“Then you shall feast.”
He swipes his dark hair from his throat and reveals white skin with thick muscle and sinew beneath. With one swipe of his finger, black blood wells from a cut in the hollow of his shoulder.
To my horror, fangs have extended from my teeth, the tips sharp as I touch them with my tongue. More blood, this time in my mouth. I shudder with delight even though the hunger still thrums a beat of anguish inside me.
“Come now, little nightling. I bit you. It’s only fair you get a chance to do the same.” He laughs low in his throat. “Just a taste. So you can be strong forever, always alive because you’ve already cheated death. Drink. And know that you are the only one who has ever been offered such a boon.” He runs his hand to my waist and grips me there, the two of us bound together in the cold darkness, his power over me absolute. “Drink,” he hisses softly, his lips grazing my forehead.
His command makes my fangs ache, and I find it hard to disobey when his blood is so close. But even in my agony, I know this is wrong, that taking his blood will turn me fully into a seeker. Solano will abandon me. I will have nothing and no one.
“You’ll have me,” he whispers. “And together, we will have all of Arin.” With a yank, he pulls me to his throat, my fangs puncturing his skin.
I gasp and try to pull away, but then I get a taste of him. Of the immortal. Of the comfortable dark that cloaks and soothes. My jaws clamp, and I lock my fangs into him, drawing his blood as he coos sweet words of terror and evenings and eternities into my withering soul.
4
Solano
“Of course he’ll live!” Brock’s bellow wakes me.
“I know!” Everett shouts back. “I was just trying to lighten the mood.”
“With a joke about your king’s stamina?” Brock’s disdain is so familiar it’s almost comforting.
“I think we all need to calm down and—”
“Shut up!” Brock and Everett yell at Bladin in unison.
“Too many cocks in one room.” My voice is a croak.
“My lord.” Brock is at my side immediately.
I blink my eyes open, and as the haze clears, I see all my warriors gathered around as Caltinius tends the wound in my side. Each of them looks worn thin.
“That bad?” I can’t seem to lift my head.
“You’ll make a full recovery.” The changeling looks tired, the dark circles under his eyes telling me I’ve been out for longer than I know. “It’ll take some time, is all.”
“Emma.” Her name is a sacrament on my lips.
“Rest now,” Brock urges.
“I can’t rest. He has her.” I try to sit up, but pain blazes through me, and I barely move.
“As I was saying,” Caltinius sighs and presses some sort of salve into the wound. “You’ll make a full recovery, but you must rest. The venom made it to your heart. That’s what caused you to fail so suddenly. It’s almost filtered from your body, but it does such damage to every tissue it comes into contact with, and your power was already drained—it’s going to take time to heal.”
“I don’t have time,” I grit out. “My queen needs me.”
He meets my gaze again. “Believe me, I want you to find Emma and bring her back. But you aren’t in any state to travel, much less fight.” He wrings out a cloth into a bowl by my leg. Black, oozing tendrils snake from the liquid and try to curl around his arm. He shakes them loose and plops them into the bowl where they sizzle and dissolve. “Seekers.” He wrinkles his nose.
Brock motions for a fresh bowl. “We have dispatched a contingent of soldiers to the border with night to check for any sign of her.”
“She’s gone.” I can feel her distance, the veil of night covering her in shadow. If she were in my realm, I would be able to find her, to commune with her mate to mate. But she’s not here.
“Wewillget her back.” Brock bows his head. “I swear this to you by the magic.” The golden sizzle of a magical agreement singes the air between us.
“Not if I can’t move, can’t command.” I grit my teeth and try again to sit up. I get nowhere. Whatever venom lives in seeker blood has leached away every bit of my power. Or perhaps it’s Eraldon’s royal bloodline mixed in that makes it so potent.
“Sophina is working on an alchemical way to draw out the poison, but she’s also trying to discern how to revive Grimelda.” Caltinius wrings out the black ooze again. “She’s also ensuring that whatever spell was cast over the king to prevent him from seeing his mate is fully reversed with no unforeseen effects.”
