I use the scraps of my magic to throw up a shield, sending the next round of arrows bouncing back the way they came.
“We’re almost to the camp.”
Furi takes out a good amount of trees as wecareen into the beach. Water sprays from every direction, rushing up to soak us. We slide down, Zadyn and Dover dragging a limp Kai up the beach toward Mar and Ilayna.
“This is bad! She’s in pain,” Serena cries, studying Furi’s arrow-stricken wing. “Help me get these arrows out. Now.”
Furi’s head rears as Serena coos to her and smooths her scales.
“If I pull them out like this, shards might be left behind.”
Her vicious gaze slams into me. “It’s better than leaving them in and letting them cripple her wing permanently.”
Feeling around for the last of my magic, I lift my hand and wrap invisible tethers around each arrow before pulling them out in one fell swoop. The bloodied sticks drop into the water and drift away on the tide just as I hit the bottom of my reserve.
Furi’s cries start to ease up.
“We can’t stay here long.” I head toward the beach, water sloshing around my boots. “Kylian will track us right here.”
“She can’t fly yet, Jace,” Serena snaps, following after me. “Her wing looks like a slice of Swiss cheese.”
So much for a pleasant reunion.
“Oh, little witch, how I’ve missed your big mouth.”
She shoves me hard, taking me off guard so that I fall into the shallow tide on my ass.
“Do not fuck with me right now.” She glares down at me, rage simmering in those wild lavender eyes, and I feel my cock twitch behind my leathers.
Damn her.
I ignore her seething, stalking forward until I’m hauling her against my bloody, cut-up chest and inhaling the scent that has haunted my dreams ever since she was taken.
Her arms slowly wrap around my waist as I breathe in her hair and then freeze.
“You smell like Kylian.”
She goes absolutely still and extricates herself from my hold, saying nothing as she jogs up the beach.
“Mar!” Her voice is filled with relief as she takes in the sight of her friend hunched over Kai’s body.
Mar glances up, offering her a wry smile. “Nice dress.”
Serena musters up an empty laugh. “How is he?”
“Not good. I put him to sleep so I can work on him. Whatever cut him was laced with some kind of poison. I’m doing all I can.”
Serena sinks into the sand and takes Kai’s hand. He looks like absolute shit. Pale and gaunt, eyes sunken even in sleep. The wound on his leg is a disaster, oozing thick white pus.
I don’t know what horrors he endured on Serena’s behalf, and I’m guessing it was bad, but that doesn’t quell the envy in me at seeing her hands on him.
I’m engaged. To the princess of Aegar, no less. I know I have no right to feel this way, but I am possessive over her in a way that is fully foreign and inexplicable to me.
Every male is a threat. Every male she looks at, talks to, touches, or breathes on—I am constantly fighting the urge to rip their throats out.
Even those who have clearly been to hell and back for her.
She makes me dangerous. The only thing on my mind, day and night, is her. And now even the king knows it. Father figure or not, there will probably be hell to pay when I get back.
