No one cheered. This was not victory. Every survivor held their breath, waiting for the next horror to descend, none knowing the terrible deal I had just struck, the price already being tallied.
A deep, chilling numbness spread through me, freezing me from the inside out.
I had one day. One day until Ruin returned to collect me and the power I had promised.
In a flash, Killian crossed the battlefield, his half-dragon form melting back to human as he ran. His arms wrapped around me before I could speak, before I swayed. He lifted me, and I instantly clamped my legs around his waist, holding on as if he were the only solid thing left in the world.
“Little scorpion, you’re all right,” he breathed into my hair, his voice a ragged prayer against my bouncing golden curls.
Chapter
Twenty-Seven
Barbie
“Just like that, he’s gone.” Silas slammed his fist onto the marble island so hard the whiskey bottles jumped and clattered. “Ruin and his entire army vanished like a fart in the wind.”
The heirs had been theorizing non-stop since we’d stumbled back through the Veil. Each explanation was more desperate than the last—we’d found a weakness, it was a trap, he was gathering reinforcements. Nobody wanted to voice the unsettling truth: we had no fucking clue why we were still alive.
All I wanted was to spend the last day with just my mate, but I couldn’t be that selfish. The entire realm was on a knife’s edge, waiting for the next catastrophe, and Killian, as the newly crowned King of Chaos, was shackled by a mountain of responsibilities.
His storm-blue eyes tracked my every move across the room. Through our bond, his anxiety was a cold, heavy stone in my gut.He knew something was terribly wrong, but I buried my turmoil and fear deep, shielding him with every ounce of my will.
Sy kept trying to corner me, her gold eyes sharp with suspicion. I’d become an expert at evasion —always finding someone else to talk to or somewhere else to be. Everyone’s nerves were shot, making it easy to slip away in the chaos.
Six hours left, and my anxiety spiked. My skin felt tight, like it might crack at any time. My stomach ached relentlessly, a hollow pit where hunger gnawed. Yet for the first time, I had no appetite.
“Enough.” Killian’s voice cut through another circular argument about defensive positions. “It’s nearly dawn. My mate needs rest, and you all need sleep.”
No one argued. A heavy fog of exhaustion had settled over everyone.
With a sharp gesture, Killian opened a portal to the dragon realm. The moment we stepped through, he sealed it behind us, ensuring no one, especially Sy, could follow.
We inhaled the crisp mountain air. This was Tyson’s only home, and ours now, too. Here, we had ultimate privacy. No guards, no interruptions. Just the silent white peaks, a blanket of stars, the vast bed, and us.
He led me to the massive bed on the open rooftop of his mountain villa, settling us among the soft furs.
“How are you holding up, baby?” he asked, perched on the edge of the mattress as he pulled me against the solid strength of his chest.
“I’m holding up,” I said, my hands linking behind his neck. I wanted to stay locked in his arms, which felt like the only safe place left, and never let go. But as I was so fond of lecturing Sy, we can’t always get what we want. So I would cherish every second I had. “How are you holding up, snowflake?”
His lips twitched at the old nickname—Sy’s insult of choice for him when he’d rejected her charms.
“I worry about you,” he admitted, his voice low.
I pressed my forehead to his, closing my eyes. “There’s nothing to worry about. I’m fine. I’m here. And I’m yours.”
“Of course you’re mine,” he said, the words a vow. “You’re forever mine, as I am yours.”
His lips found mine, gentle at first, then desperate. It was as if he could taste the unspoken goodbye on my breath, and I kissed him back with every ounce of passion and fear I possessed until we broke apart, gasping.
“I can’t bear the thought of losing you,” he confessed, the words a raw whisper against my mouth. “The mere idea nearly undid me?—”
A pain, sharp and cold as an icy blade, pierced my heart.
“Shush,” I breathed. “I’m all right.We’reall right.”
I pulled back just enough to gaze at him, drinking in his masculine beauty. I traced the lock of dark hair that fell across his forehead. I memorized the warmth in his storm-blue eyes, a look reserved only for me. He was the male feared by entire realms, renowned for his ruthlessness, until he met me. He had been the most coveted prize, even when bound to the Queen of the Underworld.
