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Bright, iridescent wings fluttered on Aeris’s back, so beautiful and radiant, I couldn’t look at them for too long without being dazzled like the sun.
The curse hadn’t given her wings yet, so of course, the resourceful, unstoppable Aeris made her own.
She dropped me down beside Alisdair. He slumped against his throne—broken and bleeding. Gaping wounds covered his mangled, twisted beast form.
I fell on him, taking his face in my hands. “Alisdair? My love, can you hear me?”
“What are you doing, girl!”
I twisted around. Groaning and bruised, Alisdair’s would-be assassins staggered to their feet.
“Kill him before he rises! The blade is right there!”
“No!” shouted another voice. “We must torture him. Get him to tell us where the heart is, then we kill him.”
“The heart is here! It must be. This pit is a trove of stolen and looted treasure,” argued someone else. “After he’s dead, we’ll search until we find it. But we kill him now!”
I listened with half an ear. “Alisdair, please, wake up.” I patted his grizzled cheeks. “I finally figured it out, love. I know how to save you, but you have to wake up. Look at me, please!”
He stirred.
“Alisdair!”
A single, swollen eye peeled open. His red, bottomless orb swept my face... and he smiled. “Calli,” he rasped. “Thank you.”
“What? Why are you thanking me?”
“I wanted your face... to be the last thing I see.”
My chest squeezed. “It won’t be the last, and it won’t be today.”
“Calli, look out!”
A blur roared out of the corner of my eye. The brutal thud of bodies colliding forced me upright—standing between Alisdair and whoever dared to think they were going to take him from me.
Eadaoin tumbled head over heels with him. Landing hard on his back, Meallan got his feet between their bodies and propelled her off—throwing her clear into the heart of the mob.
“Stay back,” Meallan growled. He raised his one clawed hand, ever lethal even without its twin. “There is no discussion. There is no argument. I know exactly where Shadowsoul has hidden his heart. He needn’t be alive for one more second, so tonight, I finish this.”
“Yeah!” they sounded off. “Huzzah! Huzzah!”
The furry, scaled, clawed, winged, and beady-eyed Lyrican fae-beasts were a living mass—surging forward and back as one. I sensed their eagerness to storm upon the dais and finish Alisdair off, but they halted before their leader, trusting him to finish this like they trusted him to get them this far.
Fishing out one of my vials, I threw it at Meallan. It shattered at his feet, splashing on his foot and pant leg.
He arched a brow. “What is wrong with you? Get out of the way, girl!”
“No.” Breathing hard, I took my stance. The dagger Alisdair gifted me clutched in one hand, and a vial in another. “You’renot touching him, Meallan. You can whip up as many mobs and spell-addle as many kitchen maids as you like, but you’ll never win. You’ll never be king.
“To the end of your days, you’ll always be the cowardly little pup, who was too shit-down-his-legs scared to face Alisdair when he’s not on his back.”
His eyes flashed, lips peeling back in a snarl. “Who are you?”
“You know who the fuck I am, bitch.” I threw another vial, ripping out a furious growl when it broke on his chest. “I’m the queen of Wind and Wild.”
If I expected a gasp, or shout, or any reaction whatsoever... I didn’t get it.
“Enough of this,” he drawled. “Move aside.”
