Page 109 of The Umbra King

The kiss started slowly, but soon turned desperate, and when he pulled on her bottom lip with his teeth, she moaned into his mouth. He pulled back and pressed his forehead to hers.

“Do you feel better?” he asked quietly.

She lifted on her toes to brush a light kiss against his lips. “Yes. Thank you.”

He backpedaled until he reached the arrowball, bent down to grab it, and pointed at her. “Anything for you. Don’t ever forget that. Now, go long.”

She laughed and took off running, her heart feeling lighter and happier than it had in a very long time.

35

Rory satat the bar surrounded by her friends for Max’s last night in Vincula. They were sad, but everyone knew how much Max missed his wife, and knowing he would be reunited with her consoled them all.

Asher would have raised his glass and said something stupid to make them laugh, but he wasn’t here. Rory held hers up instead. “Here’s to hoping they don’t put me on garden duty.”

Max chuckled as the others looked on in confusion. “Hear, hear,” Max agreed and clinked his glass to hers.

“Here’s to hoping we understand the next joke,” Cat added and lifted her glass.

They chatted back and forth, but Max stayed quiet. He always did, but tonight felt different. There was a deep sadness in his eyes, and Rory reached under the table to grab his hand. “Don’t worry about forgetting us,” she whispered. “We’re all on borrowed time, anyway.”

His old eyes bore into hers. “Sometimes, when people borrow something, they don’t want to give it back.”

Her heart ached for him, for all of them, including herself. It waslikely she wouldn’t lose her memories if she married Caius, but knowing they’d forget herhurt.

“That’s called stealing,” Cat piped up from across the table.

Max huffed out a laugh, blinked away his unshed tears, and squeezed Rory’s hand before letting it go.

Before letting them all go.

A couple of hours later,Rory, Max, and Bellina walked through the palace gates, and after one more round of teary goodbyes, they went their separate ways. Bellina and Max headed to the staff quarters, and Rory turned toward her room on the opposite side of the palace.

When she turned down the hall to the throne room, a meaty hand clamped over her mouth and hauled her back into one of the large banquet rooms. She struggled against his hold as her anxiety peaked. Remembering her training with Dume and Caius, she stomped on his foot while simultaneously elbowing him in the stomach.

He grunted and pushed back, and she used the distraction to break his hold. She needed to run but didn’t want to turn her back to him, so she backpedaled deeper into the room, searching for another exit.

“Little butcher bitch wants to play?” the man asked, and as he moved closer, she recognized him as one of Nina’s henchmen.VinceorFelix, she recalled.

“Stay away from me,” she warned.

His raucous laugh made her flinch, and the glint in his eye could have come from Orcus himself. The man moved fast, faster than she’d thought possible for his size, and when he was close enough, he swung.

She deflected the blow, her entire body rattling with the contact, but her muscle memory kicked in, and she held her own. Round and round they went; him attacking, her evading until he landed anuppercut to her jaw, and she swore a tooth cracked. Her movements were slowing, but she had to keep going.

Another man, the missing part of the duo, barreled through the door, and dread seeped into her bones.

One man she could take, but two was impossible. Her boot slammed into the first man’s jaw, snapping his head back. The other man ran across the room, and Rory sprinted away. The exhaustion from fighting the first man slowed her down, and pain shot through her when she was yanked backward by her hair.

She flipped around and began fighting the second man, the first where she’d left him, catching his breath. A crash sounded, and Lauren ran through the door, straight for Rory. Rory nearly folded with relief, and when the man fighting her turned and saw Lauren, he didn’t have time to scream.

Lauren snarled and transformed into a lethal panther mid stride, knocking him to the ground, and with one bite, she clamped down on the back of his neck and ripped his spinal cord from his body.

Rory screamed and fell to the floor as the panther transformed back into Lauren, but not the Lauren she knew. In her place was anAngelwith bloodied wings and white fire in her eyes. She looked possessed, and when she turned to the other man, who was trying to crawl away, she took measured steps across the room as the bones dangling from her hand whispered like a wind chime.

Before she reached him, the wall between the room and the hallway blew to bits as shadows blasted through the stone. Rory screamed and covered her head, but no debris touched the ground. It hovered in the air, balanced on shadows as Caius stormed into the room, and Rory saw what the tall tales depicted.

There stood the King of Monsters, and his golden eyes blazed as shadows branched across his skin like roots. His expression was deadly, and when he saw the other man struggling on the ground, he became darkness itself as he moved across the room.

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