Then Stark tosses me the crown. I catch it with my left hand as I simultaneously lift the sword back up, getting into a fighting stance.
The moment the crown slides into place, power surges through my body. It’s like plunging into a vast, dark forest,miles of endless shadow all around me. Energy pulses from my body, too big for my skin, roiling like the chaos of boiling water. It presses outward, alive, trying to push the boundaries of my mind.
Mymagic.
And just the same, there’s a vast part of this forest of power that is severed from me. This blood-boiling, endlessly expansive magic is only a fraction of a deeper reserve.
When Anassa senses it, she projects a warning that feels like she’s closing her teeth around my scruff, yanking me back to her side. But I don’t have time to analyze her concern.
Killian stands from where he fell against the wall, and he begins to laugh.
Anassa snarls. His eyes move to her, then to Stark, who’s standing between the two towering wolves in a readied stance. Killian arches one brow with something that looks almost like appreciation.
“You kept secrets from me, Meryn,” he says scoldingly, as if he hadn’t kept a thousand of his own. “I didn’t realize your wolf had a mate. What a pity. Although, I suppose it doesn’t matter now.”
I lift the blade higher, and think to Anassa, “Get ready to charge him.”
But then the shadows move again, more viciously than before, rising all around us in an endless swirling storm. The light in the room dims as Killian stalks toward me.
Stark attempts to use his Daemos powers again, to swat at Killian or at the shadows, but it backfires. The surge of energy slams backwards into him and he stumbles into Cratos. The black direwolf lets out a threatening growl.
“Tsk, tsk,” Killian says cooly. “Don’t you know that you can’t use your little direwolf powers against this magic? After all, your powers are rent from mine. Well, from Meryn’s, technically.”
A headache begins to build behind my eyes as my mind unravels his meaning.
Killian reaches me and grabs my face roughly, forcing another kiss on me. Anassa lunges and snaps, but he moves out of her way with inhuman speed—Siphon, I remember stupidly. He’s a Siphon now.
“Thank you so much for my new power, beloved,” he says, sliding his gaze from Anassa to me. “As a parting gift, I’ve left you a little surprise. I’ll see you soon, I’m sure.”
I scream and plunge the blade towards him. But just before the metal connects with his throat, the shadows dart across the room at an impossible speed. They wrap around his body like a cocoon, freezing against my bare skin.
Wind whips through the air, and with a sharp pop like a limb dislocating, Killian is gone.
“What the fuck did he do?” I whisper, staring at the space he just occupied.
Weakly, I turn to look at Stark. He’s come right beside me, his hand half-suspended between us. His brows are twisted upward, his eyes wild.
He’s staring at me in abject horror. I open my mouth to ask, but then his hand closes around my arm, his grip painfully tight like he’s trying to hold me to the earth.
I follow his gaze down, right to my left wrist. I lift it slowly.
The ruby ring set into the engagement bracelet is mottled with shadows. They stir within the stone as if they’re swimming through blood.
“Take it off,” Stark snaps. His voice shakes with urgency as his grip tightens further.
It’s obvious to me now, too. The bracelet is what’s sapping my strength. Killian has been channeling my magic with it—magic I wasn’t evenawareof—through the stone.
I throw the sword aside and reach up to unclasp it.
But when I do, it constricts painfully around my wrist. The metal warps, threatening to cut off my blood supply.
“I can’t,” I choke out. A claustrophobic panic spikes through my body.
“Meryn—”
“I can’t!” I shout, pulling again. It tightens even more. It’ll break my bones at this rate. Mangle me.
Anassa snarls and butts against Cratos. “The bracelet is enchanted and bound to you,” she tells me urgently. “It allows the usurper to channel magic from wherever he has gone.”
