They’d been poisoned.
“Yes,” Renault said, as if reading her thoughts.Or had she spoken aloud?“It was in the wine,” he explained. “It will render anyone unconscious, but it also subduesan empath’s abilities.” He gave her a slight smile. “An unconscious empath is much easier to transport.”
Amryn was shaking in Rhone’s hold now. “Wh-Why . . .?” She couldn’t even find the words to ask her question. Her thoughts were slowing—stuttering.
Renault moved to stand in front of her, his dark eyes locking on hers. “There is no point in fighting. It’s better for us all if you realize you’ve already lost. We don’t want you to damage yourself in a pointless fight. What good would you be to us then?”
Her panic was near blinding. Her fate was in the hands of monsters, and that was utterly terrifying—her worst nightmare—but Felinus was bleeding out on the floor. He didn’t have long. She was still trying to fight against Rhone, though her movements were weakening at an alarming rate. “Please,” she gasped. “I can still save him.” She honestly didn’t know if that was true. Her empathic sense was gone. Her connection to the bloodstone was waning, barely there—
The bloodstone.
With the bloodstone, she didn’t need to touch Felinus to heal him. If she could access its power, she could heal him from across the room. Just like she’d healed everyone in Esperance.
Her arms were pinned, but her hand fumbled to enter her pocket. Her fingertips brushed against the stone, even as she closed her eyes and reached desperately toward the bloodstone’s faint pulse.
It was like trying to hold onto a fistful of water. Impossible. Her connection with the bloodstone had been muted by the drug they’d given her.
Felinus exhaled one last reedy breath, then went still.
Through the fog in her mind, Amryn barely felt the empathic backlash of his death. But her heart? It shattered. Tears poured down her cheeks, a sob caught in her throat. Felinus was dead. Killed because he’d tried to defend her.
Renault didn’t even seem aware that the man he’d stabbed had stopped breathing. His focus was aimed at Rhone. “I want you to remain in the capital and handle things here. Dispose of his body quietly. No need for anyone to know about this mess. I’ll take her and the bloodstone to the Tower.”
Even through her heart-wrenching grief and the spreading numbness, Amryn reacted to that revelation.The Tower. The headquarters of the knights. Felinus’s words from long ago about empaths in the Tower floated through her hazing mind.“They break them. Completely. And still they hurt them, even when the empath is no longer sane and can only give themscreams.”
Tremors wracked Amryn’s body.No.That couldn’t be her fate. And yet, the fullness of Felinus’s fear for her suddenly made sense.
Terror and resolve merged. She wasn’t going to let Renault take her. She would fight, just as she’d promised Carver she always would.
But her body and mind were failing. She couldn’t break free like he’d taught her. She couldn’t fight . . .The ring.Why hadn’t she thought of it before? She used her thumb to rotate the emerald ring on her finger, then tried to find the disguised latch with her thumbnail. She just needed to free the needle. Then she could pierce Rhone’s flesh and run.
A distant voice in her mind yelled for her to wait, to use the ring later when she had more strength to run. But she didn’t know what poison swam in her veins, or how long she would be unconscious. She didn’t know what would happen to her once she was dragged from this room. She had to act now.
The corner of her nail caught the latch. She felt the gemstone spring back. She twisted in Rhone’s arms, using all her strength to loosen his hold just enough so she could grab for his hand—
Renault caught her wrist before the needle could pierce Rhone’s skin. The knight’s biting hold caused pain, but that was nothing compared to the agony she felt as he ripped the ring from her finger. It wasn’t just physical—her very heart wept.
“Clever,” Renault mused, eyeing the exposed needle. “It must be coated in some sort of poison.” He tossed the ring to the floor, and it clattered away.
“No,” she rasped. “Please.”
Renault ignored her as he searched for other weapons. She wasn’t wearing her dagger, though he easily found the bloodstone. Satisfaction filled his eyes. “I was right,” he said, the curve of his lips both triumphant and smug.
Amryn whimpered as he pocketed the amulet, and it felt as if he was tearing out her heart when he took away her mother’s prayer coin. But when he touched her bracelet—her most precious gift from Carver—she snarled and fought against Rhone’s hold.
Renault cursed and made to tear the bracelet from her wrist, but Rhone said over her cries, “It’s a simple marriage bracelet. It’s harmless.”
Tears stung Amryn’s eyes, and she hated that Renault glanced down and saw them. “Carver,” she gasped. It was supposed to be a threat—a reminder that they were taking her from General Carver Vincetti, one of the most feared men in the empire. But it came out too breathless, revealing the unspoken truth—his name onher lips had been a cry for help. A desperate plea to her husband, wherever he was right now.
Help me, Carver. Please.
Renault must have only heard weakness in her broken voice. The knight snorted, fingering the delicate cuff around her wrist. “You think Carver would save you if he were here? When he learns the truth of what you are, he’ll forever curse the day he met you.”
Forever.Aeternum.The thought of that word pressing against her wrist made her tears fall faster, her throat hot and tight.
The door burst open and an inhuman growl filled the air. “What are you doing? Get off her!”
The dark snarl made her head turn, and her body shook with trapped sobs when she saw Berron rush for her, his single eye blazing with fury.
