Vexxion’s hands twitched at his sides.
I stared at him, pleading with him in my mind. I tried to pull on my power to flit—and it refused my command. It boiled within the well, but each time I slipped my hand into the froth to scoop some up, it coursed off my fingers.
“I sense reluctance on your part. You’re not willing to share?” The king’s hands smacked onto his throne, tightening to the point the metal bowed. Madrood oozed forward and sucked in a deep breath.
No . . .! Vexxion. Get back. Run!
I met the dragon’s gaze, and his bored into mine, sinking deeply . . .
For a moment, I saw a vast stone city made up of buildings that gleamed like silver in the sunlight. People moving about with joy in their hearts and on their faces. A sea glistened beyond and—
“Zayde was quite generous,” the king said, slicing throughthe image. It slid away, leaving nothing but this wretched place behind.
Madrood eased back behind the throne.
“Zayde loves you,” Vexxion told the king.
Ivenrail snorted. “Yes, yes, he does. I was disappointed that I had to persuade him to share as well. Surely you won’t deny me this tasty morsel.” The steel in his voice told me this man would not allow anyone to refuse him. The mockery there told me he knew no one dared.
Wait.
My breath caught.
Younger brother.
Zayde.
The king had two sons. A younger one who adored his father and an older son he’d molded in his own image.
Access was the last stage of the Claiming. Per the rules, it could only be shared with someone of the same blood—Vexxion had clearly told me that.
Vexxion shared blood with the brute I’d come here to kill.
At the realization of what he’d done to me, agony rocked through me, a storm blasting onto the shore. I’d . . .
I couldn’t do anything.
My storm had been suppressed.
Collared and controlled.
How could you?I shrieked into Vexxion’s mind.
I gaped at the king, taking in his piercing sapphire eyes so like Vexxion’s before I wrenched my gaze away.
You fucking bastard,I hurtled at Vexxion.
I am aptly named.
It was too late . . . foreverything.
Vexxion’s cousin, Farnoll, was supposed to claim me. Instead, I’d begged Vexxion to do it, only to have him bring me to the king as an offering just like Farnoll would’ve. At the Claiming, Vexxion had wrapped those wretched vines around my neck that now gave him and the king complete control over me. He’d awakened my magic for them to access whenever they pleased.
He’d “trained me,” but that was just to give him a chance to seduce me before he brought me here as a gift for his father.
I gave that man my body. My heart. My soul. While he . . .
He never intended to help me. He and the king probably laughed about my foolish plan to kill him.
