Apparently, they’d missed one.
Probably more.
Damn…
Paden took his sister’s arm. “What happened to you?”
Cameron hesitated as a single crystal tear fell down her cheek and she recalled the entire event in her mind. The pain of it all was still raw and bleeding and left her ragged. “Not knowing it was a trick, Kalder gave the ring to me.”
Over and over, her mind replayed Kalder rushing to her defense. She saw his love for her as he placed himself in harm’s way while the Malachai’s new forces surrounded them. Forever the traitor to any cause save her own, Gadreyal was no longer in league with Noir and Azura.
Kalder’s jaw had dropped at the sight of her and Vine. “Do your masters know where you are?”
Vine had laughed in their faces. “We have a new master now. And the Adarian Malachai has no use for the Dark Ones. He’s rising now and they will soon be nothing more than a forgotten nightmare for us all.”
“Beware the gods and heroes you rip down in your quest for power. What rises up to replace them may not be the dream you think it. Rather, the hungry wolf that leads you today can oft be the same one that turns its sights to you tomorrow. For once one enemy falls, it looks for another to attack. Pray that you aren’t the next in line for its venom.”
Gadreyal laughed. “We’re immune. He’s promised us a better day.”
“As do they all. Hard to get anyone to follow you when you promise them a worse one. Open your eyes before it’s too late. See the path not just before your feet, but where it will ultimately lead you.”
“’Tis your own arse you’d best be worried for, mate,” Vine sneered. “As it’s the one we’re about to feed to the Malachai.”
They advanced on Cameron to separate her from him.
Kalder moved to cut them off, as if he could stand alone againstthe entire horde that was fast coming for them. “I won’t let you touch her.”
“We’re not asking.”
“Neither am I. I’m telling you to back away from us while you can.”
Gadreyal had again laughed in his face.
Her mistake.
Kalder had lifted Cameron’s hand in his, and locked gazes with her. “All my life, I’ve seen poison in others, and I’ve struck out in fear against it. Since the hour of my birth, I’ve refused to be owned by anything or mastered by anyone. I’ll be damned if I’ll stand by and see these bastards pluck the onlylilium inter spinasI’ve ever known.”
And before she could move, he kissed her.
The moment their lips touched, she felt him drawing something out of her body. Something she couldn’t name or even begin to describe. With it, all the color rapidly drained from her body and caused Kalder’s to darken again to the scarred Cyphnian beast who’d first terrified her.
The fire returned to his body as he pulled the ring from her finger.
“A school of mistakes, Miss Jack, is called life. Be damned if I let you be one of mine. I’ve enough of them. You are and will always be my sole light in the darkness. They want a servant, then they’ll have the devil to pay for it.”
Before she could protest or stop him, Kalder launched himself away from her, toward the sea. “I am me father’s son, Gadreyal. And me mother’s. If it’s a battle you want, let’s swim for it.”
When Cameron had gone to fight by his side, she’d been thrown away from him by some unseen force.
One moment she’d been on the beach.
The next, she’d been outside the doors of the hall where the Deadmen were gathered.
Now, she stared at her friends and wiped at the tears on her face. “We have to help him!”
Devyl shook his head. “I swear, that boy gets into more shite. I’m half tempted to let them keep him this time.”
Thorn arched a brow at that.
