“I will join you shortly, Kole. I will not ask you to leave again,” Erik said to his friend while keeping his eyes trained on me the entire time as he would an enemy.The Lysian King finally saw me as a worthy opponent, one deserving of his full attention. Though a fight was not something I wished for.
A minute later, we were alone in the field with hundreds of Bavadrin arrows pointed our way.
Thoughts raced about my mind. There was so much I wantedto say to help him see I was not a threat. I hoped for a chance to spare our fragile relationship from crumbling altogether.
Sadly, I did not have the chance to tell him anything.
One moment we were standing in the open field, and the next, he was before me.
Had he always been this fast? The thought flickered through my mind before adrenaline drowned it out.
Erik grabbed me and slammed me against that single massive tree. Hard. His large hand caught both of mine, and he nearly crushed my wrists above my head into the rough bark, holding me firmly in place. My back stung from being shoved so forcefully that my breath was briefly knocked out of me.
His gaze pierced mine with fierce intensity. He barred his teeth. Had his canines always been that frighteningly sharp? In that moment, Erik was far more predator than King.
He caught me so easily.
Stupid girl, you should have just dropped him to his knees when you had the chance, I heard Edda’s voice chastising me.
38
ERIK
Ariana trembled, her body pressed against mine, her hands locked above her head. My senses were ablaze, focused entirely on her. The archers she had hidden away were of little concern; they wouldn’t risk harming their leader with me so close. They lacked a clean shot, thanks to the wall she’d conjured and the shelter of the tree. This allowed my focus to remain solely on the Bavadrin girl who surprised me to the point of breathlessness.
With her hands locked above her head, I doubted that she could conjure. Though she had shown herself to be shockingly powerful with her gift, able to build a wall against the one already there to offer her people protection from my flames. Then, to have kept it in place when focusing on my Lysians was incredible. Never had I met another conjuror with such abilities. It was impressive. However, it also fell short.
Ariana was true to her kind. The cunning Bavadrins. She had me completely fooled from the start. I always saw her as irrationally confident and brave, but it was never really irrational, not when she harbored such a strength within her. A power that shehad done well keeping secret, pretending to be no more than a girl. It took little to fool me, for I never challenged that thought. She was small and slender, a woman who was no true physical threat to me or my Lysians. I could not have been more wrong. Her mind I knew better than to underestimate, and yet I found myself doing just that.
Ariana was powerful enough for her plan to have worked.
She could have survived her little stunt.
If only she had not made two mistakes.
First, she allowed me to get too close. My senses and speed surpassed hers, a fact she knew well. She should have kept her distance.
Second, she hadn’t mastered conjuring. It was clear she was not fully trained, using her hands as a crutch. Her mist moved with each twitch of her fingers, a telltale sign.
Conjuring often began with the body directing energy. It was easier to control and focus that way. She should have trained to let go of that crutch, to conjure with just her eyes or even her mind. Maybe then she wouldn’t have found herself trembling in my hands, her green eyes wide as they looked up at me.
The smell of fear surrounded her. Its sweet scent filled my lungs with every breath, and just like that, we became what we always were. She was the rabbit and I the wolf. It took her only a few moments of struggle before her body stilled the way a rabbit would. It was a survival instinct to freeze. No point in fighting when there was absolutely no escape. Don’t fight the predator, and he might lose interest. Unfortunately for her, I was no wolf. I was worse. My interest was not easily lost.
I shifted my hold on her hands, and she winced in pain.Good.
My free hand slid around her throat. Her breath hitched at the contact, my fingers running across the tender skin at her neck. Her pulse thrummed beneath my fingertips, blood rushing as itpumped adrenaline through her body, needlessly fueling her muscles, for she had nowhere to go.
Anger rippled through me for the position we found ourselves in. I hated her for the trust I built with her. Trust that crumbled as if it were made of soft dry sand blown away by one strong gust of wind. What other ways had she fooled me? Shadows of doubt were cast upon every moment I shared with her, and it infuriated me. I refused to allow her to make a mockery out of me. I never wished her any harm, yet now I nearly relished it. That fact only angered me more, for I had become the monstrous Lysian the Bavadrins told stories of.
“Erik,” she spoke my name, no more words necessary. There was no apology. No plea for mercy. Only her gaze, locked on mine.
I growled, my anger spellbinding. What a fool I had been.
Rage rippled through me once more, but it did not feel powerful. Some of its strength was stolen by the knot in my stomach, which only grew by the second.
I had two options.
Killing her would regain control, the safest choice for my Lysians. Edmond and Jorn would approve. Yet the thought turned my stomach.
