Page 63 of Blood of Two Crowns

I had no one.

Lies,some inner voice hissed at me as I studied Nakoa and some ache built in my chest. Outside of Mareina, I’d never loved or considered anyone outside of my blood relatives, who were all well and dead now, to be family, but this male had changed that.

Nakoa’s scowl was powerful enough it should have singed my beard clean off. “If we get Mareina back, that won’t matter. And she loves you more than she’ll ever love me.”

Oh, fuck…

Without even meaning to, my hand clutched at my chest as if I were wearing a string of pearls and needed saving.Fuck me, that hurt to hear.

I opened my mouth to pour out my reassurances but was swiftly cut off by Zurie, who stomped through the sand, holding her mangled arm to her chest.

“You’re right. And she will always love him more than you unless you give her a reason too—which will beimpossibleif you fucking kill yourself or allow thisbeastto sacrifice his life for her. She willneverforgive you in either circumstance.”

Nakoa’s ire seemed to wither away at that. As did mine.

Time seemed to move in slow motion for some reason when I saw Zurie’s eyes lift to Miroslav’s, and something silent seemed to be spoken between them. Azrael’s blade appeared in Zurie’s hand in the next moment. Drawing the blade across her throat, she whispered Vassileon words that I shouldn’t have been able to understand.

“Kh? hos kaleídhi kai aíma hos ragída, to péplo metaksý zo?s kai thanátou zo.”

With soul as key and blood to bind, I rend the veil ‘twixt life and death entwined.

Keres’ eyes widened in shock as she lunged forward to catch Zurie before she could hit the sand.

When the portal opened this time, the ground didn’t tremble, screaming winds didn’t roar, and violent waves didn’t crash.

Instead, as if Azrael’s realm and magic had been appeased with her earnest and selfless offering, a clean, black dot appeared that widened into the mouth of a vaporous black hole.

Keres was screaming something my mind failed to absorb as she knelt and lowered Zurie’s motionless body to the ground. To my surprise, Rumiel appeared beside her and pressed his hands to Zurie’s body. A radiant golden light radiated from them, so bright it was nearly blinding.

Our plan had been to open the portal, unleash hell, and return to Atratus to gather our army, but Nakoa and I both stepped towards the portal as if that thread tying our souls to Mareina’s was reeling us towards her. Perhaps it was also the hungry, dark energy emanating from the portal that seemed to beckon us forward. Nakoa’solana kah’heishouted for us to stop, but their pleas grew distant and barely audible over the deafening whispers of countless souls.

It wasn’t until Miroslav stepped in front of us, blocking our path, that the world seemed to return.“If you want to succeed in bringing her home, you will wait.”

Chapter

Thirty-Five

NAKOA

My heart pounded an erratic beat as my gut twisted with anxiety and guilt. I was asking too much. I knew I was. And it will undoubtedly lead to the death of hundreds if not thousands, according to the sole vision I’d had since I’d awoken from my coma. Yet another reason I’d been so eager to leap through that portal without following through with our plan.

It had been merely days since my coronation, and I was already trying to send my army into what would likely turn into a war.

That you may not survive,my logical mind helpfully reminded me as a memory of the vision depicting a sea of rotting corpses returned to my mind.

Hours had passed since we’d opened the portal, and still nothing had come through it, as far as we knew. It was just…there.Maybe on Vassileo’s side of it, it also appeared to just be a strange, black, vaporous hole in the fabric of reality, and nothing dared to enter it. It didn’t exactly look welcoming. Maybe the portal had opened up in some remote cave in the mountains where no one would find it.

And we couldn’t ask Zurie about it because she was, as far as we knew, still unconscious. Rumiel, who I hadn’t even known possessed healing magic, had been able to close the wounds on her throat and arm, but she’d looked pretty dead when Keres hadfoldedaway with her, cursing the day I was born. Our only hint that Zurie was still alive was the fact that Keres hadn’t shown up to try and kill us all.

And despite all of that, myolana kah’heihad imparted all manner of encouraging words to me, but somehow, only what Malekai had to say managed to set me at ease.

The male had watched me pace a crater into the dirt outside the doors to the coliseum that housed the training arena, where our soldiers spent much of their time training, before finally venturing inside. When he noted the rigidity of my body and the tremor in my hands as the weight of a thousand gazes beat upon our faces, he approached my side andbowedbefore requesting a private audience with me.

Amusement flickered on his features as he straightened and met my gaze. That was all it took for my tension to begin bleeding away. His voice took on a dramatic and reverent tone, gesturing me towards an empty hallway.

“Your Majesty.”

Myolana kah’haidid an impressive job of holding back their snickers. I had to bite my cheek until it bled to stifle my chuckle.

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