Grasping behind her, Adalia panicked as she struggled to break free. The attack on her wings had caught her off guard, and she lost her focus.
Chills ran through her body as a blade was held to her throat—a cold reminder of her vulnerability. A hot, breathy tongue licked the side of her neck as the blade bit into her delicate skin. The Thorn that held her kicked the back of her knees, dropping her to the ground. Adalia winced as pain shot through her legs. She tried to hold herself together, but when a figure emerged from the shadows in front of her, Adalia’s blood turned cold, and her mind froze.
Snake sauntered towards her in slow motion. Adalias’ eyes darted around the battlefield searching for Matthias, but could not find him. Snake stopped in front of her, his yellow eyes full of hatred and lust. He grabbed her by the face with one hand and licked his lips.
“Oh, the things I am going to do with you,” he hissed before roughly pushing her.
He nodded to the person behind her, and they began dragging her away from the onslaught.
Adalia made one last-ditch attempt at freedom.
But her screams for Matthias were swallowed by the sounds of battle.
Chapter Thirty-Two
The realisation
The moment his father’s arrow pierced the ground in front of the King of Light’s feet, Matthias knew his father had chosen his love for himself over the love of his child. If he actually cared for his son, even just a little, he would have turned around and walk away. It didn’t come as a shock, but it hurt all the same.
As the battle erupted into a swirling mass of dark and light chaos, Matthias knew which kingdom he would serve today.
Matthias had never made it a habit to train with the Thorns down in the dens. His father’s talk of wars and battles always rang hollow, so the need for training never crossed his mind. Years of underground fighting and self-defence worked just as well, though.
He had his wits, his keen eye, and his experience at wielding a blade. The bow strapped to his back was his second weapon of choice. It was the only sport growing up that his father insisted he do, and while there were times Matthias would complain about it, he was grateful now that he knew how to use one.
It was torture, tearing his hand from Adalias. The horrendous time in the cave made him see things differently, and he knew, themoment he’d opened his eyes in that hellhole, that he never wanted to leave her side again. It didn’t matter what his father was doing or what he’d done in the past.
It was no longer Matthias’s desire to enact revenge.
The absence of her warm hand still lingered on his as he took to the skies. The prince forced himself not to look back, because he knew if he did, all he’d do was snatch her from the crowd and fly into the sunset.
Only cowards ran from battle.
Lightners and Thorns collided everywhere he glanced, in the air and on the ground. Sweat poured from his brow as he cut through a few Thorns, their faces shocked as they realised who he was and that he was fighting against them. After he’d killed or injured a small group of them, he lunged for the ground, landing near Nikolas, who battled two Thorns at once.
“MATTHIAS!”
The prince spun at the sound of his name. It was faint against the clamour of blade against blade.
“MATTHIAS!”
The plea rang again, and this time, he heard it loud and clear. The crack in her voice, the fear, the desperation that tugged on his heart so hard that he thought he might die. He searched, but there was no way of knowing where she was through the density of bodies.
If they hurt her.The thought tore at him. If she was injured because he’d taken too long to stand up, if she was targeted for loving him, for being his weakness, then he would show them all just how hard the Prince of Darkness would fight for the light.
In that moment of invisible transition, Matthias shifted from his old life into the next. No longer was he going to cower under the hand of his father. No longer was he going to sit idly by and allow Snake or Jes to verbally abuse him. The hand of his father would never again bruise his flesh.
An invisible thread that somehow connected him to Adalia tightened, and his body reacted in a way that was purely out of hiscontrol. The heat travelled from his feet and made its way up into the rest of his form.
The uncontrollable shaking came next, and Matthias thought he might rattle his way out of his own skin. Anger and pain erupted from him in the form of a cry, and Matthias threw his arms wide. As soon as the pain stopped, a cool sensation washed over him and he felt different . . . new. With his chest heaving with each breath, this new wave of identity made him feel invincible.
Adalia’s cry rang through his ears, and Matthias let out an animalistic growl as he charged through the sea of people, knocking them over in his rage.
Pushing off the ground, the prince shot into the sky. As he did, his wings unfurled and expanded, turning the most iridescent, electric-blue. So vivid that it even caught himself off guard.
Shaking off the surprise, he searched the ground—his eyes leapt to and fro. He spotted her on the other side of The Grey, dragged along by his father’s whore.
Jes had gone too far. Today, True Death would meet her.
