Even Fi reeled at that one. She’d never hadkindthoughts about the Lord Daeyari of Antal Territory. And she sure as shit shuddered at the thought of Verne seizing control.
But for the life of her, she didn’t understand why he wasn’t backing down.
Maybe she couldn’t understand what a hunting field meant to a predator.
The Beast at Verne’s side traced a long black tongue over its teeth. She pressed a hand to its hide to hold it steady.
“I’ll only ask once more, Antal. Abdicate.”
“Never,” he spat. “I won’t let you take—”
Fi had an abomination to watch. She’d taken her eyes off Astrid.
Energy crackled as Astrid closed in. Her vavriter magic manifested as mauve light at her fingertips, Shaped along a metal cord with barbed ends. When she hurled it at Antal, the cord wrapped around his waist and locked in place. An immortal, bound. Foolhardy in most circumstances. Antal bared his teeth, but when he dug his claws beneath the binding, energy jolted up his arms, making him recoil.
When Verne lifted her hand, her Beast lunged. Antal should have teleported away.
He didn’t.
He snarled at another surge of energy from the cord, down his legs, rooting him to the floor. The Beast snapped for his skull. Antal dodged, hitting the ground in a flail of limbs and tail. He sank his claws beneath the bindings again, jaw clenched against the singe of energy as he fought to free himself.
Fi was dumbfounded.
That was it? This fearsome Lord Daeyari she’d avoided for years, who’d promised to protectherfrom Verne… and he was already on the floor?
Fuck. Maybe Fi should help. She didn’t want to help. He was a daeyari, he shouldn’t need a human to—
A pulse of energy struck her back.
Fi hit the floor gasping, a hot prickle of energy thorning her skin as she contemplated cold tile beneath her fingers, a crack in one corner.
Astrid stood over her. The world narrowed until only the two of them existed.
“Astrid?” Fi spoke the name breathless. Pleading.
Fi didn’t understand. She couldn’t make sense of Astrid staring down at her with such spite. Where was the woman who’d woven camelias into Fi’s hair while the aurora danced overhead? Those lips that had lit her skin on fire? Those nimble hands that made Fi sing as they’d laid together with nothing between them?
But those moments no longer defined her and Astrid. For the past ten years, only one had.
“What’s wrong, Fi?” Astrid said. “Trying to run away again?” The memory surfaced like a haul of rotten flotsam, drowning Fi with the numbing taste of twilight sorel. The clutch of hands on her arms. A frigid forest shrine.
“I changed my mind!” she’d shouted then.
“I was afraid!” Fi shouted now.
“Youwere afraid? How did you think I felt?”
With a cry of rage, Astrid raised a cross-guarded hilt. She cracked a glass capsule into the base; not her mauve energy, but daeyari scarlet. A gift from her mistress. One of the boons of being an Arbiter. As the Shaped broadsword swung down, Fi scraped energy from her forearm to form a silver shield.
Enough to save herself from losing an arm. Not enough to last. Her meager mortal energy cracked like glass against the daeyari-honed sword, sizzling Fi’s fingertips.
“Why would you side with Verne?” Fi shouted.
“You never gave me a choice!”
Astrid’s sword crackled scarlet, slicing Fi’s shoulder. Fi hissed through the sting of burnt flesh, Shaping energy along her arm as armor, but Astrid’s next swing feinted low. She’d alwaysoutshot Fi with a crossbow. Her blade skills had improved to match.
One deflection against that daeyari energy sword, and Fi’s armor fizzled like a puddle on the Summer Plane. She had no backup energy capsules, only cold muscles of dwindling reserves, not half the rage of Astrid’s glower.
