Page 70 of The Fae King's Labyrinth

Then, abruptly, the resistance gave way to nothingness, and I fell forward.

∞∞∞

Azulin

Mate binding magic screamed through me, making the vine mark burn and setting my whole body on edge. Helplessly, I watched Calypso fight forward, eyes closed, through the last remnants of the tightening spell.

Oran moved at a snail’s pace behind her. His expression clearly forbade me from interfering. I knew better than to mess with another person’s spell. Still, everything in me wanted to dive into the time dilation and drag my wife free.

But I couldn’t. Oran’s spell was designed to allow movement only one way, outward. And even that was on a timer that was quickly ticking down.

My chest ached with my panic. Their escape would be a close thing. If the time ran out, both my brother and my wife would be trapped within a prison of time.

I leaped forward the moment Calypso fell free. Catching her around the waist and shoulders, I pulled her into my arms.

Our skin touched, and the magic hummed and warmed, flowing between us as though we were one. With her head nestled beneath my chin, I clung to her, enfolding her in the protective cocoon of my arms and my magic. I breathed deeply as her reassuring scent filled my senses. She was safe. Only then did my panic begin to ebb and anger flow in to fill the void.

“What happened?” I demanded over my wife’s head as my brother pushed free of the spell. “Why a spell of this magnitude?”

“Mother happened.” Oran grimaced in concentration as he cut off the end of the spell and disentangled his magic. By the looks of it, he had tied the spell to the flowing water of the streams circling the island, essentially making it self-sustaining until the water supply cut off or he came back to interfere with it.

“Mother is in the midst of that time spell?” I peered at the hazy center of the island where the time distortion had created ripples around the source of the spell. Even now, I could still see the waves Oran and Calypso had created as they had exited.

“I am.” Oran grimly met my glare with one of his own. “She attempted to perform a mind-control spell on your wife.”

“She did what?” Rage rampaged through me, and my magic flared in response. For a crazy moment, I considered matricide. Then Calypso nuzzled my jaw with her nose, effectively distracting me.

“Oran stopped her,” she assured me. “I am well.”

Behind her, Oran was shaking his head. “Mother does nothing by half measures. I would recommend checking your wife over. The spells I caught were intended to wipe her personality and erase her free will. She would have been replaced with a clone of Mother.”

“As though I wouldn’t notice,” I muttered angrily. “She’s nothing like Mother.”

Setting Calypso gently on her feet, I steadied her as I reached into my pocket for the small carved dragon where I stored my most-used spells. Then I initialized the seeking magic Oran and I had learned in our youth.

Through its filter, my wife began to glow with the layers of magic on her. My gold magic twined with her cooler, silver-toned shifter magic. The blue of the protection magic from her wedding ring ebbed and flowed weakly. My mother’s attack had probably weakened it.

“Any fragments?” Oran asked.

“None. Thankfully.” I cut the spell off and reached for Calypso once more. Drawing her in with an arm around her waist, I pressed a kiss to her temple. My whole being warred between anger and fear.

Calypso rested a palm against my chest. Instinctively, I covered it, pressing it firmly in place. Everything within me wanted to do more, but now was hardly the time. I had to deal with my mother first. Suddenly overwhelmingly weary, I held back a groan. The beginnings of a headache blossomed in the back of my head.

“So that’s the way it is.” Oran smirked.

I glared at him. “Why didn’t you tell me Mother was plotting something?”

Oran’s smirk dropped instantly. “I didn’t know. She has been discontented for some time, as you know. But I saw no indication Mother planned to try to control you.”

“And what did you do once she revealed her plan?” I tightened my grip on Calypso’s fingers. My chest burned at the thought of what could’ve happened.

“Oran tried to persuade her to stop.” Calypso tugged on my tunic and glared at me. “Stop treating him as though he was the one who attacked me.” Her obvious distress made me pause.

“It could’ve been all part of an elaborate farce,” I protested.

Calypso rolled her eyes. “I doubt you truly believe that. If Oran wanted to betray you, there were much easier ways to do it. He could’ve let me go off with your mother without a defender. I would’ve been an easy target, and he wouldn’t have been implicated at all. Instead, he went with us, begged her to reconsider, and then helped me escape.”

I grimaced. She had a valid point, but I wanted to take out my frustration on someone. Pressure was growing behind my eyes. If I didn’t take a moment to rest soon, it would explode into a migraine.

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