“So, I should thank you for stabbing me and passing me off as a villain?” My niece’s voice gusts through her lips like a ravenous squall, the sort that sinks galleons.
I’ve no doubt she’d enjoy nothing more than to swim my sister out to sea and leave her reckoning to the terrifying creatures that inhabit its sapphire folds.
“All clear!” Lachlano announces, trouncing into the room. Like Sofiya, he does a double-take upon seeing Mestyla. Because he recognizes my family in her traits or because she’s a stranger? “Where’s Ilya?”
“Safe,” I say. “Apparently, Ksenia sent him away so harm wouldn’t befall him. Like she sent away Milana. A shame she didn’t care for her twin as much as she did the others.”
Aodhan fusses with Izolda’s arms, tucking them closer to his chest. “So, Yuri didn’t make a full recovery?”
“Don’t know.” Ksenia’s obsidian chains roll and clink with her shrug. “Don’t care.”
If her handcuffs hadn’t been made of iron, I would’ve skewered her palms. I probably should, for caution’s sake.
A realization knifes my brain, displacing all other contemplations. “The soldiers that went with him…were they in my employ?”
“Yes.”
Aodhan grunts. “Like you can be trusted. Does anyone have salt on them?”
“There’s no point,” I tell him. “Ksenia has been ingesting small doses of iron to counteract the effect of salt. Isn’t that right, Ksen?”
“Fuckin’ A.” Aodhan’s lips curl in disgust. “That means you’ve been preparing your coup for years.” He glances around the grimy wagon. “You fucking disgust me.”
“Not as much as you disgust me,” she snipes back.
When he rocks forward with deadly intent, I hold up my palm.
“Don’t give her what she wants.” I can almost hear Aodhan’s heels grind into the floor as he settles back.
“I can ask Colm and Fionn to pick Ilya up, Vizosh.” Lachlano’s offer cuts through the stifling air like a cool current.
“I’d appreciate that.”
A beat of silence slips by as Isla’s friend morphs into his shadows to transmit the message.
“Will you kill her?” Mestyla asks.
Ksenia’s stare locks with mine, as though she, too, were waiting on my answer.
I recall Isla’s advice to find a punishment that will bring me peace. Ksenia’s betrayal is so fresh that I’ve no idea yet what to do. “I’m waiting for Izolda to weigh in.”
As though she’d heard my urge for her input, my beloved sister rouses with a soft whimper. “Aodhan? Kostya?” Her eyes spangle in the single sconce lighting the cramped space. “Are we…are we alive?”
“Yes.” I drag my gaze over Isla, hunting the air around her body for the vibration of her pulse.If you don’t hurry back to me,I will be obliged to call youWifeall the time. In front of everyone. Even your parents.Evenyour grandfather.
I will my mate to scoff. To remind me that I no longer wear protection against iron talons. To fill all the murky hollows within me with her bright voice.
Suddenly, from the void, surges a husky murmur,You and your threats of marriage, Your Highness.
I swirl to her and slam down onto my knees beside Elio.
“Thank you,” I rasp, the words scraping up the ragged ramparts of my throat.
“I’m afraid your gratitude is premature, Vizosh. She still hasn’t…”
Isla’s eyes flutter open then, their splendor igniting the shade that consumed my being while she listed out of my world.
A prickling heat swathes my lids and nose. I rein it back, then arch over her body, bowing to her and to the Gods above and to the Cauldron below for blessing me with this transcendent woman.
