Page 118 of Shadow's Heart

Enti’s dazzling smile threatened to emerge. “I usually do. Wrath is good, but not nearly as good as all the other vices put together.”

Kosmina gasped with realization. “You knew Adham would be a threat—and you knew I would make some concession to avoid hurting you. You plotted all this to get his stronghold!”

She examined her nails. “Had enough time to.”

“Another ruse?”

“There’s no such thing as too many.” Broad wink.

When Adham tensed beside her, Kosmina said, “What’s done is done. Tempers are flaring. We should go.”

Go. Break the chain.Yet he stood with his palms glowing. Could a Sorceri who’d lived for payback let his adversary go unpunished? Adham peered down at his mate’s clear eyes, her gaze so full of concern.Everything I want is before me.

He turned to Enti. “I’m going to follow my mate’s lead and let this vendetta go.” He added icily,“Once.”

Enti adjusted her mask. “Until we meet again, sorcerer.”

With a last look around, he said, “I hope this place does to you everything that it did to me.”

“Come, love,” Kosmina said, hastily tracing him to the front entrance.

Sand blew over the structure, a storm approaching the valley. With a wave of his hand, he quieted it, revealing the full moon.

“Oh, Adham.” She smiled up at him with a proud look, and his shoulders straightened. “You gave up revenge for our future.”

“I’d do anything for you.” Despite what had happened or what would happen, he’d somehow earned her love. And his ever-stalwart princess, unbending in her loyalty, had saved him from his curse. She was as magnificent as the greatest desert; like a desert, she’d claimed his heart whole.

Nothing else mattered. Which meant he had work to do toward their future. When Mirceo and Caspion found them outside, Adham told them, “I apologize for hurting you both.”

With an expression of surprise, Caspion said, “An apology to the ones who got you sent to Nightside? Holy shit, the player really is in love.”

“Yes. I am.” He took Kosmina’s hand in his, earning a scowl from her brother. “And if you hadn’t dispatched me there, I never would have met her.” Adham gazed back at the stronghold warily.I would still be back there within those walls.He faced them again. “So I can only thank you for delivering me to hell.”Words he never would’ve believed he’d say. But the true hell would be not having her.

Mirceo appeared nonplussed before his scowl returned. “You cut off my head! Nearly!”

“I had no control. I tried to warn you, but my actions weren’t my own.”

“Now what? We’ll have to do this every time you get high or sloppy and lose your power.”

“I’ll never get high again, and I’ll never lose it again. I only did the first time because I’d just killed tens of thousands of ghouls and warded off a primordial. Plus, no one’s ever made a move for my secondary ability. I’ll lock it down like I’ve done with my root sorcery, and that hasn’t been stolen from me in eons.”

“But it was once stolen?” Caspion asked. His friendship with Bettina meant he was familiar with the Sorceri. “You were an Inferi?”

Kosmina’s grip on Adham’s hand tightened in support, yet the word had no sting. Everything was relative.

From inside, Enti yelled,“Guess who won at poker tonight, people? This sorceress! Drinks all around!”

Kosmina nibbled her bottom lip. “You’re not angry that she has your holding?”

“I never want to see this place again. I’ll build you a new castle in this realm. A fresh start.” He pressed his forehead to hers and could almosthearMirceo’s deepening glower.

“You still might get red eyes, sister. You only drank him once. You can quit.”

She laughed. “I’m going to drink him this very night!”

Adham went ramrod straight. After her bite, his body had prepared for future ones, creating more blood for her. His veins felt thick with it. “I concur.” Wonder rippled through him at the turn of his fortunes.

Mirceo’s jaw muscles bulged as he obviously bit back choice words. At length, he said, “I’m trying hard not to strike right now. Just . . . Cas, help me out here.”

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