The massive female twisted Veyka’s wrist, dislodging the knife. Veyka couldn’t get traction in the puddle of blood. Her opponent flipped her, slamming her down onto the stone floor hard enough that the ground beneath my paws shook. But that was not the sound that echoed in my ears.
It was the snap of bone.
She could not bleed. But her bones could still break.
Two screams twined together as they ripped out and over the Pit, Veyka and her opponent both powerless to contain their pain.
I did not think. I leapt—only to be slammed back by a pulse of magic.
The wards kept me out, kept me from her. The Pit was as old as the fortress itself, built by forbearers whose existence had passed out of memory. No one alive knew how the wards around the Pit worked, only that they prevented outside interference.
Fuck that.
I leapt again, the force sending me rolling as it knocked me back from the invisible barrier.
Again and again. It made no difference. I could not reach her—not physically.
But that was not my only pathway to Veyka.
My beast roared his dissent, but I forced myself to shift back into my fae form. Veyka was still screaming. Only seconds had passed. Maybe less… one heartbeat? A full minute?
Veyka was still screaming.
I wrapped myself around the golden thread that linked our souls, sinking into the primal connection that evaded all reason, including time and space. Even the void bowed before the power of our mating, that bond between us the only thing that tethered Veyka and prevented her from being lost in the void.
The ancient wards of the Pit were no match.
I felt them yield.
I shifted, bounding down the first level and onto the second in one leap. Veyka was already shoving the massive female off of her, her opponent clearly incapacitated. But there was no space for reason over the roaring in my head. I ripped the female’s head from her body. Then her arms, her legs, until she was nothing more than pieces. Pieces that would never be able to harm my mate again.
Veyka stared.
For once, there was no blue ring of desire in her blue eyes. But they were certainly burning.
What have you done?she hissed without moving her mouth.
The roaring ebbed. A low growl replaced it, vibrating against the fur in my chest. Veyka stood, but she did not reach for the beast.
They will think less of me. That I’m weak. That I need you to protect me.
All the other fighting had stopped. Only two contenders still stood. Veyka and, pressed against the wall on the other side of the Pit, Mordred. My son.
The growl started to build again.
Veyka’s eyes darted around the Pit, then back to me.You should not have come down here.
If you’re waiting for an apology, that’s too damn bad. I told you—you belong to me. I will not sacrifice your life for Annwyn, nor for anything as trivial as a seat at the Round Table. Wards and traditions be damned.
Her eyes narrowed, but the fire in them banked.
“Get out,” she said.We will fight about this later.
I recognized a promise when I heard one. I tensed the muscles of my haunches and leapt the thirty feet out of the Pit in one bound. Our audience jumped back to make room, but they did not wait for me to shift before scrambling back to the edge. I could not miss the way they watched, different than before. One eye on Veyka… the other on me.
Fuck, she was right.
I’d lived in this court for three hundred years. How could I be so fucking stupid, to sacrifice the integrity of her victory for my own selfish, unfounded fears. She would have won—there was no other outcome. Veyka could stand a few broken bones. She’d withstood much worse. I forced myself to flick my ears away from the Pit, to listen to the words spoken around me. To gauge the level of damage my pride had done…
