Not his wife. His queen.
She did not even look at him. All of her attention was on Veyka, where she resolutely held the female’s arm, using herethereal powers to dig around inside the shell of what had once been a remarkable female.
“You are strong. You have friends who love you. A mate who needs you.”
Evander eased in closer, one eye on Lyrena and the horde she held back, the other on Mya and Veyka. Lyrena was bleeding, but her jaw and brow were hard set. The flames did not waiver. It might kill her, would surely drain her, but Evander knew she would hold the line. He let his focus shift entirely to Mya and Veyka. If the succubus Veyka lunged for Mya again, he’d slice off her head.
But Mya ignored him completely. He stepped closer, her words filtering through the death that surrounded them.
“They tortured you. Your mother, the male. They raped you and hurt you. Your father let them. Everyone let them. No one protected you, Veyka. And it was wrong. They were wrong. They were evil,” Mya said. She recounted horrors without breaking tone, without letting her own horror show. She’d trained her entire life for this moment, using her ethereal powers to help her people. It had all been in preparation for the moment of direst need, when destiny had placed her here, to help this queen. To save Annwyn and the human realm and the whole damn world. “But you, you are not evil. You are more than what they did to you.”
Evander’s throat clogged painfully.
He’d never known.
The court believed she’d been sheltered in the water gardens for her protection, a precious, spoiled princess so treasured that the world could not be trusted with her—Ancestors, everyone in Annwyn believed it.
“No,” Veyka whimpered. Veyka. Not the succubus.
“You are the monster, Veyka. The succubus is inside you, itisyou. This is your darkness. Yours. You control it, not the other way around,” Mya urged.
Veyka lifted her eyes, and though they were still black, the tears that leaked from their corners were clear.
The heat around them shifted. Evander turned. They all did, watching in awe as Lyrena extended the circle, elongating it, creating a path hemmed in by flame on either side. A path right to the door at the base of the Tower of Myda.
Her arms shook. Blood slid down her face, leaking from her nose and ears, red and bright. She opened her mouth, but the words were too hard to form. She managed just one, and it was for Veyka.
“Go.”
This would kill her. This type of power, the cost… the cost would be Lyrena’s life. Whether it killed her outright, or she fell to the ground exhausted and unable to defend herself from the succubus.
Evander did not let Veyka second guess her Knight’s choice. He hauled Veyka and Mya to their feet and shoved them down the path. They ran, the distance disappearing quickly beneath their feet without the succubus to fight off. The monsters hissed and screeched, clawing at Lyrena’s fire, falling into it and burning away to ash.
There was the tower.
Veyka and Mya skidded to a stop, the former wrenching open the nondescript wooden door.
But Mya turned to him. “Release her shackles.”
“She could lose control again.”
She shook her head, her sapphire blue eyes refusing to consider any course but the one she’d chosen. “There is no other option. I cannot do it once we are up there. You need to stay andblock the entrance. She cannot do what she must with her hands bound.”
“What if she attacks you?”
Mya lifted a pale blue hand to his face, caressing his cheek. Her touch was cool, soothing, with just a hint of salt. “Then I will fight for my life. And if I die, then it is for a good reason. I will die helping my friends and believing in the light.”
“You are too good for this world.”
She shook her head. “We are the good in this world. We will protect it.”
An immense wave of heat rolled over them. But when it ebbed away, there was no flame left to protect them. Evander shoved them through the door before they could look back and see what was left of Lyrena.
“I love you,” Mya said as she turned for the stairs. Evander slammed the door behind them, planting his back against it. There was no lock. He’d have to hold it from the inside with his body and his shortsword. He lifted his head to tell Mya that he loved her, too.
But they’d already disappeared up the tower. “You always need to have the last word,” he said to the emptiness.
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