Page 118 of What Lurks Between the Fates

“My star,” Caldris wheezed, stretching up with a hand to try to convince me not to do it. Not to give her the one thing we both knew she wanted. Mab grinned, clearly pleased with the turn of events.

She tossed her head back and laughed. The sound filled the cavern. She hadn’t anticipated my saving him—hadn’t considered it a possibility.

“We both know there is only one thing I want from you, Little Mouse,” she said, stepping closer slowly. She stopped when she was in front of me, pressing the tip of the blade into the skin above my heart.

“Estrella, NO!” Caldris called.

“Don’t do it,” a male pleaded.

Mab turned her gaze swiftly as her brother stepped up beside us. Rheaghan raised his hands placatingly, trying to convince her that he was no threat, despite his words. “It cannot be undone. I don’t think you understand what an eternity of servitude will mean.”

“I consent. As long as he lives,” I said, the words torn from the depths of me.

Caldris’s horror pulsed along our thread, striking me deep in the chest. Mab wasted no time gliding the edge ofher blade along my skin. It tore through the tissue, cutting through the muscle and sinew to create a gash that leaked blood upon my dress.

She raised her other arm—a small snake twining itself around her wrist. He hissed at me, showing iron-tipped teeth just before he pressed his face to that hole in my skin.

I held her gaze as he slithered inside. As he shoved through my ribcage, maneuvering through my body until he found my heart. I felt the moment he reached it, winding his way around the beating flesh.

Everything within me tightened—became unfamiliar. Mab’s will pressed down on me, a heavy weight upon my soul. She took a step back.

“What have you done?” Rheaghan asked, running a hand through his hair.

I turned to look at him in slow motion, my every thought delayed as my skin worked to heal itself. As my body tried to grasp the invader, to find a way to get itoutbefore it was too late.

The tip of Mab’s iron blade lashed out so fast, I blinked in a daze, waiting for my life to end.

Thinking she’d changed her mind.

A thin line of red appeared on Rheaghan’s throat. His mouth dropped open as he sputtered. He pressed both hands to that line, that unnaturally straight line that marred his fair skin.

Blood poured free. Slid over his hands in a thick, viscous ooze.

He dropped to his knees at my side. Mab drove her blade into his heart, effectively silencing him. I took a step toward him, readying myself to give him blood. Mab abandoned herblade and squeezed her hand, my feet halting beneath me as her will pressed down on me. I couldn’t move, couldn’t get to Rheaghan as he bled out. Only when I stopped moving did Mab grasp the hilt once more, yanking the iron free from her brother’s heart. Blood sputtered from the wound, pouring down his chest.

It wasn’t his sister he looked to in those final moments—not his murderer.

But me.

He dropped onto the sand face first, bleeding out upon the white silt. There was no movement in his chest. Not a breath in his body.

Because the King of Summer was dead.

47

Caldris

Shoving to my feet when Rheaghan dropped, I dashed to my mate’s side. Her hand was pressed to her heart, to the wound that had sealed and trapped Mab’s snake within. She was just as much a prisoner as I now, unable to defy any of Mab’s commands.

My regret knew no bounds. My guilt for being the reason she no longer had any hope of a life of her own.

The daemon grabbed Rheaghan’s body, hauling him into the Cove as Mab stared passively at her brother. She didn’t appear to care that she’d murdered her only remaining family, that he’d loved her enough to not be able to rise against her all this time.

She only cared for his insolence, that he’d dared to speak against her so publicly.

“You’re mine now,” Mab said, snapping out a hand to catch Estrella by the chin.

Estrella screamed in pain, undoubtedly trying to deny the words that had wrapped themselves around the center of her soul. Mab’s talons cut into Estrella’s skin, the sides of her jaw bleeding as she held her.

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