Page 265 of What Lies Within Blood & Heirs

The very blood in Garrik’s body betrayed him. Every nerve and muscle and vein turned against his will. Garrik cried out as unimaginable pain surged through him. As that blood forced his hand from her neck. And he turned on himself.

Garrik fell to his knees as his fingers hovered over his chest. Pressing deep, cracking through the cavity, until he couldfeelhis heart pumping against his fingertips. Unable to stop it—his hand squeezed and squeezed and squeezed.

Bloodflecting.The same power Ladomyr had used in the collars.

The female’s grin slithered into something hellish. All-consuming, evil, and depraved, as the male who had raised him stepped into sea-misted sunlight.

Unable to do anything more than pant in shallow breaths, Garrik’s vision spotted, watching the snake slither away—to Malik—before she crouched down and merely gripped his temples.

A soul-ending scream echoed from Malik’s throat as he screamed to the sky, “No.” Repeating it over and over, as if he had been burning in Firekeeper’s flames and now returned to life. Ripping his throat raw, thrashing as the female cradled his head between her breasts and stroked his hair.

Garrik’s blood forced his head upward. Regardless of the pain, of the control against his will, at least he still could conduct his face in hate and disdain as Elysian’s usurper prowled forward.

The guards, perfectly willing cronies, stood stark still as if a simple twitch would have the High King’s wrath poured out on them.

Weathered, hateful years etched harsh lines into that slender face. The long, gray beard and pin-straight hair holding a polished onyx crown laden with ruby and amethyst-covered spikes rested on his head. Emotionless chestnut eyes stared forward as that despicable mouth turned up in disgust like it had tasted spoiled meat.

Garrik made a low, wet growl in his throat.

Magnelis seemed to feed off it. As if the sound itself enriched his power.

With every last thread of defiance, Garrik squared his shoulders and lifted his chin as Magnelis extended a long, crooned finger and dug his nail under Garrik’s chin to raise it higher.

That despicable mouth curled into a devilish grin, exuding the depths of Firekeeper’s realm as Magnelis said, “Welcome home,son.”

Until his sacred duty was complete, Thalon would remain by her side. Her Guardian’s star-gilded shadow drifted over her as he stepped beside her. The night reflected glimmering starlight over Kadamar’s Blackstone Mountains as she gripped a folded parchment in her hand,standing behind the frigid cold ice railing atop Dellisaerin’s Wall, brushing her thumb along the coarse surface.

“He’s alive, Thalon. I know it.” Alora looked out over the ice, clutching her mate mark with Smokeshadows tendriling around her ring, and vowed to the wind, “I will find you, Garrik.” Starfire burned inside the other palm and dawned the note that she had read a thousand times to her bedchamber. Then embers blew away until only a pearlsea rested there.

The rubbery stem snapped.

Starflames ignited along her shoulders, cascading down her arms.

Footsteps approached.

But she didn’t need to turn to know who. She summoned them long before she and Thalon made the journey across the kingdom to stand amongst the stars.

Jade. Aiden. Eldacar. Ezander.

Her Shadow Order.

Alora slipped her fingers from her mate mark and traced a chain dangling around her neck. The chain holding the starfire ring she had made for Garrik. The ring that held claim toallof her power—for only him, as he had offered her.

The ring she had meant to slip on his finger in his tent.

Gripping it, Alora turned to Jade as she stepped forward. Her green eyes reflected the roaring embers in Alora’s like polished glass.

She lifted her gaze to the stars and promised, “I am coming for every-starsdamned-one of them. And everyone who betrayed him—touchedhim—will find out …”

Aiden shifted beside Eldacar. Jade stabbed her dagger in the ice.

Ezander gripped the pommel of his sword as Thalon asked, wings flaring, “Find out?”

Slowly, menacingly, Alora’s head pivoted until her embers speared his glowing golden eyes. “Just how hot their world will burn when I find him.”

Because shewouldfind him.

She would incinerate Elysian, every last part of it, until Garrik was safely in her arms.She was coming for them. For every scar they had ever laid upon his skin. For every nightmare that stalked his nights.

They had turned him into a demon but didn’t realize … by stealing him … they’d formed another.

“They wanted to make a monster?” Alora angled her head to Galdheir. “I’ll give them one.”