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“I know, I’m almost there. Stay strong, Izidora.”
Insidious bloom, insidious bloom, insidious bloom…
“That’s right, mate. You have so many hidden thorns. Prick him with them all.”
I hadn’t realized I’d spoken my mantra down the bond, but I was grateful for Ruslan’s reassurance.
The ground leveled out beneath us, and Kazimir pulled Fek to a stop, the stallion’s sides heaving from the effort of racing away from Radence. The poor beast deserved better than the madness that was his rider. Kazimir jerked me off of him, throwing me to the ground with my limbs still bound and mouth still gagged. My head cracked on a rock, and I cried out around the rope in my mouth. He used the tight binds to jerk me upright, then removed the rope around my head so I was forced to look him in the eye. Blood trickled down the side of my face, wet, hot, and metallic.
But he did not care. Why did I ever think he cared?
“Izidora, listen. The prophecy states ‘there is a choice’ but it doesn’t say what that choice is. I’ll share you with Ruslan. I already know you accepted a bond with him. There is still this string between us, don’t you feel it? That means you can choose me too. You can have two mates.” Kazimir’s tone grew more desperate as the sentences spilled out of him, his emerald eyes begging me to hear his words and accept him too.
But he had hurt me. Stalked me. Made me fear for my life. Left me so on edge that I couldn’t walk alone for fear of him doing exactly this to me. My eyes narrowed on him, and I willed my white fire to burn him on the spot. But, of course, his malicious magic prevented me from using theone fucking thingthat leveled the playing field.
Fuck him. Goddess damn him. He would die for this, by my hand or by Ruslan’s, and that time was fast approaching.
I bit down on the gag and launched myself at him, aiming my shoulder for his gut to knock him off balance. With lightning-fast reflexes, he caught my shoulder inches from his torso, then gripped my upper arms and stood me on my feet. The gag disappeared as if it had never been there, and Kazimir snatched my hair in one hand and my waist in the other as he trapped me against him and forced his mouth over mine. My body revolted, and I bit down with all my strength on his tongue. Metallic liquid coated the inside of my mouth, and when he jerked away with a roar, I spit it in his face.
“You will kiss me!” He slapped me, hard enough that my head whipped to the side and stars coated my vision, then crushed my jaw between his fingers and forced me to look at his disgusting face again.
Instead of faltering, I laughed – a crazed, wretched sound that perfectly mirrored my internal experience. All the rage I had locked inside myself bubbled up, bringing out the hardened, ferocious, pissed-the-fuck-off side of me that I loved best. I let my voice drip with disdain, not bothering to suppress or hide my true emotions. “I’ve had worse done to me, Kazimir. You aren’t the first, though you will be the last.”
I was so fucking tired of males thinking they could use me how they wanted.
“You will give in to me,” Kazimir hissed, spitting blood. “You will choose me. You will mate me. You will forget him and come home with me. We will be king and queen of the Night Realm.”
I sensed Ruslan’s approach, our bond like a beacon despite the magic binding me and cloaking both me and Kazimir.
“It’s too late for that,” I purred, batting my lashes and baring my teeth. “I do not want to be mated to you, Kazimir. I am breaking off our bond and choosingonlyRuslan as my mate.”
And with those words, an invisible string snapped between us.
Kazimir turned feral, a snarl unlike any beast I’d heard tearing from his throat. My bindings fell away, but an explosion of moonlight and oily darkness blasted all the snow around us, throwing me backward and cracking my spine against a large boulder. Pain shot through every nerve in my body, and my throat was scraped raw from the scream.
It was drowned out by my mate’s roar as he dropped from the sky, his massive membranous wings casting us in shadow as he breathed black fire. Not a speck of white was left in Kazimir’s eyes as he rolled out of the way of the flame and faced Ruslan head-on.
“I should have let you die in the avalanche,” Ruslan snarled.
“You should have.” Kazimir took a step to the left, circling an enraged Ruslan, both males hunting for an opening. He threw his sinister black rope at my mate, whose talons slashed through them as if they were nothing more than air.
“You’re going to have to do better than that,” Ruslan taunted.
They traded magic blows back and forth while I tried to heal my spine. The pain roaring through me was more intense than any whip lashing I had experienced, and every small movement felt like it took ten times the normal effort.
Immonen’s vision and subsequent warning flashed through my mind, intensified by the swimming in my head.
“Zuriel! Can you hear me?”
“I’m here, where are you? Ruslan went crazy and left the parade before we could get an answer out of him. Everyone dispersed thinking something horrible had happened.”
“Kazimir kidnapped me. We’re somewhere in the mountains now. I don’t know where. Please hurry, I can barely feel my legs.”
“I’m coming.”
“Why don’t you sheathe those talons and fight me like a Fae? That’s what you wanted, right?” Kazimir challenged.
“I don’t need talons to destroy you, Kazimir.” Ruslan shifted out of his Dragon form, cracked his neck, and drew his sword. Flames licked the blade as he held it high, ready to pounce.
