Isanara and Koryn lunged forward in tandem. The dragon’s wings flared wide, shielding Koryn from retaliation as her blast of ice encircled his feet and froze him in place. Isanara’s roar shook the bricks around us, bits of mortar skittering down the walls and across the floor.
“I grow tired of being spoken about,” Koryn sneered. She stared down the Prince of Balar Shan with hate and malice that I doubted Edmund had ever had pointed in his direction.
His smile faltered, just for a second. But if I saw it, I knew Koryn did, too.
“Argh,” the guard at Edmund’s left cried out in pain. Koryn’s ice had reached his upper thighs. Another few inches and she’d freeze his balls off, just as she’d threatened me earlier.
Except that she’d targeted Edmund’s companion, not Edmund. Because escape was no longer her goal.
Edmund’s eyes lit. I knew that look. Even though it had been years, I knew my brother. He was no longer the gangly adolescent I’d left at the Court of Lies. But he was still my father’s creation.
“Please, my prince,” the iced guard implored, his voice low. As if every being in this crumbling corridor did not possess exceptional hearing.
Edmund dragged his gaze between Koryn, Isanara, me, and then finally back to his guard. That bright turquoise was the only trait we shared. In physical appearance, Edmund took after the long-dead mother he’d never known. Maybe if she’d lived, she could have stemmed the king’s influence on her son.
“Melt your ice, witch,” Edmund finally said.
Koryn’s eyes flared. I did not let myself imagine that it was because he’d so casually used my endearment as an epithet.
“If you attempt to separate me from my familiar again, you will all bear the consequences,” Koryn said. She did not melt the ice holding the guard in place.
Edmund shrugged, his grin ever present, unbothered. “I am merely the errand boy,” he said.
Lie. The first of many. This was Balar Shan. The Court of Lies. And Edmund was its prince.
The ice crept higher. The male whimpered. At her side, Koryn’s hand began to shake. She was struggling to control her power. If she lost control and killed the guard, maybe she would panic and flee. The death would haunt her, but at least she would be free of Balar Shan.
But I could not do that to her. I was done hurting the woman I loved. I hated that I even had to acknowledge that thought.
I stepped closer to Koryn. Isanara’s citrine eyes flicked in my direction, assessing the movement. She did not snap her jaws at me. Another small but meaningful victory.
Reaching for my Lifebind was something else. I did not know how Koryn would react, only that my touch had helped center her before. Now she was as likely to freeze the blood in my veins as she was to accept my touch. But there was no limit to what I would risk for her.
I reached out, knowing that Edmund would mark the motion. There was no avoiding that. I skimmed my fingertips along the back of Koryn’s arm, bare beneath her tattered shift. I waited for her to jerk away. She sucked in a breath, sharp. For the space of that inhale, the world stilled. I had no idea what would happen. But I was touching her, and for that brief moment, I felt peace and completion.
Koryn’s arm twitched, breaking the contact. But her hand no longer shook.
“How much do you value your companion’s life?” As she spoke, the ice reached the man’s waist. But Koryn was in control now. The cold would only inflict the damage she willed.
Edmund quirked a brow, his stance shifting?—
“If you attempt to harm my familiar, all of your lives are forfeit,” Koryn snarled.
The temperature of the air around us dropped sharply, suddenly colder than even the frozen hellscape beyond the open cell at our backs.
The angle of Edmund’s grin changed. Whatever Koryn had seen to tip her off, she’d judged it correctly, and Edmund was not pleased about it.
“The king invites you to attend him in the presence chamber,” Edmund said. He sheathed his sword and offered Koryn his hands, palms up. It was mock supplication. He wielded fire, and I had no doubt that in the two decades of my absence he’d learned to use it well.
From the sharpness of her inhale, Koryn knew it, too. Just like we both understood the true meaning of the word ‘invite.’ The fae king and head witch had not gone to all the trouble of capturing Koryn and her familiar only to let them go so easily. This was all carefully choreographed and had been since the beginning when I’d accepted my role.
Except I was supposed to escort Koryn through all seven gates. Yet they’d taken her after the fifth, and the king had declared our bargain fulfilled.
Something else was at work here. Which was precisely what the Dark God had implied with his talk of a talisman. The difference was that I wanted Koryn nowhere near this deadly mess.
Koryn flexed her fingers. “If you?—”
“If I attempt to separate you from your dragon—dead. If I attempt to harm your dragon—dead. I get the idea,” Edmund drawled. “Care to extend any conditions to him?” He tipped his head in my direction.
