After all, every king should have a queen. I was the most powerful Aurathion alive, and I could keep her safe— from herself, the Ancestors, and even myself when it was called for.
Tanya was paramount to my plan. But I knew she wouldn’t do it without me holding something important over her head. Thus, I took both of her men.
I paused in my thoughts—Reverie was starting to move.
Her breathing shifted—she was waking.
The bond yanked tight—violent, electric, inevitable.
Her eyes fluttered open.
And the first word she spoke, “Torren.” broke me cleanly in half.
Chapter 35
Reverie
The stone ceiling swam above me.
Cold air.
Wards humming.
Magic pressing against my skin like a warning.
And then?—
“Reverie.”
His voice. “Torren.”
I jolted upright.
Trent sat at the edge of the bed, elbows on his knees, hands clasped so tightly the veins stood out. Shadows clung to him—shifting, restless. His jaw was clenched hard enough to crack teeth.
The man was beyond attractive. Long hair, as dark as my own that spilled down his back to his waist. He had to be at least Oren’s height at 6’5, with green eyes that could pierce your soul. Nothing like the man I had fallen half in love with.
Torren.
His eyes lifted.
Ancestors.
They were burning. And no sanity whatsoever shone from them.
I pushed myself back against the wall. “You—you took me, my family, my—my friends?—”
“They’re all alive,” he smiled. “I even brought Tanya and her men here with you.”
“Why?” I snapped. I knew there had to be a reason.
He flinched.
I wasn’t expecting that.
Trent Storm did not flinch.
“To keep you company.” The sly smile he displayed suggested something else entirely.
