Page 228 of Primal Bonds

Oh, Luc. Marjani briefly closed her eyes.

“So he’s bound to her?” she asked. “He accepted her geas?”

“Yeah. She has a thing for fada lovers. Luc’s probably even enjoying himself.” Corban’s lips stretched in a death’s-head grin. “Until he…pisses her off.”

“Is that what you did? Pissed her off?”

A shrug. “I told you…what you asked. Now…do it.”

“One more thing. What did you tell her about our quartz?”

Her cousin’s eyes slid sideways. That was all the answer she needed. Her breath caught at his treachery.

“Damn it, Corban. What the fuck have you done?”

“Couldn’t…help it. She’d heard something. Figured…some of it out herself. I tried to…bargain with her. But I lost.”

“Jani.” Fane touched the small of her back. “We have to go.”

“I’ll be right there.” She crouched next to the cage. Corban’s eyes met hers through the iron bars.

“You don’t have to do this,” Fane said. “I know it’s why you came, but he’ll be dead by tomorrow anyway.”

She shook her head. It wasn’t about her revenge anymore, but how could she explain that to Fane? She barely understood herself.

“Do it.” Her cousin crawled forward until they were just inches apart. He stared at her, his body trembling from the effort to keep himself on all fours. “Or are you too weak?”

Anger spiked through her. Not because he’d called her weak—she knew he was simply trying to goad her into doing it—but because she was going to have to kill her own cousin. Yet another death to haunt her.

“Fuck you.” She pressed the catch releasing the blade. “I hope you go straight to Hades.”

“Count on it.” His mouth twisted. “Wondered if…you had…it in you.”

“Believe it. I learned from the best, remember?” She slid her arm through the bars, careful not to touch the iron.

Corban gave a weak chuckle, before turning his head at an angle so she could slice his artery. He closed his eyes.

She took a deep breath, and then did it, quick and clean. It took a minute for him to bleed out. She set a hand on his shoulder and waited. She needed to witness this, so she could report to Adric that he was really dead.

And because even a bastard like her cousin didn’t deserve to die alone.

Corban’s eyelids fluttered. “Tell Adric…not doing…so bad.”

She swallowed over a boulder-sized lump. “I will.”

Air rattled in his emaciated chest—and then he lay still. His heart gave a few rapid, erratic beats and then lurched to a stop.

“Peace,” she whispered and stood up. She wiped her blade on her pants leg and then shoved it into her pocket.

Her eyes met Fane’s. She lifted her chin. Just let him look down at her. She refused to be ashamed.

But he held out his arms. “Come here.”

Her mouth worked. She stared at him miserably, and then stumbled the three steps between them. His arms wrapped around her, strong and comforting.

“You did good,” he said. “It was a kindness to put the poor man out of his misery.”

Her breath rasped out. He was right. So why did her heart feel like a weight had been attached to it?

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