The sickening sound of snapping bones filled the dining hall, and this time, when he screamed, only a low gurgling noise broke free.
“No hard feelings,” I said, as I wrapped my palm around his still beating heart and tugged, before dropping his body unceremoniously to the ground.
He jerked against the floor. Once. Twice. Then stilled.
I tossed the bloodied organ onto the tiles before lifting my hand to my lips, sucking a finger inside my mouth. The coppery taste of his blood coated my tongue, and a shiver of satisfaction coursed through me.
One down, one to go.
As I advanced toward my father, a deafening clamor erupted from beyond the hall, before a guard skidded to a stop at the threshold.
“The palace is under attack.”
Chapter Sixty-Six
Cadence
The sounds of battle reached me as I raced up the stairs. Steel grated against steel, and my palms grew clammy the farther I climbed. As I rounded the last corner, I almost collided with the chaos spilling into the stairwell.
A body crashed over the banister, and it hit the marble below with a sickening smack. Blood sprayed in a grotesque arc, and the stench of iron and sweat was thick enough to choke on.
Shouts rang out above me as metal slammed into stone.
How many of them were up there?
A shadow darted across the landing, and I pressed myself to the wall, breathing so hard I thought my chest might explode.
“You will not die today,”I told myself, willing it to be true.
I edged forward, and the sight before me stopped my breath.
At the end of the hall, Ryker fought three men at once. He moved like a living nightmare. Every line of muscle, every sinew, worked in concert as he surged forward. His fist collided with a man’s jaw, and bone cracked as teeth spilled from his assailant’s mouth like grim little pearls.
Another came at him with a blade, and Ryker caught his wrist, then twisted it. The soldier let out a shrill, grotesque scream, and his sword bounced off the floor as he flailed in a desperate attempt to free himself.
But Ryker was relentless.
He wrenched the man’s arm back until the joint snapped. His opponent crumpled in on himself as he dropped to the ground, howling in agony. Ryker’s boot came down on his skull with a nauseating crunch, and I recoiled as bile rose in my throat.
The third one charged, and Ryker grinned. Blood coated his teeth, making him appear monstrous. He caught the man by his throat and slammed his head against the stone. Once, twice, until his face was no longer recognizable, his body sliding down the wall boneless.
I didn’t move, didn’t even breathe. He was the embodiment of wrath, and I couldn’t take my eyes off him as my skin heated and my chest heaved with each inhale.
His shadows billowed around him, slithering across the blood-soaked floor, hungry for more violence. The man at his feet tried crawling to freedom, leaving a wet red trail in his wake.
Ryker stalked forward, slow and deliberate, every inch the predator. Then his wings snapped out, and he moved so fast I barely saw it. One second, he was by the pillar, and the next, he had the man by his throat, boots scraping against marble as he hauled him off the ground. With one swift jerk of his wrist, he fell limp in Ryker’s hold.
Ryker’s shoulders rose and fell in time with his breaths, and when his gaze lifted toward me, the world seemed to slow, fading away until there was nothing left but the two of us.
He moved with purposeful strides, eating up the distance separating us. With each measured step, a delicious tension coiled between us, making the air thrum with anticipation. When he reached me, his hand gripped my waist, and he pulled me against him as his mouth descended on mine. Ryker kissed me like it was the first time he’d ever tasted me. Every brush of his lips was electric, igniting a fire that left the rest of the world forgotten.
He broke the kiss and cupped my cheeks as he pressed his forehead to mine. “Temptress,” he murmured, his warm breath fanning my cheek. His fingers snaked through my hair, settling on my nape. “I love you.”
The weight of his words slammed into me, and I drew in a sharp, uneven breath.
“From the moment I saw you in that marketplace, I knew you were the one I’d bleed for, the one I’d carve out my heart for. Not because fate demanded it, but because your soul was everything mine wasn’t. Your light cuts through my darkness, and I would raze kingdoms, bathe the world in blood, just to stand in its glow. You were everything I’d been waiting for, even when Irefused to admit it. To call you mine now…” He let out a shaky breath. “That’s a gift I’ll never squander again.”
Ryker closed his eyes, his jaw clenching as he worked to control whatever emotion was forcing its way to the surface.
