She’d given herself away.
The smile Sintarrak gave her lit something dangerous within me.
Bayne’s lips moved, and Lyvia’s wings, even her shadows, stilled. My face slackened, and my heart stopped as Sintarrak grabbed hold of her left hand and ripped two of my wife’s fingers off with his bare hands.
Lyvia’s scream moved through every line of my body, her terror transforming something inside me, sharpening something lethal. The agonizing pitch scraped over some force crafted of violence and vengeance, like the rough surface of a whetting stone. Time stopped as two long talons transformed back into her thin fingers and fell through the air, the sparkle of the múritinne band dimming alongside the violet crystal I’d given her.
A blast of golden light erupted overhead, and Sintarrak’s silver eyes widened in shock as Bayne’s body was slammed back. Lyvia’s form twisted in the air. Her shadows siphoned back into her elven body as Tiberius emerged a few feet away, unfused.
Sintarrak’s shock lasted just a moment, and a loudcracklater, he appeared behind Lyvia as her body fell. The Embodied wrapped Bayne’s arms around Lyvia’s chest, and tears burned behind my rage as she pounded her bleeding fist against him.
I rushed to where they would fall, and Tiberius rallied his strength in a tornado of shadows, surging after them.
Bayne’s lips were at Lyvia’s ear as they tumbled through the sky, her face a mask of horror as they came closer and closer to the charred ground.
Power swelled within my chest, and I sent a blast of wind gathering the ash of the burned tree limbs and shoving it into a pile below them. My chest constricted with a panicked desperation, an overwhelming urge to get to her… to save her…
Hurry.
Sintarrak and Lyvia somersaulted through the sky. Her perfect, caramel eyes caught mine once as the horizon flipped before her, and a wave of love and devastation blasted me through the tight connection we had created. Her black brows pinched up in sorrow before her face crumpled.
Her face disappeared behind Bayne’s falling body, and as she flipped again, her eyes found mine once more. Everything stopped.
Silver flashed in place of the soft, caramel eyes I’d grown to love, and shock spread through my body. My knees hit the ground before the pile of ash.
Bayne’s form sagged. His arms released Lyvia as Sintarrak left his body. A loudcrackripped through the air, and Lyvia’s body appeared on the other side of the ash as Bayne fell to the ground.
Sintarrak stretched Lyvia’s perfect lips into a smile I’d never seen before on my love.Bonscaíh. Rage, grief, and shock battled for control, and my hands shook as they fought for their release.
“Lyvia,” I croaked in a devastating breath, getting to my feet.I had to stop this.
Sintarrak held Lyvia’s hands out to the sides, glancing between them, curiosity igniting the swirling silver. Blood drained from her left hand, and he waved her other over the top, sprinkling a dusting of blue light.
Her flesh knit back together, forming two small knobs where her fingers should have been, and she straightened. Her eyes closed, and she cracked her neck.
“What—” Queen Antares’s shocked voice carried across the empty clearing as she approached. Her skin was clear of burns, and her fighting leathers were void of any ash. The queen’s sky-blue eyes cut to where Bayne’s body lay. A groan escaped his lips. She snapped her face at Lyvia, eyes wide in shock.
Sintarrak cocked Lyvia’s head in a jerky, unnatural motion as he surveyed the queen through Lyvia’s eyes. Queen Antares paled as realization hit, her mouth falling open.
“My god,” she breathed, dropping to her knee. “Take me instead,” she pleaded, tugging the múritinne ring off her finger and throwing it in the ash.
Rage leveled the disgust growing in my gut, and my hand twitched, urging me to give in to the promise to rip her throat out.
“You need someone stronger than this…” The queen paused, waving her fingers at Lyvia’s burned, ashy form.
Blood dripped from Lyvia’s temple, and lacerations peppered her bare arms.
Bare arms…
The shadows beneath her skin were entirely absent… No beautiful darkness… no golden light… I scanned her face, and my eyes cut to the rounded ears poking out from under her disheveled hair.
Lyvia stepped forward to where Queen Antares knelt. Sintarrak’s silver eyes narrowed as her lips pinched into a sneer.
“My host despises you,” Sintarrak said through Lyvia’s lips. “Coward, she calls you.”
An ugly snarl escaped the queen’s lips, and Lyvia’s hand shot forward. A quiet yelp escaped Antares’s mouth as Lyvia gripped the queen’s jaw. Her dirty fingernails dug into the queen’s porcelain cheeks, and a small bead of blood dripped down her skin.
“Please,” the queen begged, “I am stronger than she is. Take me. Use me.Conquer with me.”
