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“We’ll come back tonight, mate.” Ruslan planted a kiss on my cheek when I finished fastening a thick jacket all the way up to my neck. At least the snow had cleared around Radence, though the wind still chilled me to my bones.
Ruslan pulled on light-plated armor that moved as if it were leather, similar to the set he had gifted me a few days before, then threw me warm riding pants from where they’d been hidden in the back of the closet. “Thank the Goddess,” I exclaimed, slipping off my current pants in exchange for the black ones that immediately warmed my legs. “This place needs to be straightened up,” I said, glancing at the chaos. “It would help if I could keep my clothes on for more than five minutes. I’m constantly losing my favorite attire.”
Ruslan chuckled, dark and low. “I’ll just have to buy you everything in multiples, so there’s always at least one item to be found.”
I rolled my eyes, moving discarded, half-worn clothing around in search of another pair of boots, since my favorites had been irrevocably destroyed the previous night. “Where are my other boots?”
“Over there,” he gestured toward the back with his foot. He fumbled with a strap just out of his reach, his muscles preventing him from getting the right angle to fasten it. After revealing the shoes and slipping them on, I grinned, returning to his side and securing his strap in place.
“Ready?” I asked, once he’d finished straightening himself.
“No, but I must judge,” he laughed, leading me back to Drazen, who waited, arms crossed, for us.
Ruslan clapped Drazen on the shoulder, intentionally a bit harder than necessary, and then the three of us returned to the clearing where the strength competition had taken place the previous day, though the rings had been cleared or reformatted to accommodate the horseback riding events. Horses and people were already running about everywhere, preparing for the day’s events.
No one noticed our arrival, allowing us a moment to gain our bearings. I spotted Liliana holding the reins to Mistikand Twilight, the horse Ruslan had gifted me, in the distance, chatting with Domi and Immonen. Ruslan’s attention followed mine, and without warning he scooped me against his chest, bending me over and whispering in my ear. “Good luck, mate. My eyes will only be on you.”
Then he released me, and I immediately craved him with a fierceness that stole my breath. Our mating bond was intense, more intense than anyone could accurately describe, and the pain of his absence speared through me as I took one step forward, then another. With one lingering glance over my shoulder, I skirted through the throng of people, blazing a path toward my friends. Liliana’s face lit up when she saw me, her arms waving wildly despite it being obvious that I already knew where she was.
But the moment I closed the circle with the three females, their faces fell somber. Liliana’s words burst out in a tumble of breath. “Kazimir has been named King of the Night Realm. I wanted you to hear it from me before you saw him because you deserved to know. None of us were around when the males made this decision. They just showed up in our apartments last night with Kazimir wearing a crown and the news that House Arzeni was now among the High Houses.”
My jaw dropped. All his lies, all his manipulations, were so he could rest the Night Crown on his head instead of mine. This action only confirmed that I’d made the right choice in my mate. Kazimir was calculating in a way I’d never realized, and my blood boiled with renewed fury.
How did the others not see this in him?
Domi’s nose crinkled as Liliana recounted the events, then nudged her with a sharp elbow. “Tell her what else.”
“Oh! Right. Kazimir hasbinding magic.” She whispered the last part with a hiss of distaste. “I managed to get it out of Endre last night, and Domi confirmed with Kaztar this morning.”
“What’s binding magic?” I asked, brows dipping together, confusion replacing shock as I wondered why the females seemed so disturbed by it.
Immonen cut in, her willowy frame tense with worry. “Binding magic has been known to corrupt the mind and soul of its wielders. There is a reason it is so rare. Most succumb to the madness that goes along with it. It is dark magic, Fates-gifted instead of Goddess-gifted like the rest of our magic. Essentially, Kazimir wields thick ropes of magic that render others immobile, like an actual rope, but it also blocks access to our Goddess-gifted power. If he were to bind you completely, you’d be utterly helpless.”
My dream of the Goddess and my parents returned to me in full force. If the Goddess was warring with the Fates over the outcome for our world, it made sense that they’d gifted him with additional dark power to achieve the victory they sought.
A shiver wracked my spine as I felt a pair of eyes on me and a tug low in my belly. Domi’s eyes widened a fraction before she schooled her features, and I spun on my heel to find Kazimir stalking toward me, a black crown resting on his brow.
Why did I still feel this tug with him when I’d accepted the bond with Ruslan?
I didn’t have time to chase the thought as he stopped before me, towering over me in a way that was nothing less than sinister. My skin crawled as that oily aura exuded into the air around him, and with my new knowledge, my certainty was doubled, tripled, and I was grateful I had already made my decision because the way Immonen described it made me think that Kazimir could have bound me and forced it out of me if he wanted.
“You are glowing today, Izidora,” Kazimir said, looking me up and down with his dark emerald eyes.
I stepped toward Mistik, needing something to do with my hands. “Meet us in the far arena,” Liliana whispered before taking Twilight’s reins and following Domi and Immonen away, giving Kazimir and me space to talk.
Wave after wave of emotion rose within me as he stood there, waiting for me to say something. The first that crashed through me was anger, for him taking the Night Throne away from me after he had worked so hard to convince me to want it in the first place – not that I still did. It was the principle of the matter, of his continued deceptions and games, knowing how ignorant and naive I had been in the months after they rescued me. The second was disgust as the oiliness swirled around him, bringing that manipulative side of him to the surface, laid bare for all to see. The third was fear, though that wave was smaller than it ever had been, thanks to my sessions with Zuriel and the slaughter of my abusive captors the previous night with Ruslan. The feeling of ripping their balls away still lingered, giving me a heady rush that I channeled into my magic.
I was fucking powerful, and Kazimir would not hurt me, not when I was prepared for a new type of attack from him. Armed with the knowledge Liliana had passed on, I tuned in to the flame-and-moonlight-wrapped crystal in my chest, stoking the white fire and filling the crystal with energy so that it lay in wait, ready to use on a moment’s notice.
Viktor had taught me that the person who spoke first lost the power in the dynamic, so I continued to say nothing, checking Mistik over while Kazimir stared at me in a way that made me want to bathe and rinse the feel of his eyes from my body. The tension between us could have been sliced like a cake, and it was thicker than any dense dessert I’d ever eaten. Finally, I could take it no longer, and the pent-up fury burst from me like an explosion of fire.
“So you manipulate me into wanting the Night Crown and then take it from me?” My voice was pure venom, and I did not disguise the disgust in my tone.
Kazimir only shrugged and stepped closer. “We didn’t want the Night Realm to fall into the hands of a bastard from the Iron Realm.”
My teeth clacked with how hard I bit back a retort about Ruslan, and it took several breaths dragged through my nose to be able to respond in a way that would not reveal that we had accepted our mating bond. Kazimir had been unpredictable in the worst type of way since he’d arrived in the Iron Realm, one moment the sweet male who had rescued me from the cave, and the next, a torrent of barely contained violence, unstable and unreasonable.
What would he do when he found out?
