‘No way. Are you crazy?’
‘Brynn Brighton, you will do this in the next ten seconds or prepare to meet your death. I will do all I can to fight, but I cannot promise that your body will survive it.’
Holy crap! What a thing to say to someone.
Without overthinking, I slowly angled my body to the right, moving my feet ever so slowly until my right hip was pressed against the wall of the well and Valkaryn dangled over it.
‘Are you sure this has to be done?’
‘He’s here,’she said, and I heard a scream from the front of the building, inside the tavern.
That was all I needed. In one swift movement, I unlatched the buckle that kept Val connected to my hip and let go.
Creator help me, I dropped her into the well.
Chapter Seven
“WHERE IS SHE?” a male voice boomed as the back tavern doors were thrown open. The slamming of the doors coincided with Valkaryn hitting the bottom of the well, and the splash was concealed.
My heart nearly burst out of my chest as King Harrow’s gaze ran over me. But then, just as quickly, he went to the person next to me.
‘Godric is coming out,’Kaelric told me.
‘No, my cover is not blown! Tell him to stay!’I roared back inside my head.
One by one, the people around me began to move, forming a line at the back wall of the patio, so I followed suit. I mimicked their slow, deliberate steps and calm demeanor. I was somewhere near the back of the line, near the toilet, when everyone was lined up.
“I sense her,” the king said, and every head turned to look at him, including mine. Now that I was able to fully focus on him, I drank in the sight, feeling my stomach recoil.
His mixed blood was obvious at first glance. He had the sharp-boned elegance of House Solvaris, those cold, refined angles that caught the morning light like carved gold, buthis frame was too powerful, too animal, built on the broad-shouldered strength of the wolfkin. His skin held an unnatural sheen, and thin veins of pale gold pulsed faintly at his neck and temples, as if magic crawled beneath the surface. His eyes were the worst of all, molten amber fractured with black, shifting like smoke inside a candle flame, never still. A long sword rested at his hip, its obsidian blade threaded with silver veins that pulsed like a heartbeat. Mind Render. Even from here, the air around it seemed to shiver.
‘Val, tell me you’re okay.’I tried to control my breathing.
The darkness below seemed to pulse like a living thing, cold and bottomless.
‘I’m okay. I don’t need oxygen like you do, dear, and I can still shield you and Godric from his control.’
Her response was way too playful for a time like this, a bright chime in a moment that should have felt chokingly dark. Had she sunk to the bottom of some unknown depth, or was she floating at the top? Last I checked, steel didn’t float. I was already trying to figure out a rescue plan—come back when it was dark, have Godric lower me in the bucket with a candle, and search for her. The scent of wet stone and old moss clung to the thought, making it feel real and impossible all at once.
‘By my estimation, I’ve dropped about five hundred feet into the water,’she informed me, and my heart fissured.
I pictured her sinking through layers of cold water, vanishing into darkness where sound struggled to exist.
No. I had to keep the whimper out of my throat, the tears out of my eyes. My lungs burned, every inhale too thin.
“Remove your cloaks,” the king commanded. Cloth rustled like quiet wings, and one by one we did as he asked, face forward, expressions neutral. The air seemed to hold its breath.
I wondered if the people beside me were freaking out in their heads but didn’t show it, or if he’d worn them down for so manyyears they didn’t even care anymore. Their eyes were blank, sunken, like hope had been scraped out long ago.
The king, flanked by two guards who’d walked in behind him, began to walk in front of each and every one of us. His steps were deliberate, patient, like he enjoyed stretching out the fear until it grew.
‘Tell me what’s going on,’Kaelric commanded.
‘Tell you in ten minutes,’I promised. When this was hopefully over, and I was still alive. My chest squeezed, praying he wouldn’t argue.
‘No, Brynn. Tell me now, or I tell Godric to go out there, and I start heading there with my entire army.’
The king was getting closer to me. I had to focus. His presence pressed against my skin, as though the very air thickened around him.
