Audrey burst out laughing.
“Your bride?” She couldn’t stop herself. “Your bride?”
She saw Brumis grind her teeth. The female orc looked like she wanted to bite her head off.
Audrey shook her head and pulled out the orc dagger. If no one was going to stop her, she might as well. The blade shimmered with magic, bright and alive in her hand.
She stepped toward Jorrad, crouched down, and placed a knee on his chest. He looked up at her, his eyes the only part of him that could still move. He jerked under her, trying to throw her off, but he was almost completely paralyzed.
Audrey held the knife to his throat.
She hesitated. Could she actually do it? Kill him in front of the entire horde? His family, basically.
Could. She. Do. It.
Wouldn’t it make her just like him?
The magic in the knife spread through her arm. She felt it more intensely than before, when it had just nipped at her skin. Her veins were starting to turn dark. She flexed her fingers around the hilt, trying to maintain her grip, but she was losing it, her hand going numb.
“What the hell?”
She looked at the ink-like threads that were quickly moving toward her elbow.
She didn’t see Morgath stepping closer, still holding a hand over one of the bullet wounds.
“Where did you get that dagger?” he asked. “Is that... Did you get it from the storage room?”
Audrey looked up at him, but her vision was suddenly blurry. She furrowed her brows and blinked a few times. It didn’t help. She fell over. She braced herself on the ground, her free hand pressing into the dirt as her body tilted sideways off Jorrad. She felt weak and dizzy, her vision swimming in and out of focus.
She dropped the dagger, and it landed by her side. Her arm was fully black now, the dark veins spreading all the way to her shoulder.
Behind her, she heard Tyler shouting.
“Audrey! What’s happening to her?”
“Let us go! She needs help!” Owen’s voice, panicked.
“Don’t just stand there, do something!” Natalie screamed.
Morgath knelt next to Audrey and cupped the back of her head with his giant hand. The last thing she heard was…
“The magic isn’t settled... So reckless... Audrey...”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Audrey drifted in and out of consciousness, unable to tell how much time had passed or whether it was day or night. She existed in a strange space between waking and sleeping, where the world felt distant and muffled. Her body was numb and cold, as if she’d been submerged in ice water. She couldn’t move, could barely lift her head. When she tried to speak, no sound came out.
She was in a bed, surrounded by darkness broken only by candlelight that danced on the walls in flickering shadows. Sometimes, she opened her eyes and saw Morgath sitting beside her, his dark eyes watching her. He wasn’t wearing his skull helmet, and somewhere in the back of her mind, she knew that meant something. Something important. Other times, she found Nezhar the Sharp leaning over her, his features tense as he worked some kind of magic over her body.
Voices drifted through the haze, but she couldn’t distinguish the words or who was speaking. The sounds blended together into a low murmur that seemed to come from very far away. She wanted to ask what had happened, if her friends were safe, but her mouth would not obey. The numbness spread through her limbs like frost, and the cold settled deep in her bones.
This went on for what felt like forever. Until one day she finally woke up.
Sun streamed through the window, bright and warm against her face. Her mind was clear for the first time in what seemed like ages, and when she opened her eyes, the world came into focus with blessed clarity.
Morgath slept in an armchair beside the bed, his large frame bent over awkwardly so he could hold her hand. His usually perfect hair was a mess, falling loose around his face, and dark circles shadowed the skin under his eyes.
She looked down at their joined hands and slowly pulled hers free. She felt shaky. She lifted her arm to examine it and saw that the skin had a gray hue spreading from her hand up to her forearm, fading gradually toward her elbow. She flexed her fingers and felt weakness in the muscles, but everything seemed to work.
