Even so, I refused to let go. Not until the bastard was dead.
“I’ll never let you touch her,” I snarled, closing my scale-armored hand around his throat. “Even if it means sacrificing my own life.”
Dune grinned up at me, his expression tinged with madness. “That can be arranged,” he croaked even as I squeezed his windpipe. My claws sank into the soft flesh of his neck, black blood sluicing over my fingers, and—
Pain exploded in the back of my skull as one of the other shadow guard struck me from behind. Stunned, my grip on Dune’s neck loosened, and the next thing I knew, I was flying through the air. My wings crunched as my back slammed into the wall, and I roared in pain, trying to blink away the stars dancing in my vision so I could find my enemy.
But there was no need to look—Dune was right in front of me, that maniacal gleam in his fathomless dark eyes as he pressed the palm of his hand into the center of my chest. The dark magic in my veins spread faster, like a sick fire in my veins, clouding my mind with bloodlust and rage. Suddenly, I no longer knew where I was, what I was doing, or why I was there.
I only knew the monstrous need for murder.
“You’ll be sacrificing your life all right,” Dune said, his voice distorted and far away as the shadow magic took hold. “But for me, not Adara.”
43
Adara
My mind spun as Dune hauled me out of the inner sanctum by my hair, his shadow guards trailing behind him. My feet dragged through pools of blood, but I could barely feel the horror of it because I didn’t have full control of my body. The visions had disappeared, but the tea was still doing its work, weakening my mind-body connection so my limbs felt heavy and numb.
I could hear the sounds of fighting coming from outside the cave, but down here it was deathly silent, the cavernous space littered with the dead bodies of acolytes and ice fae soldiers. Four more shadow guards waited for us, and my heart sank at the sight of the sagging male on his knees, his upper body held up between two of them.
“Einar,” I choked out, my eyes filling with tears. Fury pumped fresh strength through my limbs, and I grabbed Dune’s arm, forcing him to a stop. “What have you done to him?” I demanded.
“Done to him?” Dune smiled as he released my hair, sending me stumbling backward a few steps. “That’s a funny way to thank me for sparing your lover’s life. I could have had him killed, you know, but here he is, waiting for you to return to him.”
A rumbling growl filled the cavern, and trepidation skittered down my spine as Einar lifted his head. My insides froze at the sight of the black veins running across his face and into his eyes, eclipsing his golden irises. That growl turned into a terrifying snarl as black spikes ripped through his skin, and he leaped to his feet, throwing off the grips of his captors.
“No,” I said, voice shaking as he took a menacing step toward me. “Einar, please.”
He paused, and the brief flash of gold in his eyes was all it took to give me hope. “I know you’re still in there, Einar,” I pleaded, taking a tentative step toward him. “Fight this, please.”
I looked down at the palms of my hands, willing the golden magic from earlier to come to the surface. But though I could feel it churning inside me, it refused to come out, trapped behind the dragon part of my soul that hadn’t fully awoken. Flames sprang to my hands instead, flickering weakly as though they were oxygen starved.
“Don’t listen to her,” Dune snapped, irritation flickering over his features. The ugly look in his eyes made my stomach turn—how had I ever been attracted to him? “She’s fae, the enemy—her ancestors have slaughtered hundreds of your kind. Don’t you want to make her pay?”
Einar threw back his head and let out a roar that shook the cavern. Ice crystals rained down from the ceiling as he charged me, and I dodged, barely moving out of the way fast enough. Drawing from the last reserves of my strength, I hit him with a blast of ice magic, freezing his feet to the ground to buy myself time. But the ice melted away almost instantly, the dragon hide encasing his lower legs nullifying my power.
“Why are you doing this?” I cried, tearing my gaze from Einar to look at Dune. The sickening glee on his face as he watched Einar and I fight turned my stomach. “Why are you being so cruel to me, after everything you’ve already done?”
“EverythingI’vedone?” Dune’s smile dropped as his lip curled into an ugly sneer. “You’re the one who killed our king, Adara, and forced our kingdom to the brink of civil war. You’re the reason everything is careening out of control. The Mother of Shadows told me that killing you would help restore the balance, and I’m more than happy to oblige. Besides,” he added, the smirk returning, “you never put out, Adara, even after I spent all that time and effort trying to woo you. This is my way of getting the pleasure I’m owed.”
An unholy amount of disgust filled me at those words, but before I could respond, Einar rushed me. “That’s it,” Dune crowed as Einar rammed his shoulder into my mid-section. “Kill her and take your revenge!”
The force of the blow threw me backward. If I’d been at full-strength, I could have back flipped through the air and landed safely, but my limbs were still uncoordinated, and I crashed into the ground instead. Einar was on top of me in an instant, his clawed hand around my throat. Weakly, I scrabbled at his chest, but my strength was ineffectual, and the edges of my vision began to darken.
Sagging into the ground, I looked up into the face of the male who had promised to protect me. I knew I should feel hurt and betrayal, but I only felt sadness that this was the way our story was to end. That I would die by his hand, and he would live out the rest of his days as a mindless shadow slave. That we had never completed the bond, never fully realized the potential of our relationship.
“I love you,” I whispered, reaching up to touch his face. If I could do nothing else, I wanted to say those words to him at least once before I died.
Einar froze as my fingertips brushed his cheeks. His eyes flickered from pitch black to fiery gold, back and forth, back and forth, and his grip on my throat loosened. Another growl rumbled from his chest, and hope sparked inside me as I realized the real Einar was still inside, still trying to fight for me.
“What are you doing?” Dune shouted from somewhere nearby. “Finish her, you idiot!”
Einar’s hand flexed around my throat, as if he couldn’t decide whether to let go or squeeze harder. I tightened my grip on his head, pulling him closer to me, as if I was going to kiss him. The hand on my throat loosened further, his body trembling against mine, and my teeth ached as a familiar warmth swept through my body.
“I love you,” I said again, and I struck.
Fangs punched through my gums and into the flesh of Einar’s neck, and he let out another earth-shaking roar as pure white light flared between us. The light was so blinding that Dune and the others stumbled back, hissing. Einar bucked against me, but I wrapped my arms and legs around him, holding him fast as I sucked on the wound. The shadow magic pulsing in his veins poured into me, and the golden magic inside me went to work, disintegrating the black corruption before it could take hold.
