“If it isn’t your changeling slut.” A cold voice wraps around me as someone grabs me and yanks me up.
The block on our bond breaks, and Gareth’s fear races through me. I find him instantly, his bloodied face turned toward me as a host of undead force him to kneel. Chastain is beside him, his body bent, his face pale. He’s badly wounded.
“Run!” Gareth yells down the bond.
But it’s too late. I’m caught. And he looks exactly the same as he did in Sabine’s flames. The way he was right before Cenet took his head.
23
Gareth
“Let her go!” I struggle to rise. My feral is barely leashed, and I will happily take my chances against Cenet if only Beth weren’t here in his clutches.
“So easy to conquer you, Gareth.” He leads Beth over to me, his hand gripping her hair. “All I had to do was threaten your friend.” He kicks Chastain in the side. “And now your mate is here for me to play with as well.”
“Use your magic. Destroy him, Gareth.” Her faith in me is still strong.
“Destroyme?” He shakes her, then pulls her against him, her back to his front. “He’d kill you, too. Is that what you want?”
“Get off me.”
“I don’t think so.” He runs his forked tongue up her neck and along my mark.
“Leave her!” I struggle to my feet. The undead can’t keep me down.
“I wouldn’t.” He puts a blade to her throat. “I’d like to keep her for a while. See what you find so tasty about her. But I’ll kill her right now if you’d prefer that.”
“Gareth, you can do this.” She peers into my soul, her words in my ears and through the bond. “You can protect us.”
I want to believe it. But can I risk her?
“Your soldiers fought well.” Cenet wraps his arm around her waist, and she flinches. “They truly did. But now they’remysoldiers. My army. The undead fight even better than the living. And I hope you didn’t think these were the only slaves I’ve amassed.” He shakes his head. “This is but a taste of what I have. My armies will destroy the realms, and I will rule over what is created after. My father—”
“Thanks for the speech, but you realize Queen Aurentia is on her way here.” I spit at his feet. “She’ll finish what we started.”
“I can’t wait to meet her.” He smiles and pushes Beth into the arms of an undead.
She struggles, but the dead miner grips her tightly, holding her in place and putting his dagger to her throat. My feral roars to the fore, and I shift. The undead around me fall beneath my claws as I spin and stab, cutting them down and baring my teeth. I aim for the undead holding Beth, but a sharp pain in my side slows me down. It’s as if I’m stuck, my feet barely moving as I push toward her.
Her eyes well with tears as Cenet draws his sword down my side, gutting me as I struggle to save my mate.
“Pity.” He tsks as I collapse, my blood draining into the sand as Beth screams.
“Chastain, you seem like a noble of worth.” Cenet motions for the guards to bring him closer. “What made you turn on your own kind?”
Cenet stabs his dagger into Chastain’s chin, forcing him to look up.
The guards grip my fur, holding me down as my vision tries to fade. I strain against the hands pulling me down. If I lose consciousness, it will be over for Beth. I can’t let that happen. The magic builds inside me. I can only hope the Phalanx is away from here, because if they aren’t …
“Did a changeling whore get to you? That’s what felled poor Gareth here.”
Chastain’s gaze never wavers. “My mate will crush you beneath her heel the same as she did to all the other slavers.”
“How precious.” Cenet turns to Beth and grins.
With a hard shove, he sends the dagger deep into Chastain’s head. Beth’s scream shatters my heart. And when she uses a hidden blade in her hand to wound the undead holding her, I summon my power. It rises from me in a torrent tinged with blood.
But it’s not fast enough. Not quicker than Cenet. He lunges for her, stabbing through her heart with the same blade he used to slay Chastain.
