But I would be a slave. My father would look on from the Goddess’ side and weep tears of shame for all of eternity.
Catching my lips, Asher kissed me. Giddy with the proof of his success, he let the golden chains dangle. Forgotten as he swallowed my anguish with a breathy groan. Replaced it with ravenous heat and a sense of scarcely containedvictory.
He’d won, and it had been easy.Ihad made it easy in coming here. In answering his call after Belle and Josh had warned me of the consequences. That I wasn’t ready to fight an army by myself—let alone a single impossibly powerful Elite, my equal or not—was now abundantly clear.
But it was too late.
Hiccupping, I succumbed. Kissed him back and allowed his ki to infect and spread, yielding to that glorious heat, no matter its corruption. No matter that it wasn’t my choice or that it meant passing the burden of my people’s freedom to a handful of Triloth Priestesses. To the scientists and their incredible technology that wouldn’t benearlyenough to stop an Empire helmed by Captain Asher Rawlings.
The last of the rare and dangerous things.
I let him deepen that kiss because for one instant, he made me forget. For the love of the dead Goddess, Imewled. Reached for him with both hands. And when his tongue slipped past my lips, I melted in his arms. Keening against him, I indulged a beast with hunger enough to swallow me whole. Wet and desperate and aching for an end to all of it.
“M’kay,” Marco said. “When I said hurry it up, I meant put the fuckin’ chains on her, mate. But if you’re keen to put on a show…” he trailed off, waggling his brows, grinning at my heated, tear-stained cheeks.
“Shut it,” the captain drawled, suckling at my lower lip. Crushing me tight against his chest, he pressed himself against my belly. A secret brand of pulsing need that made me ache, breath hitching. “Let me enjoy this,” he said, fingers cradling the base of my skull. “Just for a moment longer…”
Let him savor the victory he’d wrought from my flesh, before he bound the Glaith in the hollow bits he’d left in his wake. Before he tied me to him for the rest of time, feeding from the chaotic strengthinmyblood?
Clarity sparkled behind wet lashes, giving me a moment—just a single instant—to draw a breath that wasn’t laced with Elite ki.
Fingers tightening, ki strangling me, the captain braced, for he could feel it rising in me.
Defiance.
But I had already attacked the man who’d claimed to be my equal, and for my efforts? Humiliating defeat.
So I plunged my free hand into my pocket, caught the High Priestess’ Glaith, then turned my attention to Marco, the man Iprobablywouldn’t kill. Their friendship was the only weakness the captain had shown me since we’d met this morning. Calling on the dead Goddess, this last time, I dragged Her power through the earth. Wrapped it around Marco’s ankles and tied him to myself.
Embracing the chaos—the truth of my birthright—I took his paltry ki. Draining him unconscious in an instant, I took everything he was and stored it in the Glaith. Clinging to my promise before I unleashed a darkness that could compete with the captain’s hideous order.
“Priestess—”
“Release me,” I hissed, holding a life the captain cared about in my ruined palm. Not bothering to voice the threat he could feel in my blood. The rising horror.
Asher braced, gathering himself. Prepared to contain me and save his friend, as if the necessity were no more than a minor, irritating delay.
Feeling something rip, I stopped the other’s heart. Let dark wings spread at long last, and took a life.
Chapter 19
Snarling, the captain tried to box me in. Tried to wrap me in heavy layers of ki and smother the fires of retribution before his precious Marco suffered brain damage.
I laughed, utterly taken by the power oozing thick as syrup through my blood.
And when he tried to fashion walls around me, I flew through the open ceiling with wings made of purest darkness. Soaring above him, then turning down. Falling on him with force enough to crack bone, if this weren’t a battle fought using the unseen. When he built a roof of ki, I oozed through the earth. Poisoning the soil beneath our feet. Only to pop up and sink my teeth into his calves and drink his ki straight from the vein.
Over, under, around, or through, there wasalwaysa flaw in the order. Always a way for me to slip his leash. I just had to find it.
Ormakeit.
My smile grew sinister.
Hungering for the moment that he finally figured out how to contain me, if only so I might explode and kill us both.
“Are you not impressed?” I hissed, leaning close. Licking at the underside of his jaw. Tasting that forbidden sweetness one last time. “Is this not what you wanted,Asher?”
He bared his teeth, arms flexing as he held me against him. Trying to master the ki whipping and lashing between us. But his eyes wandered… going back to the fallen soldier turning blue where he lay in the springy loam. Not breathing, and not-quite dead.
