“Quickly, throw the bodies into the chamber.” The four queen’s guards gathered up the fallen warriors and carried them the short distance to the spherical testing chamber, tossing their bodies inside like so much garbage. Outrage and horror clashed inside her. She tried twisting free, but Calivan only tightened his grip, crushing her arms against her ribs, making it hard for her to breathe. Without releasing his grip, he reached into the pouch at his side and extracted one of the polished, egg-shaped crystals. It began to glow brightly as he began feeding it the magic he was extracting from her.
“You should have returned home to Wintercraig instead of marrying Dilys and coming to Calberna,” he chided, his tone surprisingly void of wrath. “Balat had what he wanted, the Winter King would have made sure Minush Oroto rued the day he ever dreamed of owning a Season of Summerlea, and Dilys could not have continued to pursue you once you publicly refused to claim him. If you had just gone home, everything would have been fine. I never wished harm to you or your sisters. I just couldn’t have any of you marrying my nephew.”
Summer stiffened as the meaning behind Calivan’s words sank in. Sweet Helos. Calivan Merimydion was behind her kidnapping! He’d helped Mur Balat abduct Summer and her sisters!
“Alys vowed from the Sea Throne that any daughter of Dilys’s union with a Season of Summerlea would be bornimlani,with gifts worthy of a Calbernan queen,” Calivan continued. “I couldn’t run the risk of losing her. My whole life has been devoted to keeping her strong and safe and happy. And then not only did you come back and make Dilys your husband, but you’re a Siren! You don’t need Alys’s gifts to make your daughterimlani,but you’ll still kill her all the same. You’ll take her throne, and leave her nothing. She’ll drain herself to give you her queen’s gifts, drain herself so deeply that even the elixir I’ve been using to keep her alive will not stop her Fade.”
Calivan shuddered, as if beset by some great and terrible emotion. Then he bent close to Summer’s ear and hissed, “I won’t let my sister Fade. I don’t care what I have to do to prevent that.”
There was a tone in that hissing voice. A note of wild ferocity she’d heard before. An obsession just like the twisted seed that had born such dreadful fruit inside her father. Anger flickered inside her, bringing a surge of fresh, wild magic.
The first crystal egg was shining so brightly it was blinding, like looking directly into the sun. Calivan exchanged it for a second. This one filled even faster than the first.
It wasn’t just his hand in the kidnapping of Summer and her sisters that outraged her. It was his obsessive love for his sister that eclipsed his ability to consider anyone or anything but his own fear and grief. Even his own family.
Family should never hurt family.
Lily’s father should never have beat his daughter until she felt driven to risk her life and that of her unborn child to escape him.
Nemuan Merimynos should never have let his anguish over the murders of his mother and sister drive him to murder his own innocent cousins in revenge.
Verdan Coruscate should have found the strength to survive his wife’s death without letting grief and guilt drive him to madness and destruction. His kingdom conquered. His son disinherited and banished. One daughter sold into marriage to end a war. The other three scattered to the winds—two dead, one about to die. Every loss and tragedy utterly avoidable, had Verdan loved his family enough to put them first, as Alysaldria had done for Dilys. She had not set out on a reckless course of revenge. She had not driven herself mad over the loss of her husband and unborn child. She’d made herself stay strong for the child she had left.
And now Alysaldria’s brother—her twin—would do to her son what a band of murderous thieves had done to her. Slaughter his mate. And if Dilys didn’t follow her to the grave, he would torment himself every moment for the rest of his life. The brave, magnificent, larger-than-life warrior she had married would perceive her death as yet another personal failure, proof of his inability to keep his loved ones safe.
“Good goddess, is there no end to your magic?” Calivan replaced a second sun-bright crystal with not one but two more, and Gabriella sagged in his arms as the drain on her magic increased commensurately.
“CALIVAN!”
Calivan started in surprise as a familiar voice roared the Lord Chancellor’s name.
“RELEASE MY MATE, YOU TRAITOROUSKRILLO!”
Dilys!The sound of her mate’s voice caused a fresh surge of magic to well up inside Gabriella. His nearness, the knowledge that he’d come for her, that he would always come for her, brought the bonds of their union singing to life, acting like a catalyst on the source of her power.
Calivan cursed as the magic gathering inside her swiftly outpaced his ability to drain it from her. “You four!” he Commanded the queen’s guards. “The Calbernan out there is trying to kill theMyerial! Get out there and stop him. Kill him if you have to!”
What?This vile man... this queen killer... would murder his own nephew? His own flesh and blood?He thought to kill Dilys?Gabriella’s mate?
Over her dead body.
The wellspring of power renewed by Dilys’s nearness became a roaring fountain geysering up inside her. Fierce and ferocious and murderously protective.
“My goddess! How muchfarkingmagic do you have?” This time, Calivan’s voice revealed dawning fear, as the flood of her magic threatened to overwhelm him. Another crystal filled, then another, and still her magic continued to surge.
She tried to draw a breath—just one was all she needed. The ocean of power pounded against her, needing an outlet—needing her Voice to free it. Like the scream that had sunk Trinipor, the Shout building inside her was a guttural cry of rage and retribution, but also a ferocious need to protect her mate from the murderous madman who shared his blood. All her Shout needed was a breath—just one—to set it free.
But the hand clamped over her nose and mouth denied her that. She clawed at Calivan’s forearm, her nails digging so deep they drew blood. Her fingertips burned and throbbed from the ferocity of her grip.
“Die!” Calivan Shouted, using her own stolen magic against her. “Die now!”
The Command slammed into her with such force, it felt like every bone in her body shattered. What little breath remained in her lungs wheezed out in a strangled cry. Her heart slammed against her chest, then began to stutter, the rhythm faltering as the magic erupting inside her grappled with the powerful Command pressing down upon her.
Still holding her fast against him with the hand clamped hard over her mouth, Calivan freed his other arm, drew the dagger from the jeweled scabbard at his waist and slammed it into her chest.
Pain exploded inside her, scattering her wits and robbing her limbs of strength. Darkness swept in from the periphery of her vision, eclipsing her sight. Her body sagged against his.
Dimly, she was aware of Calivan dragging her back to his testing chamber and tossing her inside atop the bodies of Biross and Tarrant.
