“Kill him.”
As much as I agreed with her, my limbs had taken on a strange heaviness. Maybe my power was fading, after all.
“Haven’t you learned your lesson by now?” I croaked, spreading my palms flat on the table between us. I thought about reaching for one of the knives tucked into my belt, but I didn’t trust my wobbly hand to wield it.
Nash leaned back, hooking an ankle across his knee. “And what lesson is that?”
“Stay away from me and I won’t have to kill you.”
He smiled. “Your warden has wandered off. Though your companion… she looks like she could draw some blood with those fangs.”
I hated that he knew Isanara was female. I did not want him to know a single detail about her. If I’d had my coven with me, I’d have used our collective power to cast a spell to scrub her from his memory.
“I will draw his blood.”
“Do you see that blade at his side? It’s a greatsword, and he knows how to use it.”I had no doubt Isanara could do damage. But at what cost? She and Nash were roughly matched for size, and though she was an immortal beast of legend, he was a ruthless killer.
Maybe she was, too. But I only had evidence of that for one of them.
“She doesn’t like you.”
“Excellent retort,”Isanara said with such ferocity I could practically taste the sarcasm.
But my mind was as unreliable as my limbs. My power surged to life, responding to the threat across the table.
A full, twisted smile spread across Nash’s face. “Once the gates kill you, I’ll see that she reaches her full potential.”
“Rip out his heart. I can hear its unnatural beat. It’s a sickly, twisted thing?—”
“Quiet!”I screamed in my mind. I imagined a wall of ice solidifying in the liminal space between us where our minds overlapped. It felt like severing a limb, but I had to keep her out. I could not think, not with her voice and Nash’s fighting for supremacy.
Nash laughed, the sound intruding on my senses, overwhelming my already fragile hold on my power.
Frost spread across the table. I surged to my feet but the movement was too fast. My body betrayed me. I swerved sideways. Isanara rose on her hind legs as I collided with her. She should have gone toppling over, but her body felt like stone. The impact rattled my bones, but I did not hit the floor.
Nash’s laughter ricocheted through my consciousness, the barrier I’d erected between myself and Isanara crumbling.
She waited on the other side, seething mad.“Do not ever do that again?—”
The laughter stopped. Everything stopped. No more movement, no more sound. The entire tavern froze, fixating on the two men on the other side of the table.
Garrick did not hold a knife to Nash’s throat this time. He had his greatsword in his hand, and it was pressed directly against the part of himself that Nash valued most—his cock.
Nash’s eyes shone with wrath and cruelty. But Garrick’s… the rage in those turquoise depths was the kind to shatter worlds. What little steadiness I’d found holding on to Isanara quickly fled.
“You’re in my seat,” Garrick said.
A manic laugh bubbled out of my chest.
Garrick did not look at me. “Move,” he ordered.
Nash’s face flushed. He could not follow that order without risking Garrick’s blade severing his manhood from his body. But to refuse it meant he’d be castrated sooner rather than later.
I sank my teeth into my lower lip to keep in the hysteria rising in my chest.
Slowly, Nash unfolded his legs and slid to his feet. Garrick’s sword moved with expert, unwavering precision. Every eye in the tavern watched and marked it.
Once Nash was on his feet, Garrick leaned in. He kept his voice low, but I heard every word. “You live because she decrees it. Touch her again and I will make you beg until she grants you the sweet release of death.”
