I’m dragged into the throne room, and that’s when I see it. The ember stone. It’s high atop a marble pillar, the citrine gem shining with a wisp of sun magic. Ofmymagic. It calls to me from its perch.
“Take the stone, king of day.” Selene’s words whisper through my memory. Is this what she meant? As if summoned by my thoughts, she appears in the crowd. Sitting atop a buttress at the side of the throne room, she seems to have chosen a prime spot to watch the entire affair. I could swear she winks at me.
“Welcome!” Eraldon’s voice booms through the room, his seekers amplifying his voice with their own. He sits atop the throne, bodies at his feet and seekers packed on either side. Above, they line the stone ceiling, and some hang along the walls, their eyes on their master as they hunger for his command.
“I am so happy to have you here, day king, an honored guest to my mating celebration.” He grins, his fangs long and deadly.
“You will never take her from me.” I snarl as his seekers shove me forward.
“Hold the others.” He waves my warriors away, and the seekers crowd them and herd them out of my reach. “But I’d like Solano to have a front row seat. It’s the civilized way for royalty to behave, is it not?” He motions to a set of iron chains bolted to the floor in front of the throne. “Come, take your place of honor.”
The seekers force me up the stairs, their claws shredding my skin and their fangs at the ready. It takes a dozen of them to push me to my knees, and then more to shackle my wrists with the burning iron.
Once I’m held fast, they back off. To my right are the stinking bodies of Eraldon’s sisters. Up high behind the throne, his father hangs, his entrails unfurled and his eyes gouged out.
“You will never enter the Glowing Lands.” I meet Eraldon’s hateful gaze.
“That’s all right. I intend to stay in Arin for quite some time. Ruling my realms and filling my queen with my seed. Think of all the beautiful heirs she’ll produce for me.” He grins and stands to approach me.
I yank at the iron, my feral roaring to rip Eraldon to shreds. “You’ll never have her.”
He rears back and aims a hard kick to my side.
I take the blow, the bloom of pain nothing compared to the thought of him violating Emma.
“She’s already mine. Her heart, her soul, her body. This is but a formality to cement my rule and our supremacy.” Leaning close, but just out of my reach, his dark eyes hold nothing but hunger. For power. For the entire world. “She hates you, Solano. Perhaps even more than I do. She thinks you tortured her, the other changelings, and many more. She believes you murdered her mother. I fed her every detestable bit of rot I could. She swallowed it down, and now it festers inside her. One can only hope she’ll take my cock as readily as she takes my lies.”
“Never!” I lunge for him again, but he darts back, his face twisted in amusement.
“At first I intended to kill her, then use her as a toy, but then when she blossomed so perfectly, so …” He licks his lips. “Deliciously. I couldn’t shake the feeling that she belonged by my side. Her eyes, her scent, those wings, her bloodlust. She was meant to be mine, never yours.”
“You can fool yourself all you like, Eraldon. You tried to corrupt her with your bite. She’s stronger than you. I saw her. Ifeelher. You are nothing next to her. She just hasn’t realized it yet. But she will. And when she does? She’ll tear you apart for what you’ve done.”
His dark eyes flicker. “You think you know her? You know nothing. I swim in her veins now. I always will. Would you like to know the best part?” He adjusts his stolen crown atop his black hair. “I’m going to have her right here. Bend her over my throne so you can look into her eyes as I sink inside. And when I claim her with my bite, she’ll be dead to you. Your bond broken. That’s when she’ll strike.” He pulls a silver blade with a golden handle from his cloak. “She’ll take your life as I pump her full of my seed.”
I struggle against the chains, the iron digging into my skin as I fight. Even though I know I can’t win, can’t stop this, I still fight. Why hasn’t Selene freed our magic? I have nothing, nothing to use to save Emma. So I roar like a wild animal and rip at my bindings.
Eraldon watches with open amusement before turning to the mass of seekers. “Bring her.”
24
Emma
Solano is trying to trick me, to get into my mind and make me doubt. I shake it off, closing that connection between us. The one that shouldn’t exist. His witch must’ve done something, created that doorway that he’s able to open. There’s no other way.
“There’s one other way.” My thoughts try to betray me as my hand rises to my neck, to the place where Eraldon bit me and made me immortal. But there’s another mark there, too. One underneath. One that I can still feel even though it’s covered by my true mate’s bite.
Eraldon’s eyes light when he sees me, the dark irises seeming to brighten for a sliver of a moment. Is that what he looked like before he was turned? He was so handsome.Ishandsome, I remind myself as I walk to him.
The seekers around me watch, their focus mimicking their master’s. All eyes on me as I try to keep my eyes on my mate. Not on the day king chained to the steps beneath the throne. The golden-haired high fae whose stare is like a touch, one that sends heat blazing across my skin.
I don’t look at his warriors, though I can feel them in the crowd. I don’t look at the bodies. I don’t look at King Sigrid from where he hangs like a tattered flag. I can’t look at any of it. If I can just make it to Eraldon before—
“Emma.” It’s not so much a voice as a presence.
In my mind, my body, beneath every bit of armor I’ve tried to place over my soft parts. I feel him. The sun king. And when I hear my name on his tongue, I can’t stop myself. Can’t keep my gaze from dropping to his, to the golden eyes that could ensnare the moon herself.
“Emma, it’s me. I’m yours. Don’t you remember us?” He strains at the iron that keeps him bound to the floor.
