Page 195 of Kingdom of the Two Moons

Blair’s jar unhinges at the picture before her. She’s only ever seen Caryan with his wings on the battlefield, never any other time. To see him now—the cruel, ruthless angel she knows—sitting with his wings folded around the unconscious girl in his arms is… definitely something new.

Not something she thought she’d ever see.

When she eventually tears her gaze away from the angel to take in more of her surroundings, she finds Kyrith scowling at her from a corner next to one of the fires. The red-haired witcher is behind him, stretched out on a bed, his back turned to the room, obviously sleeping.

“Do you think Perenilla is going to send more witches?”

It takes Blair a solid minute to realize that Caryan’s question is directed toward her. Her voice comes out cracked when she answers truthfully, “I don’t know. All I do know is that she sent me here, but I guess you know all that already.”

He ripped everything from her blood. Hells, all her miserable memories. All the darkness he caused. Splendid, now he knows what a pathetic piece of a mess she’s become because of him.

“That was not my question,” he counters.

Now his eyes find hers and she can’t help but marvel at the bright starlight blue she’s never seen before, not even when they screwed at Gatilla’s court, his eyes always a glistening black then.

“Why did she send you here? What did she hope you would achieve?”

“She wants that… girl,” she snaps. “And because you and I fucked, I had to obey, in case you missed that tiny little detail in my blood.”

He ignores her provoking tone. “She wouldn’t really have believed you could retrieve Melody from me. I wonder why she sent you then.”

Blair clenches her teeth. “Oh, she also wants me dead. She counted on you finishing the job, so she doesn’t have to make her own hands dirty. Wouldn’t look good, you know. Politics…”

She tries not to flinch as his power brushes up against her—that writhing, living monstrosity. So achingly familiar. That power that just imbibed her own.

“Your mothers believe you have a bond with her,” Caryan muses quietly, as if flipping through the pages of her mind all over again while he looks down at the girl in his lap. Gods, her lips are blue.

Blair startles.Caryan wouldn’t hurt them, would he?“You know how they are. Very superstitious,” she answers evasively.

His vicious growl makes every hair on her body stand up. “The seer said the same to you. That your fates are linked. What does that mean?”

Blair makes herself hold his gaze. “I know as much as you. Go consult that seer yourself and try to throttle more answers out of her.”

“Careful, Blair, there is a good chance your mothers are still at that inn.”Fucker.

“True, but I doubt you want to spare one of your lackeys to track them down right now,” she croons back, throwing a significant look at the girl. Not showing any of the panic she’s feeling. Panic that threatens to tear her apart. “You’re running out of time—she’s halfway dead.”

“She will recover,” he answers, as if he needs to convince himself.

Blair lets out a hoarse laugh. “Sure, the way corpses recover. But you can bring her back, so it’s not too bad, right? I mean, when she kicks the bucket.”

Caryan says nothing, but it’s the way his jaw is working. Blair’s eyebrows shoot up. “Oh, wait… you can’t. Is it because she’s a half-human and your necromancy thing doesn’t work on her? Or because you’re not sure she’d accept your lovelyI-bind-you-to-me-in-a-way-like-you-just-have-to-do-everything-I-say-from-now-on-but-hey-you-can-live-that-a-problem-for-youcontract.”

“Careful, Blair. I could just finish what I started,” he growls, his eyes shimmering with unspent cruelty.

As if he’d just been waiting for this moment Kyrith gets up, too eager to shed her blood, Blair knows.

“Really, Caryan—you’d let that little elf sucker finish me?” Blair asks, but her eyes hold Kyrith’s as he comes for her. She forces a cold grin onto her lips and turns her head fully to the elf. “If you want a brawl, fine. But at least take the shackles off me and do it the real way. Or are you afraid I might chop off your favorite part this time?”

“Watch it, bitch!” Kyrith crosses the room so fast she expects him to crash into her.

But when she blinks, she finds the warrior feet away, glowering, ties of dark magic restraining him.

Her grin widens and she clicks her tongue. “Look who just put his dog on a leash.”

“Don’t make me regret not killing you, Blair.” Caryan’s voice is low, his eyes pouring night when he looks at her.Gods, how many songs did he ruin for her?

Blair shrugs it off, in vain. “It wasn’t my choice. I didn’t beg for anything. Do it if you feel like it.”

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