Above us, Fenric dropped from the sky with both children clutched safely in his arms. Eryx was crying, great heaving sobs that tore at my heart. Mireth was white as a sheet.
I ran to them the moment Fenric’s feet touched ground.
“Mama,” Mireth wailed, launching herself into my arms.
I held them both tight, breathing in the scent of their hair, feeling their solid warmth against my chest.
“It’s okay,” I whispered, though my voice was shaking. “It’s okay, little ones. You’re safe now.”
I glanced up at Fenric, about to ask what the hell just happened, when another figure slammed into the ground.
Varyth.
His gaze swept over Brynelle first, bloodied but standing. Then Darian, crumpled and bleeding in the dirt. Fenric, standing beside me, protective wings spread wide.
Then me.
And the fury that blazed across his features could have incinerated mountains.
“What the hell happened here?” The words were deadly quiet.
I clutched my children tighter, rage building in my chest like a wildfire. “What happened,” I said, my voice shaking with fury. “Is that thing—” I gestured toward Torrath’s corpse. “Came for my children. It knew me. It could smell me. It wanted to take me to its master.”
Varyth’s expression went completely blank. “It what?”
“You heard me.” I stood, carefully extracting myself from Mireth and Eryx’s clinging arms. “Some nightmare wolf came hunting in your precious safe garden, and my children were nearly torn apart because of whatever the hell I am that makes me so gods-damned interesting to you.”
Varyth’s jaw tightened, and something cold and terrible settled behind his eyes. “You think this is my fault?”
“I think you promised safety and delivered a teeth-ridden death trap wrapped in rose bushes. So yes. I’m leaning toward ‘your fault’ with a hint of ‘you’re full of it, Varyth.’”
“You said they’d be safe here.” My voice fractured on it, and gods, I hated that. “Safe. And now my children just watched a shapeshifting demon try to drag their mother off to someLord With A Creepy Agendalike we’re in a bad bard’s song.”
“One breach?—”
I stormed toward him. “That thing didn’t trip and fall into your fucking garden, Varyth. It came with intent.”
“Of course it did.” His tone was low and lethal, the kind that slid beneath the skin. “Because you radiate magic like a beacon. It didn’t come for me. It came foryou.”
“Oh, so now this is my fault for existing?”
“Yes,” he snapped. “You stumble into my court like a feral thing with no leash, hissing and biting at every hand that tries to help you. You think survival makes you special? It makes you reckless.”
His wings flared into existence with the grace of knives.
“You arrogant bastard,” I snarled. “You dragged us here, made your little speeches about power and potential, and you couldn’t even keep a single monster out of your own fucking garden.”
His eyes flashed silver fire. “Watch your tongue, human.”
“Or what?” I bit back. “You’ll throw me to the wolves? I already know what that’s like.”
From the ground, Darian groaned. “Not to rush the climactic yelling, but I’m bleeding out, and if I die while you two are having your mating ritual, Iwillhaunt both of you.”
Neither of us flinched.
“You are hiding something,” I spat.
His lips twitched. Maybe amusement. Maybe regret. “I’m protecting you.”
