He tugged me impossibly closer, his body pressed against mine.
“Before you consider selling me out to your father, remember this: I’ve had his confidence for over a year. He trusts me. I have been sowing the seeds of doubt where you are concerned, and it would take very little effort on my part to convince him you are trying to undermine his plans by painting me as the villain.”
He released me so suddenly that I stumbled back, my thighs hitting the armchair behind me.
I watched in stunned silence as Fallon reached into his pocket and retrieved a handkerchief, wiping my saliva from his cheek as though he hadn’t a care in the world. When he was done, he pocketed the cloth and turned to face me.
“Think about what I said, Lady Cadence. Your life may very well depend on my good graces.”
With his threat lingering between us, he spun around and headed for the door.
Chapter Fifty-Five
Cadence
My mind was reeling, desperate to pick apart everything Fallon had just revealed. But I barely had time to collect myself before the air in the chamber shimmered, the temperature dropping so suddenly it stung my skin.
Shadows snaked across the cold, hard floor, filling the space with a dark foreboding I didn’t want to acknowledge. A crack of power tore through the room, jagged and uncontrolled.
For a moment, everything was still. Then Ryker stepped through the black mist, his jaw clenched and blood soaking his tunic. Our gazes met, and what I saw in his eyes made me recoil.
Wrath.
Pulsing and undiluted.
My gaze shifted to the lifeless form slung over his shoulder. Blood smeared his face, and more of it soaked his shirt, dripping in ugly splatters onto the floor.
A sound ripped from my throat, inhuman as it echoed off the walls, rough and desperate. I ran toward my brother, shoving aside the armchair, as Ryker dumped him on the floor. My knees scraped painfully on the stone as I dropped to Callum’s side. My stomach lurched, and my hands shook so badly I could hardly reach for him.
“Callum! Callum, can you hear me?”
Ryker’s arm shot out, hauling me back by my dress. Rage twisted his features, and his eyes burned like coals.
“Don’t touch him.” His voice was a guttural snarl, but the threat was clear: one wrong move and my brother was dead.
I froze, my breath caught in my chest.
He knew. Gods, he knew.
All the hope I’d clung to shattered in an instant.
“Ryker, what have you done?” The words wavered, thin and fragile, barely making it past my lips.
“I should ask you that,wife.” He spat the word with so much venom it dripped from his tongue like poison, each syllable meant to wound.
I felt the balance tip, the tension coil too tight, and suddenly I wasn’t sure I’d make it out of this unscathed.
“Ryker, I —”
He moved quicker than my mind could process, his hand darting out to cup my chin, his fingers digging into the soft flesh of my cheeks to the point of pain.
“Before you think about lying to me, Temptress, remember, I hold your brother’s life in the palm of my hand.”
The sound of a nearby door hitting the wall spared me from responding, as hurried footfalls thundered toward us. Riordan, Eamon, and Malesh burst into the chamber, all three lowering their weapons the instant they saw Callum sprawled across the stone. Blood pooled beneath his head, a bright, damning stain.
Malesh swore under his breath, and Eamon’s face drained of color, his eyes darting from me to Ryker and back again.
But it was Riordan who broke through the tension. “Killer?”
