Think,I urged myself.
But I also had to keep Vikros talking.
“How much is she paying you?” I blurted.
Vikros’s eyes narrowed. “Who?”
“The queen. I’ll bet she’s holding back. You could milk her for more, if you had the balls.”
Vikros’s face contorted with rage.
“What are you doing?” Eira hissed, her breath close to my ear.
“Follow my lead,” I muttered back. I needed to buy more time. If Lavinia was right and I’d been using necromancy while hunting, then perhaps it would be easy to tap into that killer’s instinct. I just had to trigger the same responses within myself.
Adrenaline.
Intense focus.
In both instances—the fight with the Demon Fae and Eira’s injury—rage and blinding pain had preceded the necromancy. Something had exploded within me. Desperation mingled with fear and fury, pain and panic, urgency and a raw, feral thirst for blood.
Vikros was speaking, but I didn’t hear him. Blood pounded in my ears, drowning everything out.
Then, Eira spoke, and my focus homed in on her words.
“I don’t know, Theron, I’ll bet he’s toosmallto ask Calista for anything, let alone more gold.”
Vikros snarled something unintelligible and drew his sword, pointing it at Eira.
I didn’t need to conjure that desperation and fear. It surged through me of its own accord, every fiber within me roaring at the sight of a blade aimed at the princess.
“You will address the queen asher majesty,” Vikros spat.
I felt Eira stiffen next to me. “She is a false queen, and I will address her as such.”
Vikros drew closer. Though I couldn’t see Eira, I knew the point of his blade was within inches of her face.
No!something within me screamed.Do not touch her!
I clung to that wild panic and expanded it, like addingfuel to a raging fire. It burned up everything inside me, leaving a path of violent agony in its wake.
The sensation ignited the magic within me, and it was as if a lever had been pulled, triggering my necromancy.
Suddenly, I could see threadseverywhere.
The air went still, as if time had stopped. Vikros stood unmoving before me, his arm poised to strike Eira. The soldiers surrounded us, weapons raised.
But between each figure was a long, gleaming blue thread. They crisscrossed and overlapped like the strands of a spiderweb. Each one glowed with an ethereal power, the same exact shade of blue that had resonated from my palms. The same color as Lavinia’s gemstone.
Life threads. I was looking at each individual’s life thread.
All I had to do was pull one.
But I had to pull therightone.
Struggling to maintain my focus and hold the magic in place, I glanced over each thread, tracing the strands to the individuals around us. The soldiers’ overlapped with each other, but I found one thread that stood out, wrapped tightly around Vikros like a cocoon. Two other threads were twined around him. I followed their path and found them attached to Eira and myself.
For one, horrifying moment, I stared at my own thread.
