An angel who looked exactly like my love.
“Roya.” I smiled and spoke the words I had kept inside for too long. “I love you, little queen.”
Then I felt the Guildmaster’s blade enter me, piercing my heart as the angel screamed.
ICARUS
Iknew better than to get drunk with the regent. He was a mongoose, as slippery and sneaky as any man I had met in all my decades as a pirate, and deadly if your back was turned. He had started the conversation at dinner about supporting me as king over Rabbas, if and when Talon were removed.
I had a bad feeling he was making sure that happened right now. I trusted Roya, though. She would make certain Talon stayed alive, even if she didn’t like him. As long as the Brute didn’t interfere…
I almost smiled at how quickly Roya’s nickname for my brother’s bodyguard had caught on. Branton would hate being called Brute out loud. I would need to make certain I did it as often as possible, if we lived through the night.
The air was filled with the aromas of food, drink, and a trace of Roya’s unmistakable scent. As a Beta, Gullen didn’t seem to be aware of it, but it set my heart racing with every inhalation. I had to get back to the room and make sure she was well, that my brother hadn’t woken and tried to hurt her. Or worse, mate her.
No Alpha could resist her scent for long. My wyvern was riding me to be close to her, to seal our bond physically. I needed Gullen drunk and out of the way, but he watched every swallow I took. Even though I poured the rum I had brought from my own ship—I knew enough not to trust anything this man might serve—I had no choice but to match him, drink for drink, until he finally slumped down at the table, snoring.
One of the servants bowed and offered to escort me to my room. As we walked down the corridor, though, the man murmured, “A ship has arrived, moored off the far side of the island. Your sloop, Prince Icarus.”
That meant Thorn and the others were nearby. Any news that meant Roya would be safer was welcome, though they might kill me before asking for any explanation about my part in her abduction.
His next words killed my satisfaction. “Another ship is berthed at the palace pier. It’s from the continent; no one knows who’s on board.”
I needed to know if it was the Guild. “Show me,” I said. “Quietly.”
He nodded, and we moved quickly through the back ways of the palace to where we could see the pier. I flew up into some trees, using my wyvern’s eyesight to see closer.
A woman stood on board the unknown ship, her hood thrown back. If asked, I would have said it was Roya’s mother. The face and hair were the same, though this woman was twenty years older. Her hands appeared to be bound, and her lips moved as she spoke to the man next to her. He was one of the largest men I’d ever seen—a warlord, with Kavin’s face and eyes, though his was silver in the sunlight.
Two or three other shapes stood back from the railing, and it was those I examined closest. They were cloaked, even in the heat, and I knew them for what they were: deadly, silent killers. Guild.
I opened my wings to fly back down to the waiting servant, intent more than ever on getting back to Roya, when a terrible pain ripped through my gut. It felt as if my intestines had been scalded, burned from within. The sensation came again, fiercer.
Shocked, wondering if I had been pierced by an arrow, I fell, and my wing slapped hard against the trunk of the palm. I heard a sickening crack at the same instant a lance of fire shot through my wing.
“Fuck,” I muttered, as the servant rushed to help.
I would have to move slowly back to Roya—there would be no flying if the wing was broken or sprained. Another sharp pain clawed at my insides, and I cursed again. It wasn’t an arrow, or any injury of mine.
This hurt was Roya’s. Was she being tortured? When another bolt of agony tore through me, lighting up my very veins with fire, I knew it had to be so. I ran, my broken wing searing me at every step.
In ten minutes, I was back at the room. There was no guard outside. When I opened the door, Roya was gone, but there was blood on the floor.
“Wondering where your little mate might be?” My brother’s mocking voice ignited a rage I hadn’t felt in decades.
I let out a roar and lunged for him. He was slow to move, and I had him in my grip in seconds. “How are you awake?” I growled. “If you hurt Roya—” I almost doubled over with a fresh wave of agony.
“You felt her pain?” he gasped, and I released him slightly so he could talk, and tell me where to find her.
“She’s my sky bond. It doesn’t take a fucking mating bite for us.”
“I know.” He hesitated, like he wanted to say something else, but shook his head and went on. “I didn’t hurt her. Gullen tried to poison me—she saved me, according to Branton. And now I will save both of you.”
He led me through a hidden passageway to a courtyard, and I followed him—and the intoxicating scent, which grew stronger as we ran—to a strange outdoor room. “A shrine?”
“It’s where Altair spent the past couple of years, lying half-dead.” He pushed back a screen made of thin bamboo and a curtain of white gauze, revealing the room behind the thin walls. Roya’s cloak had been discarded on the floor, but she was nowhere in sight.
Talon took a shallow breath, covering his face with his sleeve. “Branton and I will guard you. See to your mate. She’s—”
