“Oh well.” He shrugged. “It is as though you might wish to speak to someone with first-hand experience on the matter. I wonder where you might find one of those.” He turned back to the portal, and stepped through it without another word.
“Wait!”Ava let out a loud snarl. “Fuckingfae!”
She had no choice.
She had to.
It was safer there.
Maybe.
Definitely?
Possibly.
And Valroy had answers.
Maybe.
Definitely?
Possibly.
“Don’t go?—”
“I’m going, Bitty.” Ava headed for the portal. She didn’t know how much time she had. “I won’t make you come with me.”
“I—I—Ooohh—”Bitty let out a long whine and flew after her, wings fluttering.“Ooh fuck!”
As Ava jumped through the portal, some part of her was a little proud that she had taught Bitty to swear.
And the last thing she heard was Serrik calling her name.
“Ava!”
Golden threads whippedthrough the air, slicing through ancient tomes as if they were nothing. The harpsichord lay in splinters, its strings snapped and curled like dying worms across the marble floor. Candles had been hurled against walls, leaving trails of melted wax like frozen tears.
Serrik stood in the center of the destruction, chest heaving, his perfect composure utterly shattered.
She was gone.
Gone.
Not dead. That perhaps would have been easier to grieve.
Not just hidden in some corner of the Web where his awareness could still reach her.
Not just avoiding his call or resisting their connection.
Gone. Taken beyond the boundaries of his prison into Tir n’Aill itself.
WithValroy.
Another surge of rage coursed through him, and a bookshelf across the room splintered, volumes tumbling to the floor likefallen soldiers. The golden threads that extended from his fingertips whipped and coiled, responding to his fury.
He had felt it happen. Had felt the exact moment when the connection between them stretched and thinned to almost breaking. He could no longer see her. Could no longer watch her. Hear her voice. Like a physical pain, the sudden strain had dropped him to his knees.
Eighteen hundred years of imprisonment and nothing had hurt quite like that moment.
