“We will discuss this later, Captain,” Nyx said sternly. The captain nodded and followed his guards.
Then all eyes turned on me. Caly clung to my hand still. She hadn’t let go once since inside the cell.
“Are you well?” Kol asked with trepidation. Clearly, finding me in a cell was triggering for him.
“I’m well,” I confirmed.
Caly ran a hand over my hair and cupped my cheek, turning my eyes to her. She looked me over thoroughly. “You weren’t well. You were in an awful state,” she all but accused.
I smiled. “But then we melded. Did you not feel that rush of power between us?”
“I thought you told the King you’d melded already?” Nyx said to Caly.
“I lied,” she shot back, not looking even a little apologetic.
“So what happened?” Nyx demanded.
“Arkyn happened. I was surrounded by his guards and shackled with some kind of chains that cut off my power instantly, so I couldn’t fight them or shift. They hauled me down here and threw me in the dark.”
“And you’re sure Arkyn was behind it?” Nyx prompted.
I laughed mirthlessly. “Oh, I’m sure. He came down here himself. Let me know in no uncertain terms I was finished for daring to be his queen's bonded, and then he dosed me with some low-level Dragon's Bane.
Instinctively, they all backed away.
Kol paled.
“I think it’s out of my system now. The meld restored my power. They were going to come back with more, I’m sure, probably every day for the rest of my miserable existence. But it wasn’t supposed to be enough to kill me, just strip me of my powers and make me suffer.” I met Kol’s eyes, and his demeanorconfirmed that he had lived through months of such treatment. It made me understand him even better.
“He has to be stopped,” Nyx growled.
“What do you propose?” Jaxus asked.
“I’m taking this to the King—now.” Nyx was resolved.
“The King has no control over him,” Kol said, coming back to us from his darkness.
“We have to leave.” Sorrow clouded Caly’s her eyes as she spoke
“Are you sure?” I asked, knowing it was our best chance of surviving.
Beside Kol, Nova began to weep. He put his arm around her, offering her comfort, but no one denied the logic of us going.
“What other choice do we have?” Caly asked. “Arkyn wants you dead or worse. And I know he will kill me too when he finds out we are mates. He told me all I am is a broodmare to him, but he will never get the heirs out of me he wants because my body will only create life with you now. Even the best healers in the realm can’t defy nature.”
Uneasy silence surrounded us as the ways in which we were fucked just kept revealing themselves.
“There is no escaping him here. He will eventually have all authority,” she continued. “Once he becomes King, he can do what he likes. And he knows my magic—what kind it is and how much more power I have than him. He won’t accept that he can’t have that for himself. He will do whatever it takes to seize it.” She clung to me, burying her face in my chest.
“He knows your magic?”
“I had to tell him. I knew he would be salivating over it, so I used it to bargain with him. I told him if I could train with you, it would only grow stronger. It was the only way to keep you alive. I thought he might go after you. I didn’t realize he already had.”She held me tighter. “Thats why our only choice is to leaveand get as far away from this realm as we can. We will never be safe in the Twelve Kingdoms once he wears the crown.”
She looked to Nova and held out a hand to her to draw her close without loosening her hold on me.
“What if you returned to our home?”Jaxus said meaningfully. “You’d never be found there.”
I shook my head. “I won’t trade one prison for another.”
