14
Ihit the ground on hands and knees, thrown out of the force that transported me. It feels like my insides have been rearranged, everything moved so fast. I gasp air into my lungs as my surroundings become clear. I’m not outside the Residence anymore.
I’m lying on a cliff—a very familiar cliff. Two soaring cliff faces obscure a walkway that is only visible from an angle. This is where Llion’s children were hidden: all the way across the border. Somehow I’ve travelled hundreds of miles in seconds.
A voice beside me smirks. “Every time we meet, you’re on your hands and knees.”
I scramble to my feet, twisting to face the speaker. A male elf towers over me only two paces away. He has platinum blond hair that is shaved short around the back and sides but is longer on top with a jagged fringe ending above his pale olive eyes. His face is almost angelic: perfect cheekbones, perfectly full lips, and a strong jaw to match. He stands naked to the waist, his sculpted chest tattooed with golden runes to enhance his power.
“Well met, Storm Princess. Or should I use the gargoyle salutation and say ‘Greetings, Lady Storm?’”
I narrow my eyes at him. Only the gargoyles call me ‘Lady Storm’ and it worries me that he knows that. How many days or even weeks has he been spying on Erador through the eyes of predators?
He rests one hand on the scruff of a shadow panther. The beast is pure white, crumbling into dust as I watch. He must have drained the life out of it to bring me here. Three more shadow panthers sit obediently a step away, their silver eyes vacant of any natural instinct. I shudder as I realize that he has complete control over them.
“You’re Grayson Glory.” He’s a lot more solidly built than Gideon was. Males in the House of Glory tend to be tall, slender, and lethal without the brute force of other houses like Valor and Bounty. Grayson is tall but he’s surprisingly bulky and well-muscled. Baelen and Jasper are the only other elves I’ve met with broad enough chests to rival a gargoyle’s but Grayson’s comes close.
I demand, “How did you bring me here?”
“The Mercy Heartstone knows you, Marbella, and now it obeys me. I can drag you to me whenever I want.”
Oh, great. He thinks I’m his puppet. Well, he may have taken me by surprise this time, but I’m determined that it won’t happen again. He must have access to the Mercy Heartstone right now or he wouldn’t be able to use that sort of power on me. But where is it? The bastard is half naked. He’s certainly not wearing the heartstone in plain sight like Howl always did.
I retort, “Like hell you will.”
“Why are you so unhappy, little—”
“Do not call me ‘doll!’” So far he’s called me ‘Lady Storm’ like my friends and now ‘little doll’ like Howl used to talk to me. I take a step closer to Grayson, daring him to touch me. I may not be able to kill him or stop him toying with my location, but I sure as anything can make his life miserable. And once he uses up the three panther lives, he’ll be all out of death to sustain his sorcery.
I fill every angle of my body with threat as I say, “I killed the last male who called me that name. Come to think of it… feel free to call me whatever you want. I will kill you regardless.”
At the same time as I step forward, I angle slightly to scan my surroundings. The cavity where Talia and the babies lived yawns empty on our left; the side of their home is nothing more than a jagged opening that looks like it was blasted apart. The rest of the cliff is shadowed and difficult to see. The moon definitely doesn’t glow as brightly in Erawind as it does in gargoyle country.
At least my friends aren’t here. I hope they were long gone before Grayson arrived.
My voice glides into the narrow space between us. “How about you send me back to Erador before I kill you?”
He tilts his head to the side, wipes the dust from the dead panther across his muscled thigh, and pins me in his frosty-calm gaze.
“You don’t think that you can break.” It’s his turn to narrow the gap between us, taking a step toward me. “Everyone has a breaking point. I will find yours.”
I let his threat wash off me, edging nearer to him. His arrogance has allowed me this close. I just need to be a little closer. I drop my voice to a gentle whisper. “Why don’t I find yours first.”
He doesn’t step away, standing his ground instead, a smile tugging at his mouth. “Feel free to try. You will fail like all the others.”
His confidence is unsettling. So is his comment about others trying to break him. But I’m not letting this opportunity pass. He’s too far away from the shadow panthers to draw on their lives to give him power to sustain his sorcery. Only his forced tether to the Mercy Heartstone will protect him now and it’s time to see how strong that protection is.
My palm shoots out and connects with his chest. My power slams through it and I pour all my destructive thoughts into the contact. If there’s a time that I want to destroy something, it’s now.
Grayson jolts as the force shoots through him, burning light crackling across his shoulders, racing down his arms and legs. The runes on his chest light up golden, glaring brightly in the darkness. I pray for him to fall, collapse, die,anything. I remember Howl: how he’d screamed and burned and shattered. But Grayson remains standing.
His hand closes over mine, pressing it flat against his chest, imprisoning it there. It’s almost as if he doesn’t want the contact to end. His eyelids lower as he tugs me closer, chest-to-chest, only our arms between us. His other arm slips around my waist, palm resting lightly against my lower back as my power fades. “I think I’ll call you Marbella. That suits you best.”
I grit my teeth. His touch against my lower back presses and releases, his hand finding a spot to rest where his thumb can graze back and forth against the curve at the top of my hip: Baelen’s favorite spot. I try to calm myself, pushing back against the strong desire to unleash everything I have against this male.
Since he seems happy to explain things to me, I ask, “Tell me how you’re still standing right now.”
Please don’t tell me the Mercy Heartstone is this strong…
