Beside her, Fionn whispered, “Calamity take me.”
Her world narrowed on Destonne. On his flawless face, his gaze on the ground, and those black clothes that made him soveryDez.A magnificent, deep crimson vestige swathed him and—
It was the most glorious thing she had ever seen.
As Dez raised his hand, the blood licked off him and gathered into a smattering of crimson mist. He suspended it in the air, and then, with a flick of his wrist, cast it back into the mire.
Then his eyes met hers.
His footing faltered, and he stumbled, his gaze one she had seen many times but hadn’t known the meaning. Not until now. Inside her, sunlight flickered, heated, blazed, and chased away all her shadows as his steps sped. As he raced toward her, the blood sloshed under his boots.
Her heart chantedmine, mine, mine,before it stopped entirely. Everything else faded away until it was only them. And her magic breathed—finally,my sanctuary, my rapture, my peace.It sighed a deep, heavy relief and hummed one single word like a hymn,until it simmered in her blood.
Home.
The ground trembled under his feet and the cavern quaked from his raw, unfettered power. It sang inside her, too, icy and swelling and delicious.
As he stepped ashore, Dez stared at her as if she were the sun and moon and all the godsdamned stars in the sky. He didn’t glance at Fionn or Brennen.
No, his attention all belonged to her.
And fuck it, she wanted it all. Craved it like air. Sustenance. Life itself.
For a moment, they both gazed at one another, unable to speak, unable to voice what they both felt. What the bond overflowed with. What was there and had been all along, and now that she’d tasted it, she was starved for it.
He slowly, too achingly slowly, reached for her. She stepped toward him, accepting his hand like his offer of the rose all those months ago.
It was her surrender.
Her white flag.
Because she was so damn tired of fighting this.
Of telling herself she didn’t want him. That she didn’t love him. That she wasn’t more herself with him than anyone else.
Their fingers had only brushed, when the cavern shook. The ground trembled and stalactites rattled.
Destonne’s head snapped up, and his face fell, whatever flooded his eyes just for her gone in an instant.
From within the nearby trees, a slew of creatures emerged. Their high-pitched wails filled the cavern, their footfalls shook the earth, and icy fear shot down Emmery’s spine and prickled the back of her neck.
In a flash, Fionn seized his bow, Brennen spun, teeth bared, and Emmery’s flame leapt to her fingertips. Beside her, a century’s worth of pent-up rage swelled Dez’s vestige and hummed the tune of victory.
The creatures were almost human, with mottled flecks of flesh peeking through thick, thorny vines, black and sharp like those of Destonne’s crown. But unlike Dez, the vines had completely claimed their bodies. They screamed through gaping mouths ripped from cheek to cheek, their jaws hanging open like mutilated gourds.
Emmery glanced between the men the second before chaos erupted.
Before the beasts charged.
Brennen surged first. He tackled two of the creatures to the ground and pinned them beneath two mighty paws. His jaws clamped around their limbs and tore vine from bone. Black blood spurted, reeking of wet wood and rot and death.
With an elegant arc of his arm, Fionn seized an arrow and notched it in his bow. He barely aimed before he let it fly. With a thunk, it landed square in a creature’s face. The abomination staggered backward, but shook its head and proceeded, limping as its limbs twisted, unnatural and grotesque.
And as if their minds were truly linked, Emmery and Destonne stepped in line with one another. She threw him a smug look before she raised her hands andunleashed.
Her magic barrelled through her, a plague of golden flame that licked up and devoured those vines, filling the cavern with the sound of crackling wood and snapping bone. And she leaned into it, the release too damn good as her veins hummed. Destonne’s eyes fell closed as the pulse of his vestige became a drum, a battle song, and raw, unrestrained power bled from him.
His magic erupted. Twin powers of obsidian ice and blood twined in an unmatched force. And it utterlyshreddedthe creatures. He ripped the blood from their bodies, suspended it in the air as a fine black mist before he funnelled it, moulded it, shaped it, and shot it back at them like a geyser. The creatures staggered but didn’t have time to fall before black ice crept over them, leaving them turgid and lifeless.