“If you do not step back in three seconds, I’ll consider your defiance as an act of aggression against my regent and will have no issue carrying out His Majesty’s will here and now.” His serrated blade glimmered in the firelight as he unsheathed it, pointing it at the Northern Hive guards.
“Three.” It was six against one. I knew Dommik was a skilled fighter,but could he take them all? Guests tripped over themselves around us, like the guards surrounding me were a steadfast island in the midst of a raging river.
“Two.” Behind us, glittering magic reflected off golden pillars as two priestesses worked together to repel the shades out of the ballroom. The guards around me revealed their own weaponry. I was sick of feeling helpless. I had to do…something.
I looked to my right. The soldier had a dagger at his belt.
“One.” I reached for the small blade and, in one motion, pulled it away from its owner before plunging it up into his thick neck.
While distracted by my act, a dark wind wrapped around the guards that circled me. One by one, their severed heads rolled off their necks and their bodies crumbled around me like a sacrificial wreath.
Their blood splattered on my bare arms. Witnesses screamed at the massacre, but I didn’t see the blood or the bodies. I couldn’t take my eyes off him.
“You’re alive,” I breathed, relieved death hadn’t taken him yet while I was surrounded by it.
“For now.” He wiped his blade across his leather gauntlet. The chaos simmered into a manageable level behind us. My eyes scoured him for injuries, but there was nothing except the tinge of a faint purple bruise on his upper cheek. It was nearly healed, days old maybe, and that’s when the image of Rhazien’s bloodied knuckles floated to the surface.
I wanted to reach for him but Rhazien’s blood protested, transmuting itself into solid, heavy iron, and it took great effort to lift my hand out to him. His bare hand met mine as he tenderly helped me step from the carnage. “You saved me again…”
“You have a habit of needing to be saved.”
Our eyes met and the chaos blurred. Time stopped. The way he was looking down at me brought me right back into his bedroom. Rhazien’s blood seared a path up my spine and into the center of my head, doing its best to drive away the memories of his hands and lips and…
“Dommik I?—”
“Don’t.” His eyes dropped to my revealing gown. Defeat laced his words as he whispered, “This is what’s best. My actions were selfish. Misled.”
“Dommik.” I sighed, frustrated by his resignation but realizing what tonight must have looked like. Dancing with Rhazien, swooning from the blood, playing my part for the crowd.
“You’re with Rhazien. It’s what’s right.” His next words made me wish I’d plunged a dagger into my own heart. “And you look happy.”
Who was he working so hard to convince?
It’s you I want!I wanted to scream. Rhazien’s blood held my truth behind an impassable barricade.
Vampires scurried around us, securing the space. “You don’t believe that.”
His throat bobbed in deafening silence between us. Heartbreaking.
I raised my brows. “Right?”
Please don’t believe it.
Magic crackled and orders were being barked in different directions. But one voice silenced them all.
“WHAT is the meaning behind THIS!?” Eryx’s shadow fell over us.
Rhazien was not far behind. He leapt over the fallen bodies and wrapped me into a consuming embrace. “Thank the Four. Are you hurt?”
I shook my head, stealing a glance at Dommik. “No. No, I’m all right.”
Eryx’s fangs threatened death as he roared, “EXPLAIN!”
Dommik blinked away his focus from Rhazien’s arms around me. “These guards refused to relinquish the prospect.”
The prospect. He said it like I was a parcel. Like I didn’t have a name. Like we didn’tknoweach other.
He continued, “I warned them. Gave them a chance to yield their formation. They refused. I was within my rights to act on behalf of the best interest of my regent.”
