“Give me the Tears, Meryn,” he commands me. His eyes are so blue. He stretches out his free hand. “Give me the Tears, and I can fix her.”
Life drains from me as Anassa’s blood gushes relentlessly to the ground.
She can’t die. I don’t know what’s happening, but I know that.She can’t die.
“Okay,” I nod, lightheaded. “Here you go. Help her.”
I pass him the two gems clenched tightly in my hand. My palm is speckled in blood from where their points dug into me.
“Good girl,” he says approvingly. “Now the crowns.”
My body is heavy, numb. Why is he doing this? What is happening here? I feel the moment that Anassa passes out from blood loss. It’s like a punch to the gut. I don’t understand.
Why won’t Killian stop this?
But something in me compels me to reach my hand out to Killian, hand him the sunburst crown of Astreona.
Killian reverently places the sunburst crown on his own head, and I watch in confusion as his face—ripples. Like something inside him is fighting to the surface.
I cast about in my mind. Something feels wrong. Somethingiswrong, I know it.
But what?
And there in my mind, beyond the dizzy blankness that envelops me, I sense something.
It’s darkness, shadow. But also light and warmth.
There’s someone else there. A bridge from me to another. That person is just beyond my reach, but I can sense they are calling to me.
Killian’s talking to me again. “Meryn, now your crown. There’s a good girl. Just hand me the crown, and we’ll get Anassa fixed up.”
Unable to resist, I reach up toward my head, pulling down the crown and offering it to him.
My consciousness is fixed on that spot of warm darkness at the back of my head. There’s a person on the other side. I don’t know who. If I move closer to that bridge, that link…
The blankness presses in tight on me, holding me back.
No.
I don’t know what’s going on, but I know I need that connection. That person. I push with everything I have, fighting toward that connection.
Somethingsnaps.
And just for a split second, his mind rushes into mine.
Stark’smind.
As Killian takes the final Tear from me, everything clears, just for a moment. Stark. The Tears. Killian and Alistair. I remember it all.
Stark’s voice is velvet and violence, a caress that sets me on fire.“You are the power of shadow and life combined. Your strength can scorch the earth. Do not forget yourself. You are Meryn fucking Sturmfrost, and you will not let a weak man win.”
Everything inside me comes together. The hurt, the rage, the pain. The fear, the suffering.
My pleasure and love with Stark, and the warped, vile coercion of Killian’s “love.”
My friends, my pack, my kingdom.
My wolf, her lifeblood slipping out of her even now.
