Page 142 of Crowned By the Fae King

Her smile grew broader, like someone drawing a sword. "Of course you are," she crooned to me. She strolled towards me, in a sauntering, lazy sort of fashion. "Faery and Mortality once wove together like lovers. Our worlds are both made lesser for their division." Ithronel stroked her fingers down the trunk of a tree. Buds formed and unfurled, fresh spring green in the winter air. "I approved of Sarcaryn's little gambit. Claim a seat of power from the hungry Wolf, make an example of the fae royalty, remind the throngs of why mortal blood is so key to faery survival—"

"What? Why?" I asked, blurting out the words before I could help myself.

Ithronel snorted, her lip lifting in a sneer. "So the world doesn't see creatures like your soulmate," she said in a mocking tone. "Wild magic must have its way, little one. Monarchs, mages, and monsters, and it always seems to devolve to monsters in the end."

My eyes narrowed. "Or gods," I said.

The smile she gave me could have gutted a fish. "It takes far more than a handful of worshipers and a Court to make a god."

"It's a good fucking start," I snapped back, trying to keep her attention on me. She didn't give a shit about me, any more than Talien did. I was a fun diversion, and the bait in her trap.

"Yes," she purred back, stepping closer. "Perhaps, then, you understand why I desire to put a stop to it."

My sense of Cass suddenly redoubled. His magic wasn't affected by distance, not when his blood was mixed with mine—but mine was. Cass had portaled to the border. I'd run out of time.

Ithronel lifted her eyes to the predawn sky with a hungry expression, her grip tightening on the hand-cannon.

"Wait," I said, desperation clawing at me. "Can't we bargain?" I gathered up my will, that sense of pressure inside me, and shouted down our bond as loudly as I could, STAY! AWAY!

"What bargain could you possibly hope to tempt me with?" Ithronel asked, sounding amused.

Cass' tension transferred to my shoulders and spine, bit by bit. Distantly, as if he was barely on the range of hearing, I heard him send back, Not happening.

Fucker. Motherfucker. He had to pick now to assert himself?

Ithronel is here, dumbass! I snapped back, trying frantically to find a way out of this.

Beat her once, Cass replied, though he sounded warier.

This time she has a fucking GUN.

Ithronel's eyes narrowed, and I realized I hadn't answered her question. I opened my mouth to say something, but before I could speak she bared her teeth and grabbed me by the hair.

Pain scorched down my spine as she wrenched me upright. I cried out like a kicked animal, staggering to my feet. She took a sharp step, not looking at me, making me scramble for purchase.

In an instant, we went from the center of the woods to the open ground, snow glittering in the light of the moon. She flung me by my hair into the snow. My body skidded to a halt, bruised and battered and cold.

Don't come, I thought to him. Unbidden tears started tracking down my face. Please don't come.

"Xarcassah Marys!" she shouted to the sky. "I have cut out your heart! Will you leave her to die by my hand?"

Fae don't lie. They can't, and neither can their gods. She knew what I was to him.

So did I.

He couldn't leave me here to die any more than he could hide his heart from me. He'd chosen to risk everything – his healing, his physical form, his very life – to come for me.

I couldn't blame him for that. I would have done the same.

I'm coming, lioness, he whispered to my soul. I saw his wings flash silver in the moonlight high overhead as he folded them and dove for us.

I took a deep breath, setting myself for the battle. Tell me how to help.

He didn't answer with words. In those few seconds as he dropped out of the sky, Cass shoved his memories into me—

—a vial of his blood, left in cold water to keep it alive for longer, a way to survive crossing the border, to find me, to save me—

—carving an eldritch sigil into the back of the limestone siphon, breaking its link to Ithronel but leaving its ferocious hunger—

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