Page 52 of Luca

Zadok eyelids shuttered, and he tentatively reached out. I rejected his offer of placation. “I… I did everything I could,” he said.No, no, no, that’s not true. It can’t be true.“The poison had already reached his heart.”

I shook my head. “He can’t. I can still feel him, he’s still in there.”

“I’m sorry.”

Those words were a knife in my chest. I couldn’t catch a breath with my heart hammering against my ribcage. I blinked, numb and dazed, barely aware of the pain shooting through my knees as I hit the floor. Distantly, there was a shuffle of footfalls before the door creaked closed behind me, but I didn’t turn around. I couldn’t shift my gaze from my mate. My sweet mate.

I scooped his limp body into my arms, cradled him, combed my fingers through his silken mane. My lips hovered over his lax mouth before closing the gap, drifting to his cold cheeks, his closed eyelids, kissing every inch of his face. His beautiful face. Our bond had dimmed, gradually fading to barely a phantom whisper. The emptiness already looming.

“Don’t leave me.” I rocked forward, pressing my nose to his throat and inhaling that familiar scent beneath the smoke. “You can’t leave me.”

It was all my fault.

He had warned me of his concerns, and I had reassured him that nothing would happen. I should have listened. I should have known what my father was capable of after everything he had already done. He was full of hatred, obsessed with purity, and yet I was so adamant that he wouldn’t come for my mate. Forus. Why had I expected him to remain stoic? To grin and bear his bias like a fair leader for the sake of peace. I was an arrogant fool, and I’d paid the price.

I may as well have poured the poison down Luca’s throat myself.

Time ticked by, bringing no solace. I lowered Luca, my precious Luca, onto the bed, tucking him in and laying his arms over his belly. I could imagine he was in a deep and peaceful sleep, my longing to see his chest rise and fall feeding the hopeful mirage. With trembling fingers, I brushed his curls behind his ear, my touch trailing over the valley of his throat, to the dip above his pulse.

Still.Silent.

Another tear rolled down my cheek, and fury surged in my gut, the background fading into the abyss. I leaned over him, planting one last kiss on his cold temple. “You’ll have his head, my heart. I swear it.”

I stood, charging from the room, uncaring if the door shattered to pieces, ignoring the muffled, uneasy shouts in my ears. As soon as I reached the garden, my wings erupted from my back. My fangs were bared, cutting into my gums with how hard I bit down, the bitter taste of copper fueling my wrath. I lunged into the air, aiming higher and higher, past the trees, through the clouds, up and up until the land was nothing but a fog beneath me. Only then did I scream.

I screamed until my throat bled and my voice cracked. I screamed until the storm building in the sky retreated in fear. I wept. Hot tears branded their paths into my skin, and I embraced the sting. The king would pay for what he had done. The entire fucking realm would burn if it stood in my way.

My heart was broken. My soul was torn apart.

My mate… was dead.

CAIR

“Gather all the creatures we can muster in the Outerlands. We’re marching on the capital,” I demanded, barging into the room, uncaring if I startled its occupants. We could not delay. If my father desired a war, it was a war he would get.

Zadok dipped his head. “Those who feel resentment toward the king for their fates will fight for you, no questions asked, but are you sure you want to do this? There will be no turning back once your banners are raised against him.”

“It is not aboutwant,” I said, no airs or graces. In that moment, I was so close to the frenzied and cold-blooded prince my father was no doubt goading me to be. He would relish it. I was one strong wind away from crumbling apart entirely, a bomb ready to detonate, but I had to stay in control for my mate.He needs me. “It is about retribution. Will you assist me or not?”

“Of course.”

The last hour or two I’d spent writing missives to my sources back at the palace, and to Teighan, informing them of their tasks. I needed numbers, every able monster in the entire Otherworld prepared to fight. Our Shade companions had set off in separate directions, Cerila toward my brother, and Gary toward Rathe, beginning the relay race to deliver the notes to their destinations. It would be days before they reached their hands, and that irked me. It had to happennow. My father had made the first move, and it was imperative that I was not inactive. Arrangements were in motion, but more had to be done.

What had to be done?

What are the next steps?

I growled in frustration. I was suffocating in this fucking house, restless and impatient. Everything smelledwrong, burned and herbal, the sickening stench fogging my thoughts. Every time I paused, my mind would reel off visions of a lifeless body, frozen in time. The words‘I love you’would echo, louder and louder like a taunting chant, that sweet voice following me like the sound of my conscience. I would claw out my eyes and eardrums if it would grant me the clarity to do what needed to be done. I couldn’t be useless, not in this. The art of war was a subject I was familiar with, and I couldn’t disappoint my mate by fumbling now.

‘You promised.’

I aimed for the door, intent on drafting more missives or drawing up a plan, anything that would assist in the efforts, but I swayed forward, grunting as my temples pulsed and a wave of nausea roiled in my stomach. I brushed it aside, swallowing it down, but a concerned rustle came from behind me.

Was I not alone?

Why did it sound like…

“Your Highness, you are exhausted,” Zadok unhelpfully pointed out, the tone of his voice too familiar, too soft, too caring. “Rest, we?—”

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