I don’t get the chance.
The female’s face freezes in a twisted expression, all color leeched from her luminous skin. That’s when I notice the fist protruding from her chest.
My brain puzzles to make sense of what I’m seeing. But it isn’t until the girl crumples to the floor wearing the same shocked expression, and I see Kylian standing there, blood-soaked up to his elbow with a still-beating heart in his hand, that I register what’s happened.
A shrill scream grates against my ears. I realize after a moment that it’s coming from me.
“Are you insane?!”
Kylian stands there, his face a mask of calm fury. He opens his fist and drops the fae’s heart onto her lifeless body. Blood smears her arm before it rolls onto the ground with a dense thump.
Vomit churns in my stomach.
“Why did you do that?!” I clutch my roots, my gaze glued to the young female lying in a bloody heap at my feet.
Kylian’s chest heaves as he steps over the corpse, stopping an inch from my face.
“Because she touched you,” he snarls, slow and quiet, rage riding him hard. I swear I see storms brewing in those ocean eyes.
He killed her because she hit me.
She’s dead. Because ofme.
My mouth falls open as I stare up at him, stunned. Then a loud sob bursts from my chest. I clamp a hand over my mouth and turn away, sickened by the sight. The music has cut out. The room has fallen completely silent. All I can hear is the sound of Kylian’s ragged breaths behind me.
I feel the ghost of a hand hovering over my shoulder, but when I turn, Kylian is stalking away, his fingers trailing blood across the pristine floor as the hushed crowd parts for him, and he disappears from the hall.
“Are you alright?”
A sweet voice snags my attention along with a gentle touch at my elbow. I recoil, finding a petite brunette with wide teal eyes in front ofme, blocking the blood-soaked courtesan from my view. She’s one of the serpents—dressed in a red gossamer skirt barely concealing her front and back and a bra made of solid gold.
“No,” I croak. She’s the first person I’ve met here to ask that. To speak to me directly. She drops her voice to a whisper and gives me a meaningful look.
“You will be.”
Without another word, she rejoins the other females as they follow after Kylian in a neatly filed line.
6
JACE
Iexpected to storm into the castle and massacre every single bastard standing between me and Serena.
My expectations are shattered as we spend the next week scouting the area, Zadyn overhead, us on foot. He was right. The wards are rock solid, and walking in the front door is not an option. Not when we don’t know what or how many are waiting on the other side.
If we get captured, or killed, then there’s no hope for her.
Dover relays everything he knows about the castle, adding to Zadyn’s sketches, which are now tacked up on the walls of the flat like a massive map.
My eyes slide to Serena’s familiar, tapping his finger against the mantel in Ilayna’s room. Tracking down someone who could potentially be our ticket into Kylian’s keep was clever. Guess there is a brain in that pretty little head of his. I had all but given up hope there was anything but air between those ears.
I’ll be honest. Zadyn is much more level-headed than I am when it comes to being patient, and for that, I find myself appreciating the male just the slightest bit. I’m all hot temper—my instinct is to fightand kill, but he is cool in a crisis. Smart, sharp, and analytical. I know he has just as much to lose as I do. Probably only keeping it together for her sake.
Our heads snap up as the door to Ilayna’s chamber swings open, and in slips the fine-boned female we met a few days ago.
Finally. I was just about losing my mind.
I quit my pacing as she shrugs off her cloak and—woah, that’s a lot of skin. I quickly avert my gaze.
