"I made a mistake—"
"You always make mistakes with her!" Arion's restraints shot forward again, light wrapping around Eliam's wrists, yanking them apart, trying to stop him from forming more weapons. "You claim her, you hurt her, you throw her away, and then you rage when someone else tries to pick up the pieces!"
Eliam broke the restraints with brute force, thorns erupting from the ground in a circle around Arion, growing inward, trying to cage him. "Help? Is that what you call it? Kissing her?"
"She was going to him!" Arion's light burned brighter, shattering the thorns before they could close completely. "Another second and she would have crossed, and you would have lost her forever. So yes, I kissed her. I broke the compulsion. I saved her life."
"You had no right—"
"I had every right!" Arion's composure finally shattered. Light exploded from him, not restraining now but pushing, forcing Eliam back several feet. "Someone had to! You were asleep, comfortable and safe while she walked barefoot through the gardens toward her death. So don't you dare tell me I had no right to save her."
The warmth in Briar's chest was going wild, pulling toward both of them with equal desperate intensity. She could feel it trying to stop this, trying to make them understand something she couldn't grasp.
Footsteps on the garden path. Thaine appeared, taking in the destruction with wide eyes. "What in the seven hells—"
"Stay out of this," Eliam snarled, not taking his eyes off Arion.
More footsteps. Karse emerged from the shadows, assessing the situation with lazy interest. His gaze found Briar, shivering in her thin nightgown, and he crossed to her without a word.
"Come here," he said, his good arm wrapping around her from behind, pulling her against his chest. Heat radiated from him, blessing of the Drak, and she couldn't help but lean into it. "Let the fae have their tantrum."
"They're going to kill each other," she said, her teeth still chattering.
"Probably not." Karse's chin rested on top of her head, his arm tightening around her middle. "The pretty one's not even trying to hurt him. Just playing defense. Interesting, that."
He was right. Every attack Arion made was restraint-based, trying to bind or push back rather than harm. While Eliam was throwing lethal force with every strike.
"Eliam, stop!" Thaine tried again, moving closer. "This isn't—"
A thorn shot past his head, close enough that he felt the wind of its passage. Thaine froze.
"I said stay out of it."
Arion used the distraction to send bands of light around Eliam's chest, yanking him forward and off-balance. "You want to be angry at someone? Be angry at Malus. He's the one who tried to steal her tonight. He's the one controlling her through those marks. Not me."
"I know exactly who to be angry at." Eliam shattered the bands, shadows coiling around his arms like serpents. "And right now, it's the fae who thought he had the right to kiss my—"
He stopped, the word dying on his lips. Not quite willing to say it.
"Your what?" Arion pressed, light forming a barrier between them as Eliam advanced. "Your prisoner? Your property? What exactly is she to you, Eliam? Because from where I stand, you've never actually decided."
"She's mine." The shadows surged forward, crashing against Arion's barrier. "That's all you need to know."
"She's a person!" Arion's light pushed back, driving the shadows away. "With her own will, her own choices. You don't get to decide what's best for her and then rage when someone else offers her kindness."
"Kindness." Eliam's laugh was bitter. "Is that what we're calling it?"
"What would you call it?" Arion's barrier strengthened, turning solid, forcing Eliam to stop his advance. "I saved her. I brought her back. I kept her safe when you—" He stopped, seeming to realize he'dgone too far.
"When I what?" Eliam's voice dropped to something deadly quiet. "Say it. When I cast her out. When I sent her to die. When I failed her." Shadows began building behind him, massive and dark. "You think I don't know? You think I haven't thought about it every moment since?"
"Then why are you fighting me instead of him?" Arion's hands spread, light gathering. "I'm not your enemy. Malus is."
"You kissed her." The words came out flat, final. "That makes you my enemy."
The shadows launched forward with devastating force, and Arion's barrier shattered under the impact. He went down hard, light forming shields above him as thorns rained down, but one got through, slicing across his shoulder.
Blood, bright and red against his pale clothing.
