PENSDURTH
Poppy
I could feel myself slipping away as what little essence remaining in me thrummed wildly.
The burning agony clawing at the center of my chest had waned as my head lolled to the side and fell back into the empty space beneath me.
The mouth at my throat moved greedily, but I barely felt the fangs buried deep in my flesh. My vision faded again. My pulse skittered. A jolt of raw panic sent adrenaline coursing through me. The walls of the Great Hall of Seacliffe Manor returned. At first, everything blurred, swam, and shifted like a dream unraveling too fast, until a smear of bright crimson caught my gaze. I tracked it across the tiled floor to the blurry shape lying in a pool of red.
Blood.
Attes.
My heart stuttered weakly. He hadn’t moved since Kolis had hit him with eather.
Thoughts sluggish, I stared at Attes. Hadn’t I felt something seconds ago? A presence? And hadn’t I seen something…? My gaze shifted to the center of the Great Hall, where wisps of Primal mist swirled around a tall form—
There was a quick flash of light, and then the mist and the form within it were gone.
I wasn’t even sure what I had seen.
Kolis shuddered against me, and I slowly realized he no longer felt so cold. His body waswarming. It was my essence, the essence of life, doing that—while I was growing colder and colder.
I was really dying.
No.
No.
I wouldn’t die. Not like this. I had to fight. Ishouldbe fighting, and Ineededto be better at it, because once Kolis was done with me, he would go forhim, and I couldn’t allow that. Because he was…
My first.
My friend. Lover. Betrayer.
My husband. King. Heartmate.
Casteel Da’Neer was myeverything.
And I would not allow anything to happen to him.
Pushing past the pain and numbness that threatened to take hold, I focused on what essence I could still feel inside me until it was a hum in my blood and a buzz in my skin. The eather joined the panic and desperation drowning me, and I let it. I let it pour into every vein, every cell, until I could lift my hand and place it against Kolis’s chest. Until I tasteddeath. And like before, it was coated in sugar. Shadows filled the corners of my vision.
Kolis jerked his head back, and the pain of his fangs tearing through the flesh of my throat joined the panic and desperation. His crimson-streaked eyes met mine.
I smiled.
His brows pulled together as he tilted his head.
Then, I did the unthinkable.
I snapped my head forward, sinking my fangs intohisneck. My aim was a little off as I tore through a tendon before hitting his vein. Blood flowed into my mouth and coursed down my throat, turning my stomach. I didn’t let myself think about his taste—the flavor behind the iron-rich blood. I drank fast, drawing hard on the ruined vein.
I can handle this.
I can handle this.
Either shock or pain—probably the former—held him immobile. He didn’t shake me off as I latched onto him, swallowing and swallowing as fast as I could because I knew the surprise wouldn’t last long.
