A thought even more bitter than the iron on my tongue seeped through my mind. My white flame gently danced, spreading not anger through my veins…but pity.
General Hyton might have been the brother made of steel, but he was transparent as glass. If the gag had not forced me into silence, I would say…
I see you, Ragnar Hyton. Iamyou.
We clung to towers and then battlements like creeping vines. We carried the burden of a birthright that was never ours. We feasted on the greatness of our achievements yet we were always starving.
Always starving.
But just as I had learned to crumble, so could he. He did not need to seize the North like the Conqueror had. He did not have to plot, and kill, and fuck to finally have the satisfaction he craved.
The owner of the crimson ribbons in his night table drawer was still waiting for him. And if she was anything like her son, she would forgive him for coming to his senses nearly too late.
But he would not release my gag, so he could go through the rest of his life pretending he was not a monster too.
General Hyton halted me. I tried to figure out my surroundings—smell of gentle perfume, carpet beneath my feet, and the slow rhythm of the General’s breath behind me.
He swept my hair from my back and over my shoulder. I scowled behind my gag as his breath caressed the shell of my ear. “You deserve mercy for everything you did for my son. As the General of His Excellency’s army, I can give you that mercy in one of two ways: a blood bond on the full moon or a blindfold on the scaffold.”
I held my breath as he wrapped a ribbon around my neck and suddenly the familiar surface of my Nordingaard crystal was flush against my throat.
He pulled the ribbon into a tight knot. “Think on it, Serafina. I would hate to see you go to waste.”
A smile tugged on my lips that he could not see. General Hyton wanted my power, my magic, and my blood bond. He thought he could put me in a vulnerable position like he had with Astrid’s pregnancy and force me to go along with his plan?
Little did the traitorous General know, I was not afraid of any axe on the scaffold.
The final stepping stone to finish what the Man of the Mountain had started had laid in front of me while I was chained and manacled. I was finally going to choose eternity. I would become ageless, deathless, and more powerful than ever.
I would make a bargain that not even the Queen of the Giants could refuse.
A life for a life given in love. Ganora wanted a weapon to free her sister? She could haveme.
A door creaked on its hinges and the General’s voice lifted to a deceptively reverential tone. “Your Excellency, I bring you the sorceress.”
He pushed me through a doorway. I did not resist.
Once the General left, all I would have to do was manipulate Derrick one more time into letting me run. I would take Annalisa and Brietta, flee to Bloodstone Fortress, and trade my life for Riyan’s.
Just as he had done for me.
Carpet beneath my feet turned into wood. The General’s boots thudded across the floor until he retreated through the doorway.
The low ebb and flow of Derrick’s breath reached my ears. It was slow, but strained and ragged, like a bull ready to charge.
All I had to do was face Alastar one more time, then we would all be free.
My heart pounded in time with each of Derrick’s footsteps as he approached me. Derrick would let me in again, and once he released my chains, I was going to run straight for Nordingaard.
I might not have freed Fraleigh, or the women of Lycaster, but at least I was going to free Riyan.
Derrick stepped behind me. Oak and vanilla mixed with the sting of spirits filled my nose.
He was drunk again? That would make this even easier.
He unwove the chains around my wrists and they dropped to the floor in a heavy heap. He unclasped the lock at the back of my head and I gasped as he pulled the iron gag out of my mouth. The gag landed on the floor with a loud thud.
Just as I thought, Derrick would not have kept the woman he loved in chains for long. I still had his heart. I still had his mind.
