Page 252 of Lady of Starfire

She tried to free an arm to at least attempt to staunch the bleeding at her throat where the vampyre’s fangs had left a jagged tear. Wiggling as much as she could, she finally worked a hand free just as the body was shoved off of her.

Thank the gods.

But it wasn’t muddy brown eyes staring down at her.

They were pale green ones.

And that was dark golden skin and black hair hanging in a face she had spent countless days and nights with.

“Oh, Moonflower,” Tarek sighed, his tone full of a disappointed remorse as he lowered to a crouch beside her. “This is not how things were supposed to go.”

Talwyn was in too much shock to comprehend that he had reached out and gripped her chin, tilting her head to the side to look at the wound. It wasn’t until the flash of blue from the ring on his finger caught her eye that she realized he was touching her, but it wasn’t as if she could do anything about it.

Tarek clucked his tongue. “You could have had everything, and now you are…this.” The disdain was clear as his eyes dragged over her. “When I heard you had become as powerless as a mortal, I hadn’t believed it. Then I saw you fighting from where I watched on a balcony. Still cutting down enemies with the same viciousness you always had, but there was no wind or earth magic. No bolts of energy or shifting to a wolf. So foolish. No heir left behind. Even if I left you alive, you couldn’t produce one now anyway. Azrael cannot have you and leave his Court without an heir. Such an utter waste. The female I knew would have never sacrificed her power, her birthright. You were aqueen, Talwyn. Now you will die as nothing.”

And it made sense. That this was how she would ultimately die. That Tarek would be the one to do it after he was the one who had sufficiently blinded her to everything that should have mattered. That she would die alone and unable to fight back. She’d like to think she could take Tarek out with her, but she knew she couldn’t.

“You have nothing to say before your death?” Tarek asked, drawing a dagger from a sheath at his belt.

“Did you know?” she rasped out, unsure why she needed to know the answer to this question so badly.

Tarek paused, his head tilting a little at the question. “Did I know what?”

“That Azrael was my twin flame?”

“Oh, that.” He smiled softly, reaching out to brush hair from her face. “You feeling the stirrings of that bond with him is what helped me convince you it was me.” She winced at his touch, and he gave her a pitying frown. “You did love me at one point, Talwyn. We did share that, even if it wasn’t a twin flame bond.”

“You stole it from me,” she said in a harsh whisper. Tears welled in her eyes, because while she knew she should feel the most guilt over turning against her people or being so godsdamn foolish to believe she was owed some type of revenge, her greatest regret in this life was that she had failed Azrael so completely by choosing Tarek over him.

“I stole nothing. You gave it willingly,” Tarek replied, turning the dagger idly in his hand. “Eager and focused on what you wanted, it wasn’t all that difficult. It took time, of course. Decades of tenacity. But in the end…” He shrugged. “It would have been worth it if you hadn’t lost sight of what was yours for the taking.”

“You will not survive this war,” she said, forcing the tears not to fall. She wouldn’t give him that satisfaction. “Scarlett will win, and you will be in the After before the end of it.”

“We shall see,” he said, a half-grin tilting on his lips.

He raised the dagger, and Talwyn squeezed her eyes shut. Peaceful things are probably what she should have been filling her thoughts with, but all she could think about was failing Azrael yet again. Of failing the people once entrusted to her. Of abandoning a griffin after she’d demanded he didn’t do the exact same thing to her.

But a strangled, gasping sound had her eyes snapping open before the blade touched her skin.

There were vines around Tarek’s throat, thick and full of thorns. Blood was dripping down his neck where they dug into his skin. The ground was vibrating beneath her, and with the vampyre body off of her, she was able to push onto her elbows.

To find Azrael.

There was nothing but feral rage on the Earth Prince’s face as he stalked into the small lookout room. Tarek scrambled for his magic, but Azrael was stronger, more powerful. Always had been. It was why the Ordos family had been overthrown by the Luans. It was why Tarek had come up with this elaborate scheme in the first place.

Two sharp wooden stakes appeared in Azrael’s hands. He hadn’t even looked at her yet, the entirety of his focus on the male who had fallen forward onto his knees. Tarek’s hands were bloody and ripped to shreds as he clawed at the vines around his throat. There were slices on his face and neck where he’d tried to cut them away with the dagger in his hand. When he saw Azrael advancing, something flickered in his eyes. So much malice shone in them, and as if understanding he would not survive this, he spun.

And plunged the dagger deep into her torso, right below her ribs.

Azrael’s roar of fury was muffled as she collapsed back down, a hand moving too slowly to her side.

Tarek was ripped away from her, and then he was hanging on the wall with two stakes shoved through his chest, his feet dangling off the ground. Azrael left him there, dropping down beside her, leaves swirling away nearby carrying a message off to someone. A hand slipped beneath her head, lifting it up.

“Talwyn,” he said in a low command. “Keep your eyes open. Do you understand?”

But she’d lost too much blood between the fighting, the Night Child, and now the stab wound. She could feel his magic wrapping around her, trying to hold her together.

“Az,” she whispered.

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