I shook but braced myself. If I was to die or be tortured, I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of seeing me flinch. He wanted my fear, my tears, my timidity. I would give himnothing.
I blanked my face and squared my shoulders, which seemed to only enrage him further. He moved his hand, and—
An incredibly fast blur took Cyrus down before I knew what was happening. I gasped as the two rolled, and I caught a glimpse of who stopped him.
“Calix!” I cried, tears filling my eyes as I took him in. Silvery white hair was long and flowing, braided back from his face on the sides, purple eyes narrowed and seething with color, darkness bleeding out from him—out of control as his emotions rioted. Armor covered every bit of him except his head, and his black bladed sword was at his hip, the silver runes hidden in its sheath.
I’d never seen a more wonderful sight in all my life.
My heart pounded as his eyes met mine, and it felt like everything would be okay, now that he was here. Everything would be right in the world—his eyes alone soothing me from the terror I’d been experiencing. Making the week spent here seem like only a moment in comparison to the entirety of our time together. It couldn’t stack up in comparison.
“Calix.” Cyrus growled, lips pulling back in a snarl. Calix matched his growl with a roar that shook the windows. “You shouldn’t have come. She’s mine.” Cyrus hissed at him, but a winged horse could not compare to a dragon, and he knew it. “And now you and all of your people will pay for taking her.”
Calix laughed wryly, shaking his head in a taunting manner. “I wouldn’t be afraid of you even if youcouldequal my power. But we both know you don’t. And no amount of stolen power will make up for it. Asteria doesn’t belong to you. She’s free. Completely her own.” His face hardened, and a combination of darkness and fire licked every word he spoke next. “Know that I am going to makeyoupay for every single time you laid a finger on her.”
His voice was pure menace as he faced Cyrus. the promise of death lingering on every word, yet all I felt was the promise in them, heating my entire body. No man had ever tried protectingme before. Not Soren. Not even my father, whose best attempt was handing me a forbidden blade. Certainly not Cyrus. Calix and our friends were the first. But not even Eryx, Baach, or Titan would dothis.
“Oh, I don’t believe it.” Cyrus laughed, shaking his head and cackling, “You’ve fallen for her, haven’t you? You absolute fool. I heard you had a mate out there somewhere. I wonder what she’ll make of your love for a slave?”
Calix’s eyes met mine over Cyrus’s shoulder, and we both stilled as the accusation settled. My heart was beating so fast I thought it might be visible in my chest, but there was no time to consider what he was saying. No time to entertain the idea that maybe—
No.
Not. The. Time. Asteria.
I looked to Soren to see his reaction, only to find him—gone. He’d disappeared. The door in the wall was left open, and the man who’d opened it to supposedly save me was long gone.Coward.
“You always did love to run your mouth, Cyrus. But I mean it, I will kill you for touching her. And I’ll enjoy every moment of it.” Calix swore, letting loose a breath of flame at Cyrus. But then lightning was cracking towards him, and Calix dodged to the side, his darkness exploding through the room.
It was so dark that I couldn’t see my fingers in front of my face. I’d never seen Calix use it to blot out an entire room completely before, but I found the darkness comforting, despite the circumstances.
I could hear two forces colliding but couldn’t see what was happening. Okay, now I was a little peeved about the darkness. Fae could see just fine in this, I was sure.So unfair.
Lightning started cracking throughout the room, lighting it up enough for me to see what was happening. Streaks of bluewhite parting the black in staggered bolts. It was—beautiful, in a devastating way.
Not that I could focus on that. Not with two powerful Fae males trying to kill one another mere feet away.
The darkness tried surrounding Cyrus, but he had used some sort of spell to protect himself. I could see shadows dart toward him, only to bounce off, while lightning was sent at Calix, only for him to be somehow faster each time, the bolt hitting where he’d just been. I could see the frustration mounting in both of them.
They seemed to both give up on using magic at the same time. Calix was vastly more powerful than Cyrus, what had the blood magic given Cyrus access to—what was making it possible for him to fight Calix this way?
What else could he do with blood magic?
It was a chilling thought.
As chilling as the sight before me. Calix and Cyrus rushed one another with screams of rage. They collided, now using their bodies to try to take the other down. Thankfully, Calix definitely had the upper hand.
He fought with his entire body. Fluidly. He moved like a dancer, smoothly moving from one move to the next. A fist into Cyrus’s cheek while he bent back to avoid a similar fate, then swinging around to take out Cyrus’s legs, who managed to save his balance and get up just in time to avoid being pinned. Cyrus went after Calix in a flurry of punches that were all blocked.
Blood spilt a moment later, and I watched Calix flip a dagger with a smirk. Cyrus’s chest was sliced down the middle. It quickly healed, but Cyrus was enraged. It made him sloppier, his form suffering from the way he went after Calix with pure fury. He had his own dagger in hand now and used it to try to stab Calix with no success.
Blows went back and forth, and back and forth, making me nearly dizzy I was watching so closely. Calix managed to land a slice down Cyrus’s face with the dagger, and I wanted to cheer from the sidelines, but I refrained, purely so I wouldn’t distract him.
Except then Cyrus pulled something out of his pocket, a vial of some sort. Calix cocked his head, only to widen his eyes as Cyrus threw it down and muttered something. My own eyes widened as I realized what was happening—blood magic. Calix was already moving toward Cyrus to stop him, but halfway there, he froze in place.
His limbs completely locked up mid-movement, and the darkness around us dissipated completely.
Oh, fuck.
