Page 39 of A Legacy of Wrath and Reckoning

Holt was quiet for a moment, before he said, “Thank you, Zylah,” his voice a little rougher than it had been a few moments before. The sound of her name on his lips was as painful as it was comforting, but it felt like a small gift in the mess she’d found herself in. “It doesn’t ring,” he added.

Zylah chewed her lip, considering her words and how much she should tell him. She settled on the truth. “I had a pin added to stop the pellet before I gave it to you.”

Another quiet moment, and then, “Why a bell?”

“Rule number six: no bells.”

“You have rules?” There was a trace of humour in his tone, and she imagined the side of his mouth quirking in an almost smile, the tilt of his head.

“We do. Did.” She hated that she couldn’t see his face properly, the subtle way his expression would have shifted.

“Will you tell me the rest?”

Zylah hummed. What if he could piece things together for himself? Repair the damage Aurelia had done? She made her decision. “A number of them were to do with my undergarments.” She chuckled quietly at that. “But the important ones…” She held up a finger as she listed them off. “Number two: no elbowing each other in the face. Well, technically it was no hurting each other. Number six: no bells, and number seven…” Her voice thickened, the sight of the sword going through his chest a nightmare she didn’t think she’d ever learn to live with.

“What was number seven?” he asked gently.

“No dying on each other.”

His shadow moved, and she thought he might have raised a hand to his chest, to the scar that spread across it. “I think we should move that up to number one.”

Zylah couldn’t help the choked laugh that escaped her. “I think so, too.”

“Two vampires will bring food this evening, same as they have every night. Think you can be ready by then?”

To unlock her cell, if she could summon the items Holt had mentioned. That was a very big if. “You think you can take them out?”

“If I know you’re hiding behind the throne.”

Where he couldn’t hurt her again. She knew he’d have said it to anyone, but Zylah still let it fill her with another little piece of hope. Hope that Aurelia was wrong, and that the male she knew and loved was still in there. “It’s a deal,” she told him, settling into the corner of her cell for what lay ahead.

Her mate was alive, and Zylah forced herself to focus on that as she attempted to carry out the first part of their plan.

Chapter Twenty-One

“Youneedtorest,”Holt told her after what felt like hours of trying to summon a single fucking hairpin.

Her other sight had improved, at least, although the vanquicite still impacted everything else; she wasn’t sure how. Exposure to so much vanquicite should have killed them both, but Zylah tucked the thought away, let it give her hope that their bond still remained, somehow. He’d heard her when she’d tried to speak to him in his thoughts; that had to count for something.

“I’m afraid that if I rest, I’ll fall asleep, and we’ll miss our opportunity,” she admitted. Even now, she was so exhausted from trying to use her magic even her thoughts felt heavy.

But she couldseethe hairpins Holt had mentioned, and the metal hooks at the base of the throne, and she hadn’t stopped trying to summon either all day, even when the daylight began to fade and the throne room grew dark.

“What was your promise?”

Zylah let herself look at him. Let herself study his face for a moment longer with her strange sight. “What?”

“When you arrived this morning, you said you made a promise. What was it?” He’d schooled his expression to neutrality in that way she’d become so accustomed to, but she knew his tells. The slight tilt of his head. The way he held himself preternaturally still. To anyone else, it would have been unsettling, but to her, it was as familiar as breathing.

Only the truth, for him. Only ever the truth. “I promised you I’d find you. Just like you promised me.”

“What—”

Zylah held up a hand at the sound of footsteps beyond the throne room moving closer. “Someone’s coming.”

The doors slammed open, and a single vampire entered, Zylah’s blood running cold at the sight of him.

“My, my, Zylah, seems like we’ve both undergone quite the transformation since we last met. Holt, always a pleasure.”

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