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It would have given my father appalling joy to seduce my mother’s sister. Or worse, violate her and sire sons on her. Now Iknew why Mother had appeared sad and anxious at the mention of her sister.
Dalya’s vision echoed back to me.
Two sides of the same coin. Demon-fae. One true, one not. Beware the raven’s back, for he seeks your place…in all things.
Meck, the true one. His brother—my brother—Ferryn sought my place. He’d taken my mizrah. My dear Una. My gods-given mate.
I lifted to my feet slowly, clenching my fists, claws digging into my skin. I relished the pain. Soryn stood in front of me, an expression of shock on his face. Keffa stood with an unconscious Hava in his arms. Pullo stared at me, horrified at what we’d all just realized.
“Kill the rest of the fucking wights.” I breathed out a shaky breath, rage rattling through my frame as I reached out to my companion. “Then lead a party to search for her.” I turned and marched toward the open field.
“Where will you be, Sire?” asked Pullo.
But I didn’t answer. There was no need as a bellowing roar rumbled down from the night sky, the sweeping shadow of Drakmir circling downward. He felt my fury, my fear, and my urgency.
I had to find her. And then I was going to tear my brother to pieces.
Chapter 42
UNA
I awoketo being jostled off a horse, my hands bound in front of me. My head pounded where Ferryn had struck it, nausea rolled in my belly. Some foul force enveloped me, tightening until I had to expel a breath from the pressure. It emanated from Ferryn.
It wasn’t the same disgusting rot radiating from the wights. It was a palpable energy with fierce power and dark intentions. A sinister force independent of Ferryn’s will, but also entwined with his.
I was in his arms being carried up a small hill. I caught sight of stars through the mostly bare trees overhead. Hazy, but aware, I took note of my surroundings.
Ahead of us, a rocky outcropping came into view against the backdrop of the half-moon. It looked like we were near the foothills I’d seen as Goll and I flew over Meerland toward Solzkin’s Heart. So we were slightly southwest of the camp. How long had I been out? I couldn’t tell since the half-moon still hung high, not seeming to have moved since the stream.
Mother of stars. Please let Hava be safe.
“Get your bag,” Ferryn told someone, snapping my gaze to him. “You’ll need it.”
Had Meck helped him? No. They had been fighting right before Ferryn knocked me unconscious.
“Glad you’re awake, my mizrah. I’ll have you comfortable in a moment.”
His voice was different. His inflection was too intimate, not the same as when I first met him and how he usually spoke to me. Had he been hiding his true intentions all along? Or had something changed?
That darkness I now sensed wasn’t there before. Or was it? Since I’d ingested Grindolvek’s blood, I’d been highly attuned to the wrongness inside those crazed wolves. I’d sensed dark magick when no one else did.
And afterwards, when I went to see Ferryn, I’d thought what I sensed was a lingering of the wolves. But now I realized thatthiswas what I was sensing, this dark force living inside of him.
We were moving closer to the outcropping of mountainous rock. But that wasn’t what held my attention. It was the clicking of bones and the groaning of the dead surrounding us.So many.As Ferryn stepped up toward a cave opening, I finally looked out.
Hundreds of them.Where had they all come from?
Their hollow eyes glowed white under the moonlight, a sinister sign that there was life there after all. A twisted, warped life intent to do their master’s bidding.
“Why, Ferryn?”
He looked down at me, his expression somehow serene despite the insanity of what he was doing. “I should think that’s obvious, my mizrah.”
I hated the way he kept saying “my mizrah.” Many had used the title before, but not with the possessive glee he held. That’s when it truly hit me. He intended me to behis.I swallowed downthe panic threatening to overwhelm me. I needed to keep focus and alert and find my way out of here.
But the wights. Terror wound its claws around me at the thought of those creatures taking hold of me. Flashes of them in that pit in the dungeon flickered in my mind.
No. Keep focused.
