And then I started sobbing.
Holding it in… wasn’t possible now.
Not currently.
Feeling our necromantic bloodline link snap back into place like that… the sheer relief and joy… I couldn’t even fully reconcile how incredible that truly felt.
Dad was actually alive.
I wiped my eyes and pushed out of the pool, intending to head to the bathroom.
If anyone walked in here right now and saw me like this, it would invite questions. Nobody could feel my blood link connection to my dad, but with me raw like this, anyonewitnessing this from me was still dangerous for a myriad of reasons.
I’d just snatched a black robe off the back of the bathroom door and slipped it on, intending to lock myself inside and add some of my Wraith frost for good measure, when a shudder rolled through the room.
My plate I’d slid across the floor started rattling.
The centerpiece on the table.
Candleholders vibrated around the space.
I walked back into the main area, narrowing my eyes in concentration.
There.
The bastard was trying to mute it, but he’d been all over me in so many fucked-up ways that I could still feel it—a surge of his power.
Power pouring out of Sanctus, though. Coming from… above?
He’d left this realm?
When?
He was annoyingly over-informative with me when it came to his whereabouts at all times. In case I wanted to “have a conversation” with him, join him for this and that. Just more ways for him to try to get his claws deeper into me.
I rushed through the room, shoved open the door, then stepped out into the corridor—
And slammed right into Rex.
“What’s happening?” I asked, as the shuddering intensified, and the chandeliers in the hallway ceiling started rattling, the blue light flickering wildly.
“That damage control he told you he had to see to? The reason he siphoned a bit of your magic?”
A chill shot down my spine. “What about it?”
“He’s hitting the Dracoryn Realm.”
A strangled sound spilled from me.
No.
No!
Somehow I managed to push for details, “In what capacity?”
“He’s latching part of Sanctus onto the Dracoryn Realm to pull from its lifeforce so it can be sustained for longer until you’re ready to take over. Ruxnoth’s ability to hold it all alone is waning substantially.”
“He’s not just doing it for the lifeforce aspect, is he?”
