Page 4 of The Blood Crown

His eyes hardened with resolve. “I am exactly where I’m meant to be.” The words were barely above a whisper, but the knife-like edge in his voice left no room for negotiation.

Rage and fear and despair roiled through her chest.He never should have been here.

She fumbled for the small pocket sewn into her gear, until the cold metal stung her fingertips. “Take it and let this be done!” she hissed, holding the heavy ruby ring out to him.

The King of the Void would find her no matter where she ran, but at least he wouldn’t have his ring as well. At least then, he wouldn’t be a threat to the human realm anymore—at leastshewouldn’t be a threat to the human realm anymore.

The Dark King had already taken too much from her. And it ended here. Now.

Dark flame burned behind Ven’s eyes as he covered her hand in his own, his fingers enclosing her fist around the ring.

“I will die at your side before I leave you,” he uttered.

She ground her teeth, blinking away unshed tears and biting back her protest as Karro crouched beside them.

“Look,” He breathed, nodding to the violet peaks of the Shades to the east as the faintest haze of lavender broke above the mountains. “Dawn is not far off.”

Demons could not survive the sunlight.

It was the thread that kept Aurelia tethered as she, Ven, and Karro made their way toward the western edge of the Grey Wood. Her amber eyes were trained on the glowing dawn bursting over the mountain peaks and creeping over the valley floor.

The shrieking was enough to grind her nerves raw. The sounds of death and killing made her blood freeze and her skin slick with cold sweat throughout the night, but she didn’t dare look back. Despair was threatening to overtake her, but there was no place for it now. There was only survival.

They’d had a handful of close calls, mostly drugar that had straggled further into the forest and caught their scent. But it was nothing compared to the frenzy that they’d somehow walked out of alive. Whatever spell had smothered their magick seemed to have also suppressed the demon prince’s ability to track her.

The ravens had saved them. Not only a distraction so that she and the Wraiths could slip away from the horde that outnumbered them, but a force to be reckoned with. Some ancient race of beasts that claimed no masters and were not found unless they chose to be. And for whatever reason, they had chosen to come to their aid.

Ven’s gaze trailed after hers as she marked the iridescent feathers that littered the floor of the Grey Wood, hoping that she wouldn’t find the scarred face of Cog amongst the broken bodies they stepped over.

“The beast is older than most creatures that walk this world. He didn’t survive this many centuries without being cunning,” Ven uttered from beside her as if reading her thoughts, his voice husky with disuse as his crimson eyes scanned the muted gray forest around them. “He will find us again.”

Chapter 2

Their pace had slowed slightly as dawn began to leak through the trees, the muddy browns and oranges of the leaves turning golden and amber in the sunlight.

The blessed sunlight. When the first dapples of it hit Aurelia’s skin, she nearly wept with relief, but nausea rose up in its place, making her run for the nearest tree and empty the contents of her stomach—what little was left in it. Cold sweat dampened her brow as she tried to think of anything besides the pale color of Asher’s face, his head cradled in her lap. The stench of the First Brother’s burning flesh as she’d set him aflame with her lightning. The mangled mouth of the demon prince as his words seeped into her skull . . .

Quiet footsteps sounded behind her. Wiping her mouth, she glanced up to see Ven leaning against the rough grey bark of the pine.

“I’m fine,” she murmured, but no sooner had the words left her mouth and another wave of nausea hit her, sending her doubling over again.

Callused hands scraped against her neck as he pulled back the loose strands of her hair from her face.

“It’s a normal response to what you’ve witnessed. There’s no need to be ashamed.” Ven’s voice rumbled through her chest as she heaved. “I did the same after my first battle.”

A weak croak was all she could muster, her hands braced on her knees and her head still swimming as a somber weight pressed down on her chest.

“The others?” A pathetic attempt at a question, but it was all she could manage with the bone-deep weariness that had settled into her body.

He shook his head, errant strands of his dark hair escaping from where they'd been tied at the nape of his neck. “I sent Nira and the rest of the Wraiths back before everything went to shit—Karro and I were the only ones remaining when we felt something stifle our magick.”

A small relief then. The others may have made it back to Ravenstone safely. It explained that terrible shift she’d felt when she’d been trapped in the library with the First Brother, as if the world had been tilted off its axis.

He had cast a spell trying to open rifts along the wards that would let demons flood the Crescent Valley, leaving death and destruction in their wake. But instead, magick had been snuffed out beyond the wardlines. Had he cast the spell knowingly, or had it just been another lie fed to him by the King of the Void?

It hardly mattered now.

They were trapped in the in-between, without the use of their power. Which meant if they wanted to make it back to the safety of the Blood Kingdom, they would have to find their way back on foot. And even though they had a small reprieve from the danger that had hounded them through the night, they were a long way off from safe.

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