Both mages ignored me and my words. Jarrick’s calm was fading. Power, nomagic,was building up under his skin, pulsing in his veins. Somehow, I couldfeel it.He was going to attack Devin. Drag me back to The Spire with him. Force me to marry him. His next words confirmed it. “I have a signed betrothal contract from the Matron. The Knight Eternal will honor it. She’s mine. I found her first.”
“So, you do know what she is.”
What the Void was he talking about?
Jarrick shrugged and took another step back, toward our horse. Yanked me along like I was baggage. “I know she’s going to be my bride.”
I tugged, kicked, twisted. “No. I told you no. I’m not marrying anyone.” My eyes burned with frustrated, rage-fueled tears. I might as well have been yelling at two stone mountains.
“Let. Her. Go.” Devin’s cold words were accompanied by raised hands. He held his arms up, palms facing one another. Between them? Violet-blue flame twisted and burned in mid-air.“I’ll give you one more chance, Jarrick. She’s mine. We share the bond.”
Jarrick shook his head. “No. Liar.”
“Ask her,” Devin insisted.
What bond was he talking about? Even as I the question entered my mind, I knew. The twisting in my gut when our eyes met, the way my body responded to him. The way I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about him since the moment I saw him. There was something between us, something dark and twisted and needy. Something terrifying andhungry. Something that wanted to take my freedom from me and give it to a Death Mage. “No.”
Jarrick’s shoulders seemed to slump in relief. “There. She denied it herself.” He shoved me back again and I tripped, would have fallen, but the vice-like grip he had on my wrist held. I felt the bone snap. I cried out as pain exploded under his grip.
I stopped thinking. My mind just shut down, filled with pain as the second bone snapped. I fell to my knees, the agony twisting into something cold as ice in my body. Was I going into shock? I didn’t know. All I knew was I wanted him to let me go.
Devin unleashed his violet flame, a ball the size of Jarrick’s head flew toward his chest. He twisted to the side, dodging the attack. Rather than release me to fight, his grip tightened further until it felt as if he was going to squeeze my hand off, separate it from the rest of me. The icy burn I’d been feeling intensified and Jarrick cursed, dropping my wrist as his hand and the sleeve of his fancy coat burst into white flame.
Devin took advantage, sending a burst of violet fire that lifted Jarrick from the ground and blew him halfway across the small clearing. To my shock, Jarrick landed on his feet, returning fire as I crawled away from both of them, cradling my injured wrist to my chest. I curled into a ball and tried to make myself small asthe entire forest exploded with violet and blue fire, covered my ears when Jarrick began to scream…
5
~Devin ~
I woke to warmth.
Not the false warmth of spellfire or the suffocating heat of a fever dream—but the real kind. The kind that crept in quietly, curling around my skin and seeping into my bones. The kind I hadn’t felt in… decades.
Maybe longer.
I blinked, the morning light slicing through the thin veil of sleep like a blade through silk. The forest stirred around us, hushed and golden. Birdsong. The crackle of a fire. The distant hush of water over stones.
And the smell offood.
I sat up too fast, dizziness sweeping through me like a wave. My entire body ached, hollow and slow, and I realized with grim clarity just how much power I’d used the night before.
More than I’d meant to. More than I could afford.
I’d burned deep, past the safe lines. Past the edges, where most Death Mages dare not tread. I must have passed out cold. Defenseless.
And yet…
She hadn’t left me.
Cleo knelt near the fire, her back to me, tending a flat stone where eggs sizzled beside sliced riverroot and fragrant green herbs. Her hair was damp, dark and curling slightly where it touched her shoulders. She’d bathed. Cleaned the grime of the forest and her captivity from her skin. She looked… fresh. Radiant.
Alive.
More beautiful than she had any right to be.
She turned slightly, just enough to see I was awake. “Finally,” she said, tone wry. “I thought maybe you were dead.” She poked at the fire, shaking her head. “You weren’t breathing. But you were glowing, so I decided to wait to burn your body.”
“I appreciate your restraint.” A chuckle bubbled through me. Amusement. Another emotion I hadn’t felt in so long I’d nearly forgotten the sensation. When she ignored me, I forced myself to sit straighter. “You stayed.”
