His eyes were molten shadow—glowing with raw power, far more thanhe’d ever shown me. His hair was mussed like he’d run here through a storm. When he looked at me, it was like he could see every fracture, every scar, every place I’d given too much and didn’t have enough left.
“Hello, Furious,” he murmured. A ghost of a smirk touched his lips. “Did you miss me?”
“You’re late,” I whispered.
He grinned and kissed me.
Chapter Forty-Four
Rydian
Ipulled away from Aurelia, but only after promising myself there would be time for more of it later. There had to be. I was done denying us this, the realm and the gods be damned. We’d survive this day because we must. And then Aurelia and I would deal with what lay between us once and for all. Now, shadows collapsed back into me, snapping to heel like wolves, and the chaos of the throne room rushed into brutal clarity. Courtiers screamed as a wave of Obsidians surged through the northern doors—dark armor, black eyes, weapons already raised.
Heliconia’s frost shot across the floor, icicles erupting like spikes.
Aurelia leaned against me only for a moment before straightening and standing tall. Fury lit her features—not the kind that burned out of control, but the kind that forged steel.
“Behind you!” I barked.
She spun right as an Obsidian soldier lunged. Her sword flashed, clean and lethal, carving through the space between them before his blade could fall. She slid under him, came back up hard, and drove Dorcha through his ribs.
Another soldier tried to flank her.
I was already moving.
Shadow leapt from my fingertips, slamming into his throat. The impact snapped his helm sideways, and he crumpled as my magic recoiled back to me in a rush of vapor.
More boots hit the marble, the throne room surging with Obsidian soldiers rushing in as the remaining guests tried to shove their way out.
Heliconia shrieked an order, her voice like cracking ice. “Kill the princess! Kill the shadow brutes! Bring me the traitor king alive!”
Her soldiers swarmed toward us, eager to do her bidding.
I glimpsed Callan near the front, fighting with a stolen Obsidian blade, then lost him again as more incoming Obsidian soldiers blocked my sight.
“Rydian.” Slade’s voice echoed from somewhere near the balustrade. “On your right!”
I spun, blocked a blade, shoved my sword through a gap in armor, ripped it free. Aurelia fought beside me—quick, terrifying, beautiful. Not a comet blazing out of control anymore. A blade honed to lethal purpose.
Watching her fight without her furyfire made my rib burn like someone had pressed a brand into it.
The Furiosity rune.
The warning of an early death.
I ground my teeth. “Not today.”
Aurelia didn’t hear me—she was already ducking under another swing. Her braid whipped past my cheek, lightning-fast. She twisted, drove a knife into the soldier’s thigh, ripped it sideways, and took him down.
“Show-off,” I muttered.
She kicked another soldier square in the chest, batting him away from my blind spot. “You’re welcome.”
I glanced toward the front again, to where I’d lastseen Callan. Heliconia’s power hissed as she advanced toward the Harvest Throne. Frost crawled up the dais like living vines. And Callan—idiot that he was—stood frozen there, jaw clenched, eyes darting between his throne and the monster he was supposed to hand it over to.
“Callan!” I shouted. “Move!”
He didn’t.
