A sneer rose to his lips as he faced my mate and Maelsar. “The time has come, Vaeron.”
“For you to release Sylaira? Absolutely,” he crooned.
With the Koron distracted, I tried to step away. Vaeron had spared me from the hold of his magic.
But when I made to move, something tethered me in place—deep in the center of my chest. Fingers sank into my magic, the caress anything but gentle.
What the fuck?
Stadiel’s attention slid back to me. The grin he wore rolled icy fear down my spine. “Oh, you thought my immunity to mind magics won me the throne?”
A muscle feathered in Vaeron’s jaw. Something glinted in his hand as he shifted his position—a dagger, the pommel inlaid with an indigo gem that matched his fighting leathers.
Is he going to stab the Koron?
Vaeron didn’t meet my gaze. He merely stared down the ruler of all the Angels like he couldn’t wait to strike him from this earth.
“I suppose the Elessarum have never had an accurate view of our history,” he tutted. “Which is a shame, really. You might not have been so foolish if you knew.”
“Knew what?” I bit out, trying to step back again. My legs answered me, but my torso did not. Every instinct screamed at me to shove the Koron off, but I was trapped, vulnerable, and defenseless.
He leaned in close, and I flinched. I tensed even more when his lips found my ear. “That I can turn another’s own power against them.”
My mouth dropped open. He didn’t release me, didn’t retreat.
“That is why I am also immune. I simply…redirect their intentions away from me.”
“He’s not lying,”Vaeron said, the velvet of his voice dark in my mind.“Very few know this.”
“Can he make me See?”
“Yes and no. You’d have to call your power forth and attack him with it. But he is wielding mine against you right now, albeit with significant strain.”
Bile clawed up my throat anyway.
“So, Sylaira. Shall I force Vaeron away from you, then allow you to show me what you can do?” Stadiel leaned back, just enough so I could witness the threat etched in his expression. “Or shall I continue to hold you hostage until your mind breaks?”
Bitterness coated my tongue. I hated this male. Hated everything he stood for. Everything he’d done.
Everything he made Vaeron do.
If I didn’t yield, he’d keep me here, draining me, draining my mate. There was no winning. Only survival. And since I had virelthorn in my veins, nothing would come to me anyway. There would be time to scrounge up a plan once I was free.
So through gritted teeth, I surrendered—for now. “I will See.”
“That’s better,” he purred, removing his hand. With the release, I stumbled back, hand pressing protectively to my ribs. My heart thudded a staccato rhythm as I edged closer to my mate.
Vaeron’s magic fell away, blinding me for an entirely different reason.
The Korona and High Priestess quickly threw more bubblelights into the air, illuminating the space. “We must get everyone back on track,” Iaoth hissed at her husband.
“Do it,” he told her without looking at her.
The two females rushed off, their voices filling the silence. Vaeron and Maelsar stepped in, and my mate draped a protective arm over me, shoving me half-behind him like he expected Stadiel to leap for me at any moment.
Instead, the Koron spoke, voice dripping with disdain and low enough for only us to hear. “I expect you to make a grand show of your failure tomorrow as further penance for your continued embarrassment of my house. It is only through the grace of your sister that your head is not spiked to the gates already.”
For the first time, I truly understood the magnitude of the risk he’d taken at the ball. And now, again, after barging into this room and disrupting the ritual for the second time.
