Page 219 of What Lies Within Blood & Heirs

Garrik growled with a voice like Darkness himself, “Death will be too gracious. When you wake in Firekeeper’s pits, you will not slumber in peace. You know why, Ladomyr?” He didn’t give him a breath to respond. “Because I will be there. Torturing you with the name of my mate haunting you for eternity.”

Garrik whipped his head to Silas the moment he slipped between Ladomyr. The spymaster shared a frown that was unlike him before his hand twisted the knife in Garrik’s shoulder and dropped him convulsing on the floor.

Jade and Alora jolted against their chains.

The wolf growled low and terrible.

Ladomyr coughed, backing into its cage before he took his sword and stabbed its side, screaming, “Silencebefore I give you something to whine about!”

The wolf whimpered but submitted to the whims of its master.

Alora was going to kill them—kill themall.

Silas knelt and adjusted Garrik’s tunic with a smugness Alora hadn’t yet seen. She didn’t understand why he would care at all. The spymaster tapped Garrik’s cheek twice, and snickered, “Wouldn’t want you arriving unsightly in Galdheir, Your Highness.”

Garrik’s hand swung at Silas’s, attempting to pull it away, but the spymaster grabbed it, observing the rings as he ran his fingers along each, twisting them with a look of malice as he pulled one from Garrik’s finger and slipped it on his.

Ladomyr’s face morphed into a pleasing shade of crimson. Towering above Garrik from outside the cage, he snaked his boot through to press into the embed knife. “I do so love ruining mates. You should have bonded with my daughter. Mark my words, you will regret this. If your mate lives to see the end of the Hunt, she will warm my cock as my daughter warms yours, producing a claim to your father’s throne before I watch him reform you as a mindless slave.”

“It’s so cold.”The blood loss didn’t help. Alora shivered, rubbing her hands over the soaked silk covering her arms. Without starfire, she felt like she’d freeze over.

Rolling her shoulders, Jade removed her crimson cloak and blanketed it over Alora’s legs, then toweled her jacket around Alora’s shoulders. A grim smile ghosted the corners of her lips. “This should help,” Jade said, ripping a piece of fabric from her undershirt and pressing it to the slow-healing wounds carved into Alora’s chest. “You need to rest. Allow your blood time to heal before tomorrow.”

Sleep—that was impossible in this dungeon.

The guards were merciful enough to leave lanterns on the walls, igniting light in a few cells. Only females curled in positions of hopelessness and fear surrounded them. Sniffling and silently sobbing, awaiting if Destiny fated them to die by the hand of the faerie beside them or a beast locked in another cage.

“Did you see Aiden?” Alora ruptured the despair. She couldn’t let her mind fade to darkness. Couldn’t let her mind fade to Garrik. To where he might be and what they were doing to him.

Jade shook her head in answer, tearing another shred in Alora’s heart.

Their males. Two caged, one missing.

Alora swallowed her heartache and found Jade watching her. That emerald gaze not quite as stony as usual when she said, “You and Garrik have bonded.” And there was a small smile there, hopeful and light. “I was beginning to wonder if it would ever happen.”

The snort escaped her of its own accord. If it didn’t hurt to knock her shoulder into Jade, she would have. “Yes. Thanks for telling me, by the way.”

That stony face returned. “I won’t apologize. It wasn’t my place. Besides, I was more determined to remove you from camp than gossip like faelings.”

“You probably could’ve removed me faster if you had told me,” Alora joked.

Jade quietly laughed and twirled the starfire ring on her finger. She was silent for a few heartbeats, her eyes flickering to the lantern. Then she looked down to the mud and dirt seeping into her pants and Alora’s bare legs.

A tightness settled in Alora’s throat as she watched her starfire encased in that claw-like gemstone. It flickered, reminding her of the ring adorning her finger. Garrik’s ring.

Squeezing her eyes shut, she twisted hers, pleading to feel him there. To return him to her.

Jade said carefully, as if she knew, “We’ll find him.”

But would Garrik still be alive when they did? “His heart, Jade,” Alora rasped, noticing golden dust under the band. She scraped her nail across it and watched the flecks fall to the dirt.

Jade clasped her hand, drawing her attention, and squeezed. “Garrik is too stubborn to allow his heart to be his end. He will see this through.” Alora wanted to believe her, and Jade must’ve read it on her face and did one of the kindest things Alora had ever seen from the female. Jade gave her a distraction and said, “Tomorrow, if it comes down to the two of us?—”

“Stop.”

“You’re my High Prin?—”

“If you’re going to use that then, as your Highwhatever,I command you to not say another word.” The words tasted like ash. She hated it. Hated giving commands simply because of a title she hadn’t earned. Jade was her sister, her equal—if notsuperiorby duty and honor. This … shehatedthis. “Talk about something else, please. Anything else. Just not this,” Alora pleaded, watching shadows dance along the stone walls and iron bars.

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