As the words leave his lips, Garvan moves with deliberate ease, his attention shifting to the glass dome that encases the roses. With a slow, measured motion, he lifts the cover, allowing the air to rush in around theenchanted flowers. He doesn’t hesitate as he reaches down and plucks a rose from its stem.
A pulse of magic hums through the delicate petals, a vibration so subtle yet potent that I feel it in my bones. The magic didn’t take on a dark tone until Garvan touched it. Just as I suspected, these flowers are infused with power. Power that might just save us if I can get it away from Garvan.
The magic should have affected him, but does nothing. He remains unmoved, as though the magic does not even register against his touch.
“Unfortunately, you won’t be around to enjoy the new age of Mescos. But I assure you, my people will be in good hands.”
With that, he closes his fists around the flower, crumpling it. He then opens his hand and blows the crushed-up petals toward me. My body remains frozen to the spot. I don’t even have the ability to grab my dagger. I half expect to turn into stone, but I’m still very much myself and able to think and feel. However, I can’t move my body.
A satisfied chuckle leaves Garvan’s lips as he steps away, blending into the shadows until I can no longer see him. A few moments later, he returns, only this time, he’s dragging a large trunk, the size of a coffee table, and stops right in front of me again. The trunk opens, exposing its emptiness. True terror finally takes over as I realize what he’s planning to do.
I can’t move. Can’t speak. Can’t scream. I can do nothing as he takes the dagger from my body, letting it drop to the ground, and then he lifts me as if I weighnothing at all. He tosses me into the trunk with no care about hurting me. I hit my head, and pain explodes, causing my vision to blacken around the edges.
The last thing I see is Garvan’s smiling face as he shuts the lid of the trunk and leaves me in total darkness.
Chapter 36
Isabelle
Darkness is all I know. It surrounds me, pulling me deeper and deeper under its web. I scream, or at least I try to, but no sound leaves my mouth. It’s as if the darkness swallows it. My body is jostled from side to side, hitting my head against the hard interior walls. My breaths come in short gasps as the beginning of a panic attack sets in.
It’s so dark.
The room is closing in on me.
My heart pounds rapidly in my chest. Is this a heartache? A heart attack?
Invisible hands wrap around my throat, and I’m choking. If this is how my life ends, in a cramped dark box, then let my last thoughts be of Oziel. How I wish I had more time with him. How I wish I told him how I felt before it was too late. Two creatures that should have never been capable of love found it in each other. Because I’m pretty sure he loves me in his own way.Sadly, I won’t ever get the chance to experience that life with him now.
I wait for the sweet release of death, wondering how I’ll meet it. I don’t know how Garvan plans on killing me, but I hope it’s quick. Selfishly, I don’t want to feel any pain. If there was any chance of fighting back, I would. But I’m weaponless, my husband is stone, I can’t move, and Garvan possesses magic. My odds don’t look good.
The impending sense of doom takes over my body, my stomach lurching as the sensation of falling through the air consumes me. It only lasts for a moment before the bottom of the trunk hits the hard ground with an unforgiving thud that sends pain throughout my body. Muffled footsteps come from outside, and then nothing at all.
Silence scares me more than anything.
A surge of anticipation coils inside me. What the fuck is he doing? Panic tightens its grip as my mind races through the worst possible scenarios.
Then, suddenly, the lid of the chest bursts open, flooding my vision with the harsh glare of the outside lights. The brightness stings my eyes, forcing me to blink rapidly—once, then twice—before my vision clears.
Garvan looms over me, his face contorted in a mask of deranged rage. There’s little left of the courtier I thought I knew. No, this is the face of a man who is willing to risk everything.
Garvan reaches for me, grabbing the front of my dress and hauling me out of the chest as if I weigh nothing at all. My body is still tightly bound, and whatever magic he used from the roses has me unable to feelcertain parts of it. The flowers in question are set next to the chest, untouched but buzzing with unused potential. I get a moment to check out my surroundings and find he has taken me back to where I attacked him near the River Hel.
Garvan tosses me to the ground, and I crash onto my hip. Pain detonates through me as jagged rocks bite into my skin, a fresh wave of agony layering over the bruises I’ve already collected today. At this rate, my body will be covered in them. Though, if I don’t make it out of this alive, I suppose it won’t matter.
Two polished black leather boots step into my line of sight, stopping just inches away. A cruel chuckle follows. “You don’t look well, my queen.” Garvan almost sounds genuinely concerned.
Rage ignites inside me, burning brighter than the pain because he doesn’t get to pretend to care but also want to kill me and Oziel. I have never wanted to kill anyone more, and that includes James. Fuck, his death seems like a lifetime ago. So much has changed since I stepped through the portal and into Mescos.
“Fuck you, Garvan,” I spit, finding my words, even if my voice comes out hoarse.
My comment only makes him frown. “You know, I’m actually sad, believe it or not, my queen. Admittedly, I didn’t want you in Mescos, but once you were here, I deluded myself that you would be good for Oziel. I even encouraged him to make you fall in love with him.” His last words drop an octave, like he hates he’s even admitting that.
“But I miscalculated the weakness you’d bring ourking, and by extension our kingdom. Just like his bloody parents. It was then I knew I made the right choice to align myself with the Nephilim fully.” The bindings around my body disappear, but the effects of the roses still linger, and I feel heavy. Like each movement takes a great amount of effort and concentration.
“The Nephilim won’t spare you,” I growl, thinking back to the visions I shared with the captive Nephilim. How a woman begged them to stop. They wouldn’t until they reached their end goal. Which is…? Power? To take hold of Mescos? Whatever it is, Garvan is a fool if he believes he can trust those creatures. I felt the pain and loss the woman in the vision felt. I know from her just how deadly the Nephilim are.
“They will. We might be weaker, but we won’t be eradicated like the other kingdoms,” he says, voice teetering on madness. Garvan is too far gone to talk any sense into. “I just have to destroy the river. That’s the sacrifice they demand to reverse the curse. I’ll do it. The demons will understand. I’ll make them understand. Right after I poison the River Hel for the last time and destroy the roses. Oh, and kill you too, human queen.”
