I yanked again. But my body was cold from the grip of their combined eclipse, my limbs numb, my movements delayed. Thaan nodded his head once, a silent command they reacted to without question, tearing Pheolix's cloak and shirt from his body. Blood smeared across his abdomen, the veins in his side like black bolts of lightning.
“What do you want me to do, Thaan?” I asked, watching the poison leach further into him. The two drones hauled me to my feet, forcing me to back a step away.
But Thaan wasn’t looking at me.
“I’d burn every bone in my body to keep you warm,” Thaan drawled, staring at the loathing in Pheolix’s gaze. “I’d sacrifice every drop of my blood to keep you safe.”
Suddenly, I understood what was happening.
“Vow nothing,” I ordered. “He won’t hurt me. He’s bluffing.” My voice cut off as one of the Naiads pushed me into the other. Legs and feet dulled with cold, I stumbled into the drone, and he pushed me back. I fell before I could catch myself. Anger curled my lips from my teeth, the air in front of my mouth so cold it blew white.
I unclasped the strap of my knife, throwing myself into the chest of the drone that had tossed me down, burying the blade in his heart.
He coughed blood in my face, crumpling away. One of them grabbed me from behind, flinging me back down to the stone. The knife flew from my hand, skittering across pine needles and rock.
“Bind his mouth,” Thaan said.
I wrenched myself upright, flexing the sting out of my palms, unable to separate fear from the anger swirling in my chest. The nearest drone snatched my hand, hurling me back to the ground as one of the drones holding Pheolix jerked his head back with a fistful of hair. Another tied a wide leather strap over his mouth.
“Since you think I’m not serious,” Thaan said, pulling his hands behind his back, “let’s hold a demonstration.”
He clicked his tongue.
Something moved at my right.
A shadow so fast I didn’t even have time to turn my head.
Everything snapped out.
I woke to the sound of muffled screaming.
The screams came from one person. But they pierced me from every direction.
I thought they were mine at first. But as moonlight filtered through my lashes, as I rocked my head from one direction to the other, stirring myself awake, I realized they weren’t. They were too deep. Too masculine. Toodesperateto belong to my voice.
The taste of iron bloomed across my tongue. I couldn’t see out of my right eye. Couldn’t straighten my left leg. A horn inside my head blared with every pulse, and my jaw clicked when I tried to open it, sending a sharp needle into the base of my ear.
I rolled drunkenly onto a shoulder, propping my elbow beneath me and lifting my head.
Pheolix had moved. He lay on a hip, slowly crawling to me. Black veins stretched from the gaping hole in his side, a pulpy web that now canvased his chest and stomach, slowly creeping into his shoulder and throat. His fingers laced into mine, and he tucked his head over my neck.
The rest of them had stepped back. One wiped fresh blood from his mouth, another sported a gash across his cheek that hadn’t been there before.
“Swear it on your blood,” Thaan said, his voice hanging somewhere I couldn’t see.
Pheolix’s fingers tightened over mine. Regret swam in the gray. “I’m sorry, heiress,” he whispered.
“Swear it.”
My breath sent the strands of Pheolix’s russet hair swaying. Swear what?
Swear what, swear what, swear what?
Pheolix closed his eyes. “I swear on my blood.”
Light burned into a slice across the back of his hand. They’d already cut him for the vow. Already stated the terms.
“What did you do?” I gasped, my voice breathless. “What did you vow?”
