The image pans to a box high up in an odd-looking theatre. My breath catches at the sight of Serena dressed in crimson, wearing blood ore chains and that damned ruby collar. She leans over thebalcony, wailing Kai’s name. Then she whirls and lunges for Ilspeth, mauling her with the ferocity of a lioness. My stomach curls as Mal steps in.
No.
His punch hits me in the gut, coiling around the white-hot rage burning there. I throw myself forward into the water, snarling.
The image shifts again to a candlelit bedroom. I watch, sick to my stomach as Serena swings an iron poker at Kylian. He uses it to yank her into his chest. His hands slide into her hair, his face hovering near hers as he whispers something I can’t hear, and the fury I feel could decimate an entire city.
The image fades as the water returns to its misty, opaque surface.
“No! I need to see more! If he hurts her—” Jace growls.
“That’s all I can see right now,” Mar murmurs apologetically. He turns on me with daggers for eyes.
“I told you. I told you that he would force her.”
“He won’t force her if he wants the Bloodfast, which I’m guessing he does. It has to be consensual. He’s a power-hungry fuck, but he can’t force her into it,” I remind him. That is the only sliver of hope I can cling to.
“No, but he can extort her. You saw what he was doing to Kai. You think she’s just going to sit by and allow it to continue? No, either he’ll force her or she’ll be a martyr.”
He’s right about that. Kylian is using Kai to wear her down. And from the look on her face in those tableaus, I know it’s only a matter of time before he succeeds.
Serena’s heart is so big. Leave it to Kylian to exploit that.
“Gods damn it!” Jace spits, pacing through the night-cooled sand. “We need to get in there. Now.”
I try to remain levelheaded when every fiber of my being wants to put my fist through a wall. To storm in there and massacre everyone on sight. I’m just as enraged as Jace right now. And it is because I feel completely powerless.
I turn to Loryn, who’s been watching us—silent and wary. “Loryn. Is two days enough time for you?”
He nods, his gray brows furrowing. “It’s enough time.”
“So we have a plan.” I eye each of them intently.
“Fuck the plan, she needs us now!” Jace snaps, stalking up to me.
“Careful,Jace.”
In a flash of speed, he has me gripped around the collar. “I don’t fucking care if I have to do this alone. I’m going in, and I will kill anyone who tries to stop me.”
He bolts toward the forest, but I’m just as quick, latching onto his jacket and slamming him into the nearest tree. His punch hits me in the jaw, but it’s not enough for me to let go. He thrashes, fangs flashing, golden eyes empty except for the compulsive need to rip something apart. And right now that something is me.
“Jace, stop!” Mar shouts.
Dover rushes to help restrain him, and Jace breaks loose, nearly biting off his hand.
“I know you love her,” I pant, holding up my hands. His crazed eyes slide back to mine. “I get it. Believe me, I do. But if you do this, you will set off every alarm in that castle, and we will be taken. We won’t be able to help her if we’re in chains. Be smart about this. We will get her out.”
“In what state?” Jace seems to slowly inch back to reason, the murderous glint in his eyes subsiding as his shoulders sag. “We are failing her. She isours,and we are failing her. I’m failing her.”
He sinks to his knees in the sand, and I’ve never seen a male so broken. I never claimed to like him, never felt he was worth the breath or tears Serena wasted on him. But seeing him in this state—shaking with desperation—I feel sorry for him.
I know how he feels because it’s everything I feel. Everything I am fighting to keep down because I know what’s at stake. His head dips, his fingers curling in the sand. I lower myself beside him and brace a hand on his shoulder.
“This is not over. We have a plan. It is not over until she is safe and home. With us. She isn’t helpless. She knows how to survive. We will get her back, and they will pay for every hair out of place on her head.”
12
ZADYN
