Page 113 of A Legacy of Poison and Lies

Holt didn’t move, just remained still in that unnatural way, as if Aurelia was holding him there, his gaze fixed on Zylah, his eyes searching hers.

Zylah pulled and tugged and clawed at the magic binding her, a small amount of pressure releasing as she found a crack and made to move for Holt, but Raif held her back.

“Don’t,” Raif murmured against her hair.

A flare of heat down the bond was all she felt, Holt’s expression dark as his eyes flicked to where Raif held Zylah to him.

“Holt,” Aurelia sighed, seemingly unaware Zylah had found a fissure in her magic. “You always had such power; I’ve always been able to feel it humming within you. I’ve no doubt it was your magic that did this.”

She stopped in front of him, gesturing to the bodies beyond their little bubble. “Do it again,” she said sternly, and Zylah felt the magic in the command, even from where she stood.

I’m trying, I’m looking for a way out of this,she told him, unsure whether he could hear her, or if Aurelia was somehow blocking the magic between them.

Aurelia’s quiet laugh was bitter, twisted. Under any other circumstances, Zylah might have even said the Fae sounded like she was impressed. “You’ve done well to try to shield yourself from me,” she said to Holt, caressing the back of her knuckles down the side of his face. “So many Fae have withered away beneath the weight of my compulsion. But there are always loopholes. So I’ll leave you with two choices; kill them all, or let me in.”

Zylah tried to shake free of Raif’s hold, but he held tight.

“Zylah,” he warned behind her.

“She can’t do this,” Zylah pleaded.

It was a violation, what Aurelia wanted to do; what she had been doing all these years.

The Fae took a step closer to Holt, blocking his face from Zylah’s view. “We both know it isn’t a difficult decision for you.”

And Zylah knew she was right; Holt would always put the lives of others first.

“Now,” Aurelia continued, more than a hint of satisfaction in her tone. “Let. Me. In.”

There’ll be a way out of this. We’ll find it,Zylah told her mate, Raif’s grip on her arm tightening as she found another crack in Aurelia’s magic, desperate to reach Holt.

“Kneel,” Aurelia commanded, and Zylah watched in horror as Holt followed the order, kneeling before Aurelia in the dirt.

“Stripping your family of everything has been worth every moment,” Aurelia went on. “Thatsheturned out to be your mate. I couldn’t have hoped for a more perfect outcome.”

Zylah shredded through Aurelia’s hold on her, yanking herself from Raif’s grip and sliding to her knees before Holt to press her hands to his face.

But his eyes were glassy, empty,unseeing, and he didn’t move to look down at her.

Didn’t react to her touch, and no trace of emotion travelled down their bond.

Raif growled behind her, but Zylah paid him no heed as panic gripped her, her heart thumping against her chest.

She leaned up, pressing her lips to Holt’s, ignoring the movement behind her from Aurelia and Raif.

I know you’re in there somewhere, Holt. Just hold on. I’ll find you.

“It had to be this way,” Raif said with a deathly hollowness somewhere behind her.

“Do it,” Aurelia commanded.

A hand clasped around Zylah’s forearm, pulling her back, and all Zylah had the chance to register was Raif’s empty eyes meeting hers before he slid a sword into Holt’s chest.

A sword made wholly of vanquicite.

“No!” Zylah screamed, but the only sound she heard in response was Aurelia’s twisted laugh as the Fae evanesced Zylah away.

Kopi’s wings fluttered at the edges of her vision, but Zylah slid to her knees, pressed a hand to the cold stone beneath her, the other to her chest, pain searing through her and stealing her breath away. It was dark, but she didn’t know if it was because of her shallow breaths, because of the ringing in her ears or the shadow over her eyes.

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