Page 191 of Sworn to the Shadow Throne

One chance. That was all I’d get. I pressed myself to the wall and dragged air into my lungs, waiting for my chance.

Coryanthus had backed away, coughing to get his breath back. His expression flickered then fixed into one I knew. He was losing, scrambling for a way out. His gaze dropped to the dagger on the floor. Then moved to Owain’s back.

He rushed to reach for it with his left hand.

I sprinted across the gap, heart hammering against my ribs, fueled by nothing but instinct.

My mate.

Coryanthus’s expression never landed on the snarl of revenge he’d been planning. I pressed my power into him as I made contact with his back. Like a giant reaching into his chest with two hands, my will ripped a jagged slash through everything vital inside him all at once.

The sound was horrible. The sensation of sheering through him with my will…the stuff of nightmares. I’d remember it until my dying breath—but I’d never regret it.

Coryanthus had one moment to look up at me. Even in death he thought he was being wronged. His life was over before his body hit the floor.

But I couldn’t afford to think about that yet. Coryanthus’s illusion had disappeared with his last breath. Across the room, Berian sat in his chair again, gray-faced and too still for life.

Vaustin followed my glance. And for the first time, purpose cut cleanly through his madness. One shaking hand held a shield, the other rose. Vaustin’s fingers squeezed as though closing around an invisible throat.

Owain’s shadows disappeared silently and all at once.

The bond didn’t sever cleanly this time. It dragged, like something clawing through flesh rather than slicing. The floor didn’t move, but my body stopped trusting it. My knees nearly buckled. Every instinct reached for the steady, familiar presence of Owain, but found only a raw, aching hollow once again.

No.

They couldn’t take him from me like this. I’d only just found the man who treasured me and fought to protect me. Who loved me despite my stubbornness. Who made me finally finally feel like I was valued for so much more than what I could do for others.

Grief at so much loss hit me first, followed closely by a burning anger at their atrocities. But it was frustration that finally broke me—the agonizing certainty that I wasn't strong enough to step into Owain's place and save him. Together, they swept over me in a gray tide of defeat, making me want to crumple to the floor.

Owain’s gaze locked onto Coryanthus’s body for a fleeting moment. His expression closed off instantly, like a door slamming shut. His gaze meeting mine held me upright. But it held a profound sort of understanding that I wasn’t ready for yet.

He loves me even as he sees my darkness, as he looks Death in the face.

Then Owain turned back to Vaustin, staring down a monster while stripped of his power.

“And in the end, you’re just a man.” Vaustin’s voice was raspy with greedy anticipation, as if he couldn’t wait to sink his teeth in. With ragged breaths, he let out a noise that sounded like a laugh cut off by an involuntary flinch. He moved to grab the device off the mantel to drain Owain.

The moment he turned his back was all the opening I was going to get. I slipped the ring off my finger and hurled it straight at the heart of the ward.

We were far enough away to escape the worst. Fire erupted outward in a violent, concussive blast. The ward shattered in a rain of stone shrapnel. The force cracked the wall and nearly blew out my eardrums. Heat slammed into me, followed by a rush of choking dust that flooded the room.

The next blow from outside struck a door no longer reinforced by the ward. It burst inward half a heartbeat later.

Camrick moved into the room with deadly decisiveness, his eyes scanning for threats even before he was fully inside. His sword was drawn, his men a half-step behind, ragged from fighting.

Without hesitation, his magic merged with the tumultuous energy still churning in the air. Colossal spears of ice unleashed themselves like a furious winter storm upon Vaustin.

Vaustin threw up a shimmering shield woven from the device’s power. The ice exploded against it in a shrieking cloud of shards. Camrick pressed forward without pause, driving wedge after wedge of cold into the barrier.

Camrick did not need to defeat Vaustin. He only needed to keep him looking at anyone but Owain. I could see in his eyes that he savored each second of his retaliation—payback for years of pain inflicted by the Assembly.

Owain had said the Assembly wanted chaos in Avanfell, but Larethia gave it to them in that room.

The mage guards quickly joined the assault, while the mundane guards rushed to form a circle around me and began shoving me backward toward the door. I dug my heels in, refusing to move an inch.

The room would be utterly destroyed when this was all over. And it would be over soon. I could see it in the way Vaustin’s jaw locked, the way his eyes kept sliding sideways to the window.

He was expending so much power, all at once, keeping so many attacks at bay. Even with the stolen magic, he was still a man who could bleed.