“I’ll be the judge of that,” I snapped. “It is me he’s after…”
Krait’s jaw stiffened. He wanted to argue—I could tell by the hard lines on his face. Why did he have to look so damned attractive when he grew angry with me?
Caym’s other envoys were dead, and he had been within his true form when I killed him…he couldn’t still have Emmerick.
He will rise once more. But do as you can to delay him until your child has all the relics.
Remembering Isleen’s words, I asked, “Where have Lymrasi and her children gone?”
I’d tell him later of meeting my ancestors—of my mother’s help. There was too much to unravel now.
“They were creatures of Caym’s creation—they, too, were free as soon as you struck his heart.”
My pulse quickened, and I shook my head. I needed to understand so much more from Isleen. I still couldn’t wrap my mind around what had happened in that cavern.
“I want to speak with Emmerick.”
“I go in alone,” I demanded. Krait glared—it was a definitefilet meexpression. “Stay right outside.”
He growled, “If he makes one wrong move against you—”
“Then I can handle myself. Keep your Shadows to yourself, husband dearest. Marriages can be easily annulled if not consummated.” I laid a hand on his chest and rose to my tiptoes to press a kiss to his lips.
Krait softened against me and pushed a stray curl behind my ear. “That would be a hard technicality to hold up.”
He reluctantly stepped back, allowing me to open the door to the stairway. It surprised me that he hadn’t fought harder to come with me.
Guards led me down the dank-smelling stairs to the cell. Emmerick sat against the wall, staring down at the floor. He wore a fresh tunic; his stubble had grown out but his face was clean, wounds tended to.
“Leave us,” I instructed the guards after they let me into the cell.
Em wasn’t wearing binding cuffs. I found that a promising sign that Krait was only holding him as a precaution. Untouched, a tray of food and water was on his cot.
“Em.”
He looked up. I crossed the cell and crouched beside him.
I swallowed hard, fighting back tears, at a loss for what to say. His expression looked haunted—jaw clenched and stare dull.
He looked at me with shaking hands pressed to the stone floor. The jovial boy I’d once loved had hardened into someone I didn’t recognize.
I reached out and grabbed one of his hands. “It won’t ever be the same, will it?” I asked with visions dancing in the back of my mind of tree forts and the hunt for squirrels in the woods, our first kiss when he was a stable boy and all the firsts after that.
“No, it won’t,” he said, his voice full of unspoken sorrow. “But my hope is that maybe, someday, it will all make sense why.”
I’d given all of my heart to Krait, but I was certain that a piece of it had been carved out and gifted to Emmerick long before. That piece would always care whether he was well, safe and happy.
“I’ll get you out of here. I am going to skewer him for putting you down here again,” I ground out.
Emmerick met my gaze with a sad smile. “Syb, I need you to listen to him. I know you—you aren’t going to like what he tells you. You aren’t going to like your hand being forced.”
I bristled.
His stare pleaded with me. Then my dearest friend stiffened. His grip on my hand grew tight, and I gasped with a wince.
“He’s coming…” Em choked out. “Sybilla…You need to get out of here.”
Blood pumped in my ears. When I met his gaze again, his face was contorted into a cruel scowl that was not Em’s. His eyes gleamed that awful shade of green.
