Page 83 of Blood of Two Crowns

I couldn’t help but observe in awe as I absently witnessed the survivors of battle running to escape the deep fissures splitting the land, stretching beyond the horizon; many of them disappearing within the gorges and falling into what took me a moment to realize was an open sky leading elsewhere.

Portals.

But how?

My eyes caught on the sight of Marenia’s arcanumglowingin the center of her chest, just above where the rhyton I’d put there had been. Realization washes over me as I recognized the sensation of my lifeforce bleeding out of me,into her.

She’s syphoning my power and shredding the barriers between realms with my power.

Chapter

Forty-Nine

MAREINA

Willingmy magic to devour Azrael, Ifoldedto Malekai, clutching onto the face of his drakonati form as a violent, choking sob left me. Icy horror bled through me like the rapidly cooling pool of his blood, soaking my clothes as I dropped to my knees beside him.

“No…. No, no, no, no…”

Malekai’s body gradually shifted back, the glow of his lifeforce still faintly glowing in his eyes.

My words came out a tremulous whisper.“You can’t leave…”

A corner of Malekai’s mouth tipped up to gift me one of his dimples one last time. “I wish I’d spent every day telling you how much I loved you. Should have built you that little house near that thermal pool in Bein Sith Mór we loved…”

A choked sob burst free as I clutched his fighting leathers. “You always made me feel loved. You’re theonlyone who ever made me feel loved. I’m so sorry I held us back…All these years, all I ever wanted was you…”

Malekai gave a subtle shake of his head. “He loves you too, Mareina… More than you know.”

The light in Malekai’s eyes dimmed like the fading glow of a dying ember. Glassy, vacant eyes stared back at me. My hands trembled as I stroked his blood-crusted skin, unwilling to believe he was actually gone.“Please, come back… I can’t… I can’t do this without you...”

I had no idea how much time had passed when gentle hands curled over my shoulders, pulling me away from the cold, lifeless body I’d glued myself to. I clutched tighter to Malekai despite the beginning of rigor mortis setting in.

My voice came out a hoarse croak.

“I will not leave him here.”

Nakoa squatted down beside me, his own face stricken. The evidence of his emotion lay in pale, watery paths streaking the dried blood staining his face. Malekai and Nakoa had hated each other before I’d left, so the sincerity and fervor in his words took me by surprise.

“I wouldn’t want you to.”

I gradually nodded, the action causing the crusted, blood-soaked strands sticking to my face to peel away.

“I don’t want to be here without him.”

Grief spilled down Nakoa’s cheeks as he knelt in Malekai’s blood beside me, pressing a tremoring hand to my drakonati’s cheek. There was a tenderness in the gesture that I’d never witnessed in him. Not even towardsme.

Another wave of icy-cold fear washes over me as I scan our surroundings. While I found a few of Nakoa’solana kah’heilingering on the battlefield… There was no sight of Ataraxus.And I know, despite having hardly known him, that he would never leave this place without me.

My words pay no heed to the terror coursing through me.

“Where is Ataraxus?”

Nakoa’s jaw worked furiously to hold back the emotion I could see clawing its way up his throat.

“I found his?—

Nakoa’s words were cut short by grief. He didn’t need to finish them. Helplessness and rage have my hands gripping the front of Nakoa’s fighting leathers as if he were the only thing holding me in one piece. His arms came around me, and I sank against him, sobbing into his chest. My breath caught in realization… If they’re dead…

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