Adara was upon him in an instant, her hands wrapping around his throat. She knew he was worth more to her alive than dead, but the fire within her raged, chanting to burn straight through skin and bone until his head was severed clean from his body.You destroy everything you touch. Her nails pierced his neck, rivulets of warm blood seeping over her fingers.Good,she thought,then you will be next.
Adara leaned forward. “Now who’s the one that can’t protect themselves?” she growled, her voice a low rasp from her injured throat, teeth grazing the shell of his ear.
He let out a choked noise, and Adara reveled in feeling his throat bob for something as simple as air beneath her tightening grip.
Something slammed into her side, and suddenly, she was pinned to the ground.
Ace’s brown eyes bore into her with something akin to fury. “Are you two done trying to kill each other?” he asked, glancing between the two of them before his harsh gaze finally settled on Dominic. “You need her key, don’t you?” His attention returned to her. “And you need his. You both need each other.” His tone was scolding, like a mother berating her children for fighting. “So stop trying to kill one another or else who knows what the gods’ punishment will be for breaking your blood oath!”
Heart still pounding in her throat from the rush of adrenaline, Adara tipped her head back and laughed.
Chapter 21
Dominicburstthroughthedoor, almost ripping it off its hinges. It banged shut behind him, rattling the walls as he began rummaging through chests and shelves and drawers and cupboards—anything and everything he owned. There had to be something in his possession that would trigger his memories. He wouldn’t have drunk that elixir without any way to reverse it.
Or perhaps he would have because he never thought he’d want them back.
Memories rushed through his head. His sister, his father. Damon, Valen. A ship and blood, so much blood. Dark and haunting like the space between the stars. Ace and Asher coming to Andreilia, the others trickling in over the years after he let them live. Then nothing. A dark, vast void of pure nothing. A chasm in his head due to the potion he’d made to rid himself of part of his memories, too pained to live with them. Silence so eerie and still that a shiver snaked up his spine.
Then more Andreilians arrived.
Then Adara. Adara Rhyes and her beautiful allure of courting death with him. Adara Rhyes and her game of love that could only end in tragedy. Adara Rhyes and her desperate need for a weapon capable of tearing through space and time. Adara Rhyes and her cunning ability to persuade Dominic into keeping her alive.
Adara Rhyes. That name belonged in that empty void where he could remember nothing. She belonged in the part of his past he could not recall. He was certain now that the Whisperer showed him a piece of their past.
Cupboards flew open to reveal an array of potions, herbs, medicines, maps, and other random trinkets. He scanned all of them, picking up every single one and inspecting it thoroughly, as if it would bring the memories rushing back. He hurried over to the bookshelf, flipping through the pages of the ones he read most frequently—ancient tomes on the Realm Fracturer and other deadly beasts, or works of fiction he enjoyed—and came up empty handed. Dominic let out a frustrated groan. He began flinging books out of the way, searching for some sort of hidden compartment that might have stored something capable of bringing his memories back.
Rage and confusion and desperation blinded him. It wasn’t until one of the books he’d thrown came flying back at him, whacking him in the back of the head, that he paused his franticsearching. Chest heaving with every panicked breath, Dominic turned to the doorway where Adara stood, her brows furrowed deeply with confusion. She must have been in her room across the hall and heard him rifling through his things.
The back of his head throbbed. With a hand drifting up to rub the ache there, Dominic glared at her, then returned to searching the shelves, less frantic with her watching.
She scoffed from the doorway. “Don’t give me that look, you’re the one who threw the book in the first place. I just happened to catch it.”
“You could have said my name to get my attention,” he grumbled, grabbing another book and thumbing through it, then running his hand along the shelf where it had stood. He was not inclined to speak with her after she revealed there was no way to reach the land to find a dragon scale and shadow steel. Perhaps they could find the relics in Malryn, traded from one of the kingdoms in Blemythia long ago, but he was still furious that she omitted the truth.
“Yes, but throwing the book was much more effective and entertaining than simply calling your name,” she replied, her tone vexing.
Dominic rolled his eyes and kept his back to her as he rifled through the chest at the foot of his bed.
“What are you even looking for?” she inquired, her prodding eyes peering over his shoulder as her footsteps neared.
“None of your business,” he growled, his hands carefully maneuvering knives and swords and arrows in the chest. His power rushed beneath his skin, anger making his chest rise as he breathed through the agitation, hiding the fact that she could be the reason for his missing memories. “Now get out.”
“Fine,” she said. “I’ll go outside with the others, waiting for Evreux to return in the morning.”
He didn’t miss the confident jab her words aimed at him, certain that she was right to place her faith in this new stranger—Evreux apparently was his name.
A knock sounded on his door.
Again. And again. And again. An annoyingly orotund noise that reverberated through the wooden walls of his hut. If his head hadn’t been throbbing so much, the sound might not have affected him.
Dominic lay curled in a fetal position on his bed, hands covering his ears as the knock sounded again. “Don’t you think I would’ve opened the bloody door the first time if I wanted to talk!” he yelled, refusing to get up.
It was morning, and that was most likely Adara coming to gloat that Evreux had survived. He didn’t care. He had other things to worry about.
Dominic’s powers dwindled, along with his mental and physical health. Some days, he would be fine. Others, he’d wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat, nightmares plaguing his sleep. He would shiver and stumble, so he’d eat to regain his strength only to retch it all up moments later.
“Well, maybe if you would answer the first time, I wouldn’t keep coming back!” Ace called back from the other side of the door.
