As their bargain and the prophecy surfaced in her mind, guilt struck her all at once.
Shade. Her tethered, herimplexus, the one who waitedafter begging her to find him. After all the nights he saved her from her own terrors, this was how she repaid him. Having another man’s hands on her waist, staring into his eyes, contemplating kissing him—
It was unforgivable.
Like he read her thoughts, Destonne’s smile diluted. Blood streamed from his temples, dappled the water, and the thorns pressed against his flesh in a threat to tear free. As he retreated from her, an empty aching coldness took his place, and washed away the magical insanity of the moment. The spark in his eyes winked out, replaced by a strange medley of pain. Unable to watch, Emmery tore her gaze from him.
Destonne’s toned chest flexed in the moonlight as he lifted himself onto the shore. Emmery didn’t know what to say. Didn’t know how to filter what passed between them or make sense of it. And when he offered a hand up, she didn’t take it. Instead she swam to the shore, out of reach. He retracted slowly, a glimmer of hurt in his eyes as he stared at the strangled rose scarred into his palm. He traced it with his thumb like it hurt. As if the scar, their bargain, remained an unhealing sore.
Struck silent, Emmery watched from the water. Whatever that moment was could only be dangerous and wrong and forbidden.
But they’d been too distracted to notice the rustling in the bushes. Too entranced by each other to hear the slinking footsteps.
And by the time several rows of jagged teeth clamped around Destonne’s shoulder, it was too late.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
EMMERY
The canine’s jaws sank into the meat of Destonne’s shoulder, only narrowly missing his neck. Bloodthirsty as a shark caught in a feeding frenzy, the hound’s pupils engorged, relishing in the crunch of bone and snapping of tendons as its jaws tightened. Blood gushed like crushed grapes and soaked both Destonne and the beast’s maw. The hound’s crimson eyes, ravenous and vile and bloated with the promise of death, locked on Emmery. That stare snaked a vicious chill down her spine.
Her heart stilled and for the briefest of seconds, time seemed to stop entirely as no one moved. She and the hound remained ensnared in their battling eye contact, then, as if the beast brokethe laws of time and space with a single growl, it wrenched Destonne into the bushes.
Shock clogged Emmery’s throat. She lunged for the pond’s edge and scrambled onto the shore, damp earth caked beneath her fingernails. Gravel bit into the soles of her feet, as she surveyed the clearing for any other Hollowhounds. But she was alone.
Adrenaline spiked her veins like lightning and her blood sparked to life in response. Her magic hummed. Readied itself.
Aera soared down from the trees with a few anxious flaps of her wings, and joined at her side. The two shared a look, and the fox bared her fangs before she darted into the bushes.
Emmery’s saturated clothes weighed her down as she stumbled in the direction Destonne had been dragged. Her mind raced as she formed a plan. Because if she didn’t act now, and something happened to him, she would never forgive herself. She could take on one, two, maybe even three hounds, but she needed someone to watch her back and she had no idea if he would even hear her, but it was worth a shot.
“Brennen!” she hollered in the direction of Blackdawn Castle. Her heart thundered in her ears and her head twirled in a panicked spiral. “Brennen!”
Emmery waited a beat, but when the wolf didn’t appear, she swore under her breath and darted into the brush. She strained her ears to capture Destonne's disgruntled shouts from far in the woods. He had no magic, no weapon, and the hound had caught him completely off-guard. That bite wound would undoubtedly be deep. As she recalled how badly those rows of teeth had ripped into Callias, Emmery shuddered.
She wouldn’t let that happen.
So, Emmery sprinted, her feet slipping on the muddy ground, rocks cutting the soles of her feet. Flame erupted from her palms and her eyes burned as herkhaosflame took hold.
Far in the brush, Destonne’s roar chased the squelch of teeth tearing flesh. A yelp promptly followed, like he’d gotten a good swing on the beast.
Emmery followed his voice as a guiding rope in the shadows, even as branches ripped at her face, scratched her cheeks and arms, and blood pricked her stinging skin. But none of it mattered. None of it mattered if she couldn’t get to him before it was too late.
She easily caught up to Aera and the two ran alongside one another, determined and ready for blood. Sweat dripped from her brow and, panting, Emmery shoved herself through a thick wall of brush and emerged on the other side. Aera leapt and landed beside her, punctuated with a sassy flick of her tail.
Emmery took in the small clearing sheltered in a globe of yellowed leaves and twisted branches, before her attention darted to the enormous Hollowhound, easily the size of Brennen. It towered over Destonne’s sprawled form with its teeth poised over the King’s throat. The beast’s unnatural canine eyes slid and locked on her. Crimson streamed from its skinless maw, a mottled mix of both its own and Destonne’s.
Her blood iced over, but Emmery didn’t flinch.
No. She raised her chin and glared back.
It displayed its rows of teeth in a snarl before it stepped between her and Destonne. He’d definitely gotten in a couple good swings given how the hound's jaw hung at an unnatural angle though it didn’t seem to notice, not with the insatiable hunger that glowed in its eyes. But it seemed to be more concerned with the King than her.
In fact, it could have leapt at her, and didn’t.
The hound removed its paw from Destonne’s abdomen and he flopped over into a puddle of his own blood. The moonlight illuminated his shoulder—a wet mess of flesh and red. At least his chest rose with breath though each grew increasingly ragged.
Rage, unfiltered madness that sprouted from a shadowed part of her heart, roared to life. She glared at the hound and reached for her magic, ready to roast this fucker. As Emmery raised her hand, her flame called to her, lapping playfully at her fingertips.Kill,consume, feast, it sang in a sickly intoxicating tune. It thrived off her anger like a searing inferno.