Amriel snorts. “Why eviscerate something when you can outsmart it?”
“Why outsmart it,” the Shadow grumbles, “when you can eviscerate it?”
Amriel cracks his knuckles, then his neck. “Hush. That was exciting enough even for you. And there’s still one left. We can share him.”
The last troll backs away, gibbering, gooey snot running down his already bloodied face.
I strain against my bonds, trying for a better view. Because this is the one that wanted to cut my clothes off. The one that wanted me to havemore holes.
Some wild new feeling unspools in my veins, one that echoes in the Shadow’s every step. He and Amriel move in eerie harmony, two hands turned to a single purpose.
The troll begs and snivels, but my fae men remain unmoved. They pounce, each one taking hold of an arm and a leg, pulling so hard the troll lifts from the ground. The Shadow’s muscles tense, his toes pushing up furrows of dirt. Amriel leans back, too, his entire weight thrown into the effort.
The vicious glee in their faces should frighten me, but it doesn’t. The savage flame inside me only burns brighter.
Joints snap and pop, dislocating one by one. The troll opens his mouth, but what comes out barely counts as a scream. It’s more silence than sound, or maybe so high-pitched that the register escapes me. And it doesn’t last long.
Because in the next moment, this troll explodes, too.
Flesh tears, bones crack. Blood fills the air as the creature rips into halves.
Amriel and his Shadow don’t stop. The meadow fills with the wet, sucking sounds of violence, long after the troll mustbe dead.
I watch to completion, my stomach doing a slow, complex dance. I’m glad they killed him. I’m glad they killed them all.
A sinful thought, but I don’t care right now. Because Amriel and his Shadow saved me. They came when I called.
Theyanswered my prayer.
When the troll’s corpse has been sufficiently brutalized, Amriel and the Shadow turn to me in sync. Four golden eyes cut a path across the meadow, stilling my heart mid-beat. I’ve always perceived them as so different—one controlled, the other driven by passion—and yet right now, they’re one and the same.
They glide toward me, one indigo, one gold, both so beautiful my vision can barely hold the two at once. I arch off the wheel, trying to get to them, not caring that the ropes slice into my wrists.
Only something’s wrong. The closer Amriel comes, the more his smile knits tight.
“What?” I rasp. “What is it?”
He and the Shadow exchange glances. The Shadow shakes his head, his mouth thinning, as if he dislikes whatever they’re discussing across their shared mind. But Amriel must add something else, because a moment later, the Shadow sighs and gives a grudging nod.
Icy claws prick my heart. “What? What’re you saying to each other?”
Amriel’s mouth crooks. “Don’t be angry. But…”
I tense, mentally adding that to my list of things a man should never say to a woman.
“…I can’t stay, Princess.”
I blink at him. “No. What? You have to.”
“Ican’t.”
I gape. “But you’re not going back to the castle. Not bygyre. You can’t risk it again, can’t?—”
He steps close, his scent washing over me. When he reaches for my hand, my fingers instinctively strain to lock with his. But he only cuts my bonds with his blood-soaked dagger, freeing my wrist.
“Look at your bracelet,” he says, his voice terrifyingly soft. “At the hourglass.”
He flips the orb for me, and I bring it close, a sob already rushing up my throat. Sand pours through the glass, too much of it, too fast?—
