He’d broken her jaw.
She staggered back, but he captured her head, then folded her in half and crashed his knee into her forehead. A brow split, and a rush of hot red blinded her.
She tried to twist away, but dizziness overwhelmed her as she crashed to the stone floor, writhing in pain. The ringing between her ears drowned out every sound. All save agonized wails andgroaning metal as Tristan pulled against the bars of the cage—desperate to reach her. Desperate to save her.
She could do nothing but crawl away from the Koenig, who’d retrieved his warhammer and was stalking toward her with it.
She rolled onto her back and he knelt above her, his thighs bracketing her hips, his knees crushing her feathered wings. She could barely feel them.
She was nothing but a bloodied face atop a pile of broken limbs and what the fuck had she been thinking, taking on this male without a weapon? Though to be fair, if she’d let him have a weapon, she’d probably be dead by now.
A victorious smile bloomed onto Aedelmar’s terrifying face as he arced the hammer over his head.
She stopped him with a single word.
“Priya.”
The hammer stopped inches from her nose, and centuries-old sorrow dampened his sapphire eyes as his chest stilled.
“Priya,” Cassandra moaned around her sticky lump of a tongue. “You…didn’t…get…a goodbye. Let…me…have one.”
The Koenig’s arms fell to his sides as he sat back on her thighs, his weight nearly crushing her bones.
“Please…let me…say…goodbye.” A tear dripped from the corner of her eye and trailed down her temple as she turned to toward the iron cage. Toward Tristan. His knuckles were bone-white as he clenched the bars hard enough to snap them.
The Koenig followed her gaze, then pushed off her. He snapped at Wormwood, his fingers dancing.
The weasel bi-form shuffled over wearing a confused smile. “Yes, but I… Well, that is very sympathetic of you, but… Do you really think…Fine.” He released a frustrated huff as he hustled over to open the cage, allowing Tristan—and only Tristan—to exit.
Tristan leapt through the door, but Wormwood stopped him, wrapping a clawed hand around his forearm. “Sixty seconds to say goodbye. Then it’s over.” He pushed his claws out, sinking the tips into Tristan’s flesh and drawing blood. “And if you tryanything, your friends die.”
A line of Brethren poured into the cage, placing daggers at Ronin, Mireille, and Silas’s throats.
Tristan didn’t say a word, merely clenched his jaw and ripped his arm from Wormwood’s grasp. Claret drops plinked to the floor as he stalked over to Cassandra.
The Koenig stepped back and swung his hammer over his shoulder. Waiting. Allowing Tristan and Cassandra a final moment together.
Tristan knelt down beside her, his hands hovering over her chest and arms. As if he wanted to pull her into his lap but was terrified of injuring her further. Her jaw was rapidly swelling and stiffening. She’d lost the ability to move it, to speak.
Tristan gently tucked his hand behind her head and ran his nose along hers. His honey-brown eyes were filled with devastated rage.
Good, she thought to herself. She wanted him to cling to the anger. Use it to reshape the world.
Even if she was no longer in it.
Their hot tears mingled as he pressed their foreheads together.
“Cassandra,” he moaned.
Her lips tried to form those three precious syllables, but she couldn’t manage it, couldn’t move her jaw.
He trailed gentle fingertips across her lips. “It’s okay,ma’anyu. I know you do.”
She winced out a tear-choked laugh. The response was so him. SoTristan. And High Gods, what she wouldn’t have given to have just one more anything with him.
One more year. One more day. One more hour. One more minute.
The edges of her vision darkened, and it was all she could do to focus on his perfect, beautiful face.
