She leaned back a bit and brushed her fingers over the stubble on his jaw. “About what would happen if you shaved.”
Klyde’s lips curved in that sly, cocksure grin that she thought she had hated. “I did say you would fall for me.”
“That it wouldn’t be fair.” She smiled. “I wonder who fell first.”
“Love, I was mad for you the moment you held a knife at my throat, and all I could do was beg the Gods. Whether it was for mercy or for thanks, I still do not yet know. You have me by the bollocks, woman. They’re yours now.”
She squealed with laughter. “How romantic. I suppose I will keep them as long as I have everything else attached to them.”
Klyde grinned at that, but as he gazed at her it wavered, the first sign of the worry she knew had been building inside of him. He sighed and cradled her hands in his. “Lucenna, there is something I need to—” He froze, staring down at her fingers. “What happened to your ring?”
“I took it off.”
His eyes widened. “Why?”
Lucenna smiled at him timidly. She had removed it last night after nearly losing him. It was the moment she knew she loved him. “Because of you.”
But Klyde didn’t look happy. All she saw on his face was pure panic.
And fear.
“When did you remove it?”
She stared at him, confused by his alarmed tone. “I’m not going to marry him anymore, Klyde. I don’t need the ring.”
“Yes, you do!” He riffled through her satchel frantically. “Where is it? Put it on, Lucenna. I need you to put it on!”
“Klyde, stop it. You’re scaring me.”
The orb in the grass by her feet pulsed white, and her temple throbbed with Lucien’s alarm. Something was wrong. Klyde glanced past her, and his breath shuddered.
Lucenna whipped around.
Amber eyes looked back at her. The shade belonged to a face she had nearly forgotten and had wished to forget entirely. The sight of him froze her on the spot.
Her mind stuttered, not sure if what she was seeing was real. She didn’t want to believe the one in black robes standing a few feet away from them was real, even as the immense might of his power pressed against her very being like a wall of stone.
His name fell from her lips in a soft gasp. “Everest…”
The Crown Prince of the Magos Empire smiled at her the way he always had. But now she recognized it for what it was—cruel and heartless. And Lucenna felt the ire behind it. A spike of dread sent a chill rushing through her entire body. So cold that her skin prickled with goosebumps.
Red Essence bled into Everest’s eyes as magic spiraled from his hands, and she knew why he had come.
And what he was going to do.
Klyde shoved her roughly out of the way, and she hit the ground. The next seconds stretched into minutes. Breaths stretched into infinity. Time slowed with only the streak of red light blazing past her—because the attack wasn’t meant for her.
A grunt whooshed out of Klyde.
They both stared at the crackling spear of magic that pierced straight through his stomach and out his back. Blood bloomed from his tunic like a crimson rose, soaking through the fabric.
A whimper caught in Lucenna’s throat. She couldn’t speak, couldn’t breathe.
That spell shouldn’t have been possible. At the cold touch of glass on her chest, she found the four-leaf clover now hanging around her neck instead of his.
“Thank you for returning her to me, mercenary,” Everest said. “But I’m afraid your services are no longer required.”
Seventeen words.
