My mind shattered with pain. I couldn’t breathe. I loosened the single thread. I bit down on a sob, the agony clawing deeper. Blood dripped from my nose, pattering on the ground. This—this was too much. It felt like ripping myself apart.
Vaeris yelled, throwing me off him.
I hit the floor, gasping, and the rune underneath us erupted. White energy shot upward, punching through Kairos.
No!
His back bowed. Magic ripped into him like a spear, and a gash opened along his side—deep, brutal, showing bone. Why was it attacking him?
“Kairos!”
Kairos grunted and dropped to his knee.
Vaeris staggered, clutching his arm. He gaped at Kairos, and then he laughed. “Thank you, sweetling. I couldn’t have planned this better myself.”
His glee echoed as I crawled toward Kairos. Ribbons of light cinched him, pinning his arms, his legs.
Kairos grimaced, his shoulder dripping with a fresh cut.
“Stop!” I reached for him, my hands passing through the light. “Please stop!”
Vaeris leaned against the wall, smirking. “You’re under oath not to harm anyone in this palace.”
“What? I was only trying to break the deal!”
“The binding clearly recognizes that as violence.” He chuckled, watching Kairos wrestle with the rune. “And he’s the one who swore the oath.”
My stomach twisted.
Vaeris’s smile widened. “You broke the rules. Now he’s paying the price.”
Horror flooded through me.
“Youprobably should have warned her about that, Kairos. Oh well. Better luck next time.”
The binding rune pulsed again. Kairos made a strangled sound, and another wound slashed his ribs.
“Stop it!” I shouted at the rune. “He didn’t do anything!”
I sank my palms in the bleeding flesh. Crimson poured between my fingers—hot, slick, too much. I pushed down harder, stanching the flow.
Blood soaked through my dress, pooled beneath us.
“Can’t heal,” Kairos gasped.
“What do you mean you can’t?”
“Binding rune.” He coughed, blood flecking his lips. “Won’t let me.”
No, no, no.
The wounds kept opening, and I couldn’t help him. He was dying in front of my eyes. Because I’d tried to save myself and destroyed him instead.
Footsteps thundered down the stairs.
I looked up through blurred vision as figures spilled into the hall. Soren burst into the chamber, Taressa and the guards close behind.
Soren’s eyes swept over Kairos on the floor, me covered in blood. “What is the meaning of this?”
