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That single question made my heart ache.

Of course she wouldn’t believe we loved her after what we’d done.

We thought she had betrayed us.

It didn’t matter that we were never certain she’d manipulated us.

We still abandoned her.

“Because I love you.” Ash coughed, blood trickling over his lips and staining his beard as he struggled to speak. “It doesn’t matter if you’re my mate or not.”

Rae parted her lips, but nothing came. Her eyes watered.

I wondered what she would’ve said. Did she love Ash? I hoped so.

Cornaith’s upper lip pulled back in a snarl. “You would stand against your people to protect a human who tried to destroy the council?”

When Dad and Ardvaen stepped in to pull Ash from the slab, Rae lifted her shaking arms and wrapped them around his shoulders, clinging to him.

“Release him at once!” Cornaith roared.

Large wounds took time to heal; wounds from the council’s full force could take longer—if they healed at all. Ash needed a doctor.

Ash mumbled something and went limp, still shielding Rae.

She buried her face in his neck and held on.

I knew he wasn’t dead.

When we were teenagers, we’d formed a weaker version of the Phalinos Pact. The four of us made a blood pact, so we’d always sense each other. On missions, it let us feel one another’s condition… or death.

Cornaith turned to the guards flanking the council. “Stop her! She cannot touch the prince!”

My gaze darted between Cornaith and Ash.

The long chains allowed Rae to lift her arms enough to hold Ash, but not much more.

When the guards closed in on the slab, Cyn and Ezra stepped forward to stop them. Two guards seized them from behind. Another grabbed me before I could react.

Cyn’s eyes flashed black, and his hands shifted into claws. “Get the fuck off me!”

Lymsrana crossed to Cyn, cupped his cheeks, and murmured something I couldn’t hear. He yielded at once, claws retracting.

Ezra’s narrowed eyes fixed on Ash and Rae.

One guard clamped Rae’s arms tighter than the shackles already did. Another hauled Ash off her. She thrashed the instant his body lifted from hers.

The air shifted, and my skin prickled with the electricity stirring in the atmosphere.

My gaze snagged on Amra’s moving lips. I glanced at Ezra, but he was already watching his mother.

Cornaith turned. “What are you doing?” He didn’t yell. I suspected the lowered voice was to avoid the cameras’ attention. “Amra, stop at once.”

Her eyes opened. “I only hoped to help Ash until the guards can get him to the infirmary.”

Cornaith sniffed. “Ashryn will be fine. If he doesn’t make it, it’s his own fault.” He turned back to the slab where Rae struggled against the guards holding her.

I looked at Cyn. “Why aren’t they transforming?” If they shifted into their alternative forms, they’d restrain her easily.