. They had underestimated my frost witch.

They saw her emotions as weaknesses. I knew it was her indomitable spirit. They waited for her power to fail. But I’d only seen her grow stronger.

Koryn was going to tear the fae court at Balar Shan apart—and my place was at her side while she did. That was what it meant to love someone.

She may never forgive me. I hardly deserved it after what I’d done.

But I would reunite her with her familiar, hand her the tools to break their shackles, and applaud while she dismantled the ancient powers of Velora brick by brick.

I ignored the bruises that peppered my body and the wound they’d used for their blood magic.

They’d heal. In the meantime, they would be a reminder through every wingbeat that carried me north to Balar Shan.

I’d broken the heart that Koryn believed dead.

I would spend the rest of my life—be it mortal or immortal—repenting.

I checked my weapons. They had not taken my bow—arrogant fae fools.

Everything was in order, despite my entire world being completely twisted on its axis.

But it had been like that ever since I’d watched Koryn wield her frost power in Canmar.

My world had shifted, and now it revolved around her.

That was my worst memory—the one where I’d known that I would hurt her and I moved forward anyway.

I’d watched her in my raven form from atop the general store as she subdued the two men. Then again, as she’d faced off with her sister witch and retreated to a cold hay loft. By the time she entered the temple, shoving aside the girl and taking her place, I knew their plan was doomed to fail.

Koryn was an immortal witch with a human heart that had never forgotten how to love. She was a light in the darkness of Velora. If three hundred and seventy-seven years had not been enough to corrupt her, they would not turn her now.

The Lifebind on my wrist burned, protesting the distance between us. I’d be faster in my raven form.

But before I could shift, the air around me changed. I felt the pulse of power and magic, a unique combination that belonged to neither witch nor fae, but to the creators themselves.

The Dark God appeared before me in a swirl of sparkling night. They called his gate the Unknown Gate, for who could begin to fathom the dark, eternal vastness of hell itself.

He stood before me, arms crossed over his chest, dark hair waving on a nonexistent wind, glaring at me with the force of a thousand brutal, gruesome deaths. There could only be one reason for this god to appear.

She’d tried to hide his mark. But I’d seen every inch of her in those torturous weeks after the Devotion Gate. My knowledge of runes was rudimentary, but I knew Koryn. I knew the shape and power of her heart, more meaningful than the frost that lived beneath her skin.

There was only one reason for the Dark God to mark her in that way. Among all of his creations, he’d singled out the witch whose power to love was even greater than the power he’d bestowed upon her. He knew just how remarkable she was.

Good. So did I.

I’d chosen to love her even knowing what she owed to the Dark God. I would always choose her.

“I am going to get her,” I said.

His cruel black eyes did not shift, his countenance truly impenetrable. Nothing less than I would expect from the king of hell.

The temperature around us dropped, the darkness of the night pressing in from every direction. The shadows themselves answered to him, I realized.

He lifted one brow at me. “Tell me more about how you plan to save our bonded.”

THE END

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