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CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

SAM

He did it.

He actually did it.

Everest betrayed Lilith and Sweyn, and then left. He was official with The Coven on Team Heaven. It hadn’t fully sunk in yet somehow. I’d known it was coming eventually, but apparently I hadn’t truly believed I’d see it with my own eyes. Not that Everest was all talk, but . . . fuck me, he did it. He really did it.

And I could have gone with him, I’d had the chance. I’d known it was coming. The second Sweyn announced The Coven had entered the Land of the Lore, Everest’s team had schemed up a plan. This was to be it, the night they broke free. They’d had maybe minutes to decide before we all went into that dreadful forest. I was still shocked at how smoothly it’d all gone down too.

He’d told me what the signal was and where to be when he gave it. I could have been there. I could have fled this prison and declared my truth, but I’d chosen to remain here. A decision I knew I’d loop on over and over and over. Had I done the right thing? I knew my reasoning for staying in Avolire, however I knew it was also crazy and most likely suicidal. I’d never thought of myself as an extremely selfless person, not that I was selfish by any means, but never would I have predicted this level of selfless sacrifice from myself.

I suppose in the face of true evil a person sees their own reflection properly.

The moment Everest’s magic dropped and he was dragged into the Seelie tunnel, Sweyn had started screaming. The Unseelie Prince had leveled several rows of pine trees with his magic. Play the part, Sam. Act devastated and betrayed. If you’re gonna stay with her, play for her. That was what Tegan had said into my mind right as the Seelie tunnel closed in our faces. And one day I’d have to repay her for it. I’d been so stunned to watch it all go down that I’d forgotten I needed to act a certain way. Espionage was hard. The second he was gone, I’d wailed and dropped to my knees in the dirt. I’d even let out a few screams of my own just to play my part.

Pierce, bless his heart, he actually tried to flee with them. Yet Sweyn hadn’t given him the proper chance. When Everest had her in that magic chokehold, Sweyn had sent her own magic into Pierce to siphon his energy for herself to fight off Everest. My first order of business from here was to get Pierce the hell out of Avolire and away from Sweyn. As soon as possible. I had no idea when or how that would happen, but I’d make sure it did. I even had half a mind to find that ex-girlfriend of his and punish her a second time for what she’d done to that sweet, golden boy.

The Land of the Lore was done. Gone. Destroyed by the male who’d held it together for centuries, the one who’d held the leash on Sweyn’s actions. As I stepped over the ruins of the forest, I replayed Everest’s magic in my mind. I’d never seen anything like that from him. He’d definitely been holding out on us.

Pierce let out a shaky sigh beside me. “ What do we do now? ” he whispered.

Avolire stood just ahead, looking pristine in the heaps of snow as usual. I licked my lips and tried to keep my voice smooth. “Keep your head down, keep out of their beds, and when I say run, you run. Got it?”

He groaned. “Run with me.”

“I fear that won’t be a possibility, Pierce.” I reached over and squeezed his hand, reveling in the soft warmth of his skin. I was growing rather attached to the soft-hearted Brit. “But I will get out as soon as I can.”

He nodded, those red and green eyes dark and haunted. “I don’t know how to be around her now.”

“You’re not Lilith’s grandchild, you are allowed to be afraid.” I squeezed his hand tighter. “It might actually keep her blind.”

“Sam, I just?—”

A loud, high-pitched shriek ripped through the snow-covered lawn from inside the castle. The walls trembled, the glass windows rattling against the frames. The snow stacked up against the castle shook, little chunks rolling off. An explosion rattled the walls and then the glass windows of the ballroom exploded into shards.

Sweyn’s screams echoed through the trees.

Pierce and I glanced to each other and then hurried inside before she questioned our delay in arrival. We slipped in through a broken window and hid behind one of the columns near the doors to the ballroom. Vampires lined the walls and huddled behind furniture. Sweyn was on a rampage. She charged through the room, picking up furniture and ripping it to shreds. She smashed one of the columns on the far side, causing part of the ceiling to collapse. With a shriek, she hoisted chunks of marble and stone, then slammed them into the white marble floors, shattering them like glass.

A male with white and red eyes, the mark of a born vampire, hurried to her side with his hands raised. “My lady?—”

Sweyn screamed and plunged her nails into his throat. I looked away, burying my face in Pierce’s shoulder. The vampire bellowed but only for a second before his voice gurgled out. Several other vampires gasped sharply, bringing my attention back to them just as they leapt out of her way. Her arms were drenched in blood up to her elbows, dripping rivers from her fingers onto the floor as she moved. She shouted and dove for them, reaching blindly and grabbing whomever had the unfortunate luck of being too close to her.

Pierce gagged, then dragged us farther back into the room, clinging to the shadows.

The ballroom doors flew open and slammed against the walls, the hinges breaking under the force. The Unseelie Prince stormed inside, his black hair shining vibrantly against his now tan skin. “SWEYN!”

But she ignored him. She just kept screaming and cursing. She raced to her own throne and started ripping chunks of glass apart with her bare hands. Words left her lips, but they were too high-pitched to recognize, and I was fairly certain she’d spoken in Unseelie language. She bellowed with rage and threw the glass chunks of her throne, which had to be the size of her head, into the walls. White marble exploded into dust, little chunks dropping to the floor.

“ SWEYN! ” the Prince snarled. Those new eyes of his sent chills down my spine. They were yellow but the pupils were narrow, vertical slits almost like a cat’s.

Azazel let out a bored sigh, then pretended to look at a watch he wasn’t wearing. He pushed off the column he’d been leaning on. “I have more pressing places to be.”

And then he was gone.

I looked to the other fallen angels and frowned. They all just stared at our Vampire Queen with blank expressions. Asmodeus and his Reuelle shook their heads, wrapped their arms around each other’s bodies, and strolled out the now open wall. The female named Soneillon looked down her sharp nose with red eyes full of disgust. I scanned her skin for the runes on her body, the black ones that glowed red when she was using her power, but the runes were black. That meant all this rage was of Sweyn’s own making. Soneillon flicked her black hair over her shoulder, causing her red horns to poke out. She rolled her red eyes, then sauntered out through the ballroom doors. Mammon and Astaroth looked to each other with bored expressions and shrugged before turning and flying away.

Sweyn narrowed her red eyes on the spot where all the fallen angels had been standing and growled, crumbling glass into glittery dust in her fists.

“You are an embarrassment,” the Prince snarled.

Sweyn’s upper lip curled back to reveal a long fang. “There are plenty more fallen angels where they came from?—”

“And I’m sure you’ll embarrass us just the same with them,” the Prince snapped, his eyes flashing. The flush on his cheeks was new and it was unbearably hot on him. “How you were put in charge here is beyond me.”

“I am Queen ?—”

“You are a figurehead!” he yelled, his magic coiling in his hands.

Sweyn screamed. Everest had said those exact words to her not long ago.

“You are some Queen, dear Sister. You’ve managed to fail repeatedly, and yet Lilith has allowed you to remain on your ice throne.” He threw his hand out toward what used to be the Land of the Lore. “Now you’ve lost our best asset. Lilith will be furious ? —”

“ If Lilith herself didn’t see her son’s betrayal coming, how was I supposed to? ” Sweyn shrieked.

The Prince looked down his nose at her in disgust. “Perhaps if you had stayed out of his bed, you would’ve used your mind a little better.”

I gasped. Pierce straightened. The other vampires took a step back.

The Prince spun on his toes and marched for the doors he’d broken on his way in.

Sweyn growled so loud the whole room trembled. “ Where are you going? ” she growled.

“To salvage what we have left.”