Maybe I had become more bloodthirsty. Maybe this darkness had been inside of me all along. I did not have time to be afraid of my dark impulses now. My power was already rushing through me. I knew if I glanced down, I would see the whorls of frost coating my skin. Around us, the temperature of the corridor dropped. Another warning sign. The woman suppressed a shiver but did not move an inch. She had no idea what was about to happen.
I was going to lose control.
Then we all might die.
I had to concentrate. I knew the true breadth of my power thanks to the Dark God, and while the intensity grew with eachsecond that passed and Isanara still had fucking spikes in her wing, my power was nowhere near its limit.
Yet.
I concentrated, cataloging all the ways I could disable her. Frost crept from my feet across the red bricks, turning them a muted orange. It thickened to ice beneath her feet and mine.
She glanced down, testing the toe of her shoe against the suddenly slick floor. Her chuckle was dismissive. “It will take a lot more than that to kill me.”
In that moment, it was easy to reconcile the darkness within myself with the light. Margeaux threatened my familiar, and so she had to be punished. I had no interest in being good if it meant Isanara was in danger.
I wondered if the Dark God was nearby, whipping up the frenzy within me. Or just enjoying the show. “Let’s see.”
But the footsteps closed in, and a faint burn in my chest told me who I’d see a second before he appeared.
Garrick took half a breath to assess the scene. His penetrating blue-green eyes went to me first, then Isanara, and then the fae bitch. I was not sure if I was comforted or annoyed that was where they lingered.
“Margeaux, step away from the dragon,” he said. His voice was even. A command without giving one. But it didn’t matter. The woman’s reaction was visceral.
Disgust twisted her elegant features. “Princesses do not take orders from bastard dukes.”
My mind quickly slid the pieces together. Princess Margeaux. Which would make her Garrick’s half-sister. Elder, by the looks of it. How many more siblings did he have hiding in Balar Shan to torment me?
Garrick edged carefully around Margeaux, not giving her even an inch of his back as he tried to position himself betweenus. I countered by moving closer to Isanara. I did not need Garrick’s protection.
Because I was behind him, I could see the slight shift in his shoulders as he realized what I was doing. But to Margeaux, I was sure he appeared as calm and unbothered as ever. I was getting tired of hiding my emotions. If I could not help feeling them, I could at least harness them along with my power.
“We are not children anymore. You are meddling with something you do not understand,” Garrick said.
He was right about that. A fae could not begin to conceptualize the connection I felt to my familiar. If she had, she would not have been stupid enough to harm her.
Margeaux made a sound of utter disgust in the back of her throat.
Perfect.
I reached Isanara in four steps. Each one had a purpose. I threw the icicle daggers that still clung to my other hand. Margeaux dodged them, but she slipped on the ice I’d formed beneath our feet.
I made it another step before she retaliated. She ripped the metal sconce from the wall in a show of preternatural force. Even as it broke free of the brick and mortar, Margeaux twisted the shape to form it into a deadly three-pointed weapon. Isanara roared. I turned just in time to avoid it spearing through me. But I was not quite quick enough. Pain seared through my upper arm.
One more step and I was in front of Isanara. I threw out my uninjured hand, encasing the twisted heap of metal in ice and fusing it to the floor. She could probably get it out, but not quick enough to prevent me from retaliating.
My eyes flew around the darkened corridor, searching for other sources of metal she could turn against me or my familiar.
Margeaux screamed in frustration and lunged toward me. I threw out a brace of frost to push her back---
Only for it to land squarely between Garrick’s shoulder blades.
He’d moved, too, planting himself between the two of us. I’d hesitate to kill him—a truth I hated but could in that moment of freakish clarity at least admit to myself. I was not so sure about his sister.
“Get out of my way,” I seethed.
Isanara made a sound of agreement behind me. But it was less virulent than usual. The pain of the spikes was getting to her.
Garrick rolled his shoulders, working out the pain from my blast of frost. He’d taken it directly. It probably would have killed a human. Regret punched up from my gut into my chest. Stop, I commanded it.Garrick is not human. Garrick is fine.
