“Coin.” My voice was a frosted knife, commanding with serrated edges.
He carefully dipped a hand in his pocket, extending it gently to place it in my palm. His eyes didn’t leave mine. Not until they dropped to the scar at my throat, the mark of a child who was deemed not worthy enough to live.
“Are ya—” he froze as my eyes shot blades at him. He knew I didn’t want to hear any words of concern. Not from him. “Who did that to ya?” Lochlainn’s whisper turned lethal, gaze trailing my neck once more.
I tilted my head like a predator.
“Who do you think?” Then I turned and walked toward the dais.
A familiar connection prickled the back of my head. Someone watching—anassholewho could go fuck himself. I fixed my sights straight, unstoppable. Rejecting the urge to look at him.
David’s voice suddenly boomed. “Move!”
The room illuminated with a blast of light. People screeched. David’s wings appeared—radiantly splaying wide. His sword hummed with power.
Wyatt violently shoved people aside as they charged their way toward me.
“Carwynn!” David yelled, frantic, face torn with grief. “What’s happened?”
Wyatt scanned me, tracking the newly torn flesh and blood-painted gown. He paled. “She’s been attacked!” he shouted, flagging down nearby guards.
Faelad’s voice barked orders as more armed men dispersed.
I kept walking.
“I’m feeling much better now,” I said aloud to David, though, it wasn’t exactly me. The voice of somethingother. Stronger. “Needed to remember who I was—who I am.”
A hand reached for mine and my body recoiled.
Vines exploded from my arms, wrapping around with sprouting thorns. They pierced the flesh that grabbed me.
Finley winced, retracting. He looked ashen, as though he had just been as close to death as I had. Blood trickled from his hand. Though his eyes were more pained than the wound itself.
“Fucking fates!Are ya all right?” he said, voice raw and broken.“What—” Words halted, butchered in half.
“I told you tonevertouch me again!” My voice viciously cleaved through his. “Do it again, and they’ll be poison-tipped,” I spat through clenched teeth.
Finley faltered back, eyes glistening as though I’d lashed him, cutting deep. Maybe now he’d see what horror I’d become. What Iwas.
My throat tightened and I turned away. I couldn’t look at that face any longer. It was sweet paradise . . . laced in high radiation.
I climbed the dais, feet barely sounding on the floor.
Above, the wishing well shimmered, calling to me. Gold pulsed in my hand, growing a life of its own, coaxing me forward.
“Wait!” Breena yelled with Aine right behind her. Theyimmediately flanked to my sides. Profound sorrow and fury etched their features, but they didn’t say a word.
David and Wyatt reached the base of the stairs.
I paused to look at them. Neither were terrified by my haunting appearance. If anything, warm eyes embraced me as they ran to the step below mine.
“Carwynn,” David’s voice broke. Tears slipped—the remnants of my shattered emotions he, no doubt, now carried. But not me, I’d vaulted them out. “Tell me what happened! Where are they?” he growled through the agony. An aura of electric energy blazed around him.
“Not now,” I said emotionless, and held up a hand. “It’s taken care of.” I knew vengeance was eating him alive.
The anger that drew in Wyatt’s brows loosened. He gave me a small, encouraging nod. “After then—when the Cherubs tend to you.” It was a gentle command but a command, nonetheless. They’d allow me this moment, but after, all paternal restraint would be untied.
And David—David saw everything. He nodded too. “Okay,ma cheri. After.” A fierceness lit his eyes—ferocious love and strength.
