Page 66 of Blood On His Lips

If I played along then that would lead to one thing, then another, and soon I’d find myself embroiled in the weaver’s web again, extrication even more difficult. Nora had already alluded relationships with High Fae traditionally did not end well. Did I have any options? Did I truly want to give Raniel up forever? Give Darkan up? Now that I was aware, it wasn’t as if I could have one without the other.

“There’s too many,” Juliette snarled. “Aerinne, we need stronger shields.”

I worked the Bridge absently, linking us together.

Too many blows in one short life. I was not even thirty years old and I’d seen the loss of my mother, who should have lived for thousands of years longer, the loss of friends and family. The imprisonment of my brother and my father’s desperate work to keep our House together and his own grief managed.

Raniel’s malfeasance.

Embriel’s murder.

What next? I chuckled. Oh, there was plenty more where all that came from. This wasRaniel, son of Nayya and Assariel, after all.

The White Guard converged on us. They had their orders. Capture me, maim Numair. The betrayal of that order even more bitter because now I knew, of course, that the Prince had watched my companion and my cousin grow up along with me. How could he be so cruel to them? He knew what they meant to me.

You’re an unmitigated ass, you know that, right?

But what are you going to do about it?came his silky reply.You can barely tap the first rung of your power.

Hands wrapped around my arms, wrenching me back as Numair was forced to his knees. I screamed in cold fury, a black shadow of power ripping from my chest and leaping onto the Guards handling him. A snarling panther the size of a pony, coat sleek, limbs limned in violet.

Do you think your actions have no consequences?I screamed at him.

Do you think your words have none? If you are able to bring me to task, then do so. I dare you.

Blood sprayed. The White reacted but my avatar was visible to only one person on this field. I poured my strength into it, unleashing power that welled from my core and channeling it into the projection that could do what I, physically, could not.

Renaud walked forward, now moved to join the fight, wings lifted and spread, eyes glowing in a pale face.

He stopped in front of me and looked down, every inch the chilly, arrogant High Fae Prince. But I knew what lay behind the facade,

“I will never forgive you if you do this,” I said, a Vow in my voice though I was constrained from making a true one. Something else he had taken from me. “I will see you dead.” Gods, how many times had we been in this exact place? When would this nightmare loop end?

The strands of the death Vow I’d made slithered around my neck. For days it had remained quiescent, having offered that first warning. Waiting as I wavered in my intent. I no longer wavered.

The Prince unsheathed his sword. “You are not strong enough to see me dead, Aerinne. You are barely old enough to play the game.”

He lifted his hand, fingers brushing my jaw, and the world imploded.

* * *

“Aerinne, wake up, please wake up.”

Juliette's uncharacteristic begging came to me at the end of a dark tunnel.

“Damn you, bitch, wake up! He's killing everybody. You don't have time for a goddess damned nap.”

A sharp pain on my cheek. I opened my eyes, fighting my way out of the void threatening to engulf me, and stared at her.

“He’s killing who?” I asked. I barely recognized the detached tone of my own voice.

“Everyone. He's killing everyone.” Juliette grabbed my arms and hauled me to my feet, but I just stared at her.

“Numair?”

“Here. I’m here, Rinne.” He knelt at my side. “He wants to play with you some more. Killing me quickly won’t offer the fullest measure of amusement.”

I began to reach for Darkan—and stopped.

---