Page 255 of The Edge of Darkness

He was right. I could. But I had come in the hope of helping to free the king from whatever creatures held him here at Lyceius’s will, not to surrender. If I surrendered, they would kill the king anyway. Lyceius already wanted him dead for what he was about to expose to the world. He wasn’t going to change his mind and let him live just because I handed myself over.

The queen met my conflicted stare, and I could tell that she had drawn the same conclusion.

There was no easy way for this to end.

The king was a dead man, and she knew it. We all did.

Skadi stepped up to Killian and placed a hand on his shoulder, as gently as a lover would. “Give me that,” she said into his ear.

Killian hesitated, but he straightened and withdrew the blade from the king’s throat, passing it into the goddess’s grasp.

Corinne shifted anxiously on her feet. “Wait!” she called out. The hand she kept in her pocket twitched, as if she were about to pull something forth. But she hesitated. “If you have any sliver of mercy in you, goddess, let my husband go. I beg you.”

Skadi made a show of contemplation, as if she were truly considering the queen’s appeal. She looked down at the king, dragging her fingers across his bearded jaw as she circled him. When she came to a stop behind him, she lifted her eyes to Corinne. “Pity. I have no mercy.”

With the flick of a finger, a shadow came forth on her command and punctured Broderick’s neck like the strike of a serpent. Blood gushed, flooding his torso, and within seconds, his body sank to the dirt.

Weston cursed under his breath. Leather groaned as the other Dionach stiffened and drew closer to the queen, who let out a shriek of agony as she fell to her knees.

The king, who’d invited me to his tournament to compete for a spot in his guard—a guard that was probably put in place because of the very things he had discovered—was dead. He was going to fight back against everything that had been done. He was going to expose all the lies and bring their corrupt agenda to light.

And they murdered him for it.

The queen was shaking, her stark-white face bracketed with a pain I’d only witnessed once before. It was the same painful expression that had been etched into my mother’s face as she lay dead on the floorboards of our home, alongside my father.

Skadi smirked as she twirled the unused dagger in her hand. “Lyceius says that the price to pay for defying him or those in his company, is death.”

“You will pay for this,” the queen hissed through her tears.

“Oh, I do hope you make good on that promise. I already planned to slit many throats in this war. Yours can be added to the tally.”

The queen tried to stand and lunge for the goddess, but Weston and the other Dionach hooked their arms around her, holding her back.

Killian remained in the form of Alston for a moment longer, looking blood-drunk as he watched the queen fight her restraints.

“Auren,” Skadi said, her tone mockingly calm. “Come. Lyceius is expecting us.” She stretched out her hand, just as she had done the first time she approached me at Calledan’s northern gate.

“Not a chance,” I said.

Beside her, Killian shifted back to his natural body, then disappeared into thin air.

This was my moment. I needed to get the queen away from here. If I could get to her, and port, I could take her to Calledan where she would be safe. But before I had a chance to move, Killian reappeared, and he was dragging someone behind him.

“Not even for him?” he mused.

I saw mousy-brown hair first . . . then . . . familiar, brown eyes stared across the space, finding mine in an instant.

My stomach plummeted.

It was Liam.

This had to be some sort of trick of the mind. Magic. Compulsion. A false reality. From the corner of my eye, I saw Weston turn toward me. The shock that was written on his face told me this was real.

But Liam wasn’t supposed to be here. He was supposed to be safe at home, building furniture and carving the most beautiful details into every piece, waiting for me to return and explain everything and tell him all that I’d discovered. He should have been there, not here, in the hands of our enemies.

The gag around his mouth was wet and dirty. There were dribbles of blood on his tunic, probably from a bloody nose. Blue and purple bruises marred his right temple. The very thought of him being beaten made my heart clench. My fingers itched to reach out for him—his name was on the tip of my tongue. But I held my composure and watched as Killian removed the filthy fabric that had been tied around Liam’s mouth. Beneath it, was a split lip.

Light pulsed along my veins.