“I’m no longer Merrick’s or your willing bride.”
“Too late to back out of that part now, Wildfire,” he drawled, his intent gaze seeking and latching onto mine. “You’re married.You’re queen of this court. You’re stuck here whether you like it or not.”
I lifted my chin. “If I want to leave, I will.”
“And never find out what’s truly going on?”
He taunted me, teased me at every turn, even with this secret he appeared unwilling to divulge.
“Stay,” he said again. “Work with me at night and Merrick during the day. Find out what’s going on.” The last came out in a frustrated growl.
“How am I supposed to discover anything when everyone tosses out hints and then acts as if they never said a word? Whatcanyou tell me about what’s going on here?”
His pleading gaze met mine. The pain there tangled through me, making it nearly impossible to think. “If only you knew how much I wanted to tell you. How it started for us.” His air wheezed in and out, and the scar on his face stood out in a white slash across his face that was rapidly losing color. “How it will end. About the curse.”
I stepped toward him. “Yes. Tell me about the curse.”
“Discover the truth before it’s too late. Merrick and I are doomed. We will die if you don’t?—”
His face went florid, and he wrangled his hands around his throat, gasping and gurgling.
A low, primal groan escaped his lips, sending a ripple of dread through me.
“What are you doing? Stop fooling around.”
“Not,” he wheezed, his head jerking back and forth. Color continued to bleed from his face, and the veins in his neck threatened to burst from the strain.
“Lore?”
His chest heaved, his thick muscles contracting rhythmicallyas if they were in a futile battle with the invisible force cutting off his ability to suck in air.
I took another step toward him, flinging my hand to a blade at my side that was no longer there, as if I could use it to defend him. “Stop it.” He was playing with me, right? Trying to twist this like always, to manipulate me into?—
His eyes glazed over, the irritating, infuriating, much-too-arousing, reckless man I always saw there fading.
Lorant was not playing.
“Lore!” I leaped across the distance I’d put between us.
Before I could reach him, he lurched forward, his body crumbling, collapsing, hitting the hard floor with a sickening thud. He lay where he fell in a pile of contorted limbs and ashen gray flesh.
“Lore?” I croaked. Despite my rage and the bitter feeling of betrayal I’d clung to since I saw the change, I could not keep my heart from aching for them both. “Are you alright?”
He’daskedme to stay. He hadn’t begged.
But was this part of their game?
I nudged his leg with my foot, but he didn’t respond. He didn’t even twitch.
His lungs did not rise.
They did not fall.
I dropped to my knees beside him with a guttural wail wrenching up my throat.
3
Reyla
