Page 440 of Primal Bonds

“No, Luc. You can’t! She’s his mate.”

“Get out of the way,” Luc said in a dull voice.

“No.” Marjani took a fighting stance, daggers at the ready. “You want to kill her, you’ll have to go through me.”

Adric went invisible. The three warriors circling him swore. One of them shot a fae ball at the spot where he’d been standing, but he’d already slipped between two of them. He reached Rosana right as she came out of her trance.

She glanced around, blinking. “Adric?” she asked on a rising note of fear—and collapsed to the ground.

In an instant, he was standing over her, ready to protect her at all costs.

He nuzzled Rosana’s neck, sending reassurance through their bond. To his relief, her eyelids fluttered and then opened.

“You’re here,” she whispered, sinking her fingers into his fur.

He rumbled in response.

“What—?” Her gaze went past him and Marjani to Luc. She sucked in a breath and tried to stand but could only manage to bring herself to sitting. She leaned against Adric, lungs working, face as drawn as if she’d run a marathon.

Luc’s claws slid out. “Don’t make me hurt you,” he told Marjani in flat, emotionless tones. “Just get the fuck out of the way.”

“No.” She jabbed a dagger at him, forcing him to back off. “I won’t let you do this.”

Langdon stalked toward Blaer. Adric could almost see the prince recalling his earlier insinuation—that Blaer had manipulated events so Adric could assassinate him.

“A Seer in the grip of a vision doesn’t lie,” Langdon stated. He seemed to grow taller, darker as he spoke.

Blaer licked her lips. “She’s a fada Seer,” she said with a scornful glance at Rosana. “Who knows what she can do?” She looked at Luc. “I gave you an order—kill Rosana do Rio. If the Savonett woman is in the way, then kill her, too.”

Luc’s irises turned pure wolf, twin orange embers in the dark clearing. He glanced from Blaer to Marjani, and then he withdrew his claws and turned away. “No.”

Blaer cast him an incredulous look. “What did you say?”

“No,” Luc repeated.

Blaer lunged. “I said, Kill them both. Now!” She squeezed Luc’s quartz, her lips moving, adding the power of the incantation to the geas.

Luc jolted and dropped to his knees, his body a man, his scent all wolf. He was seconds from going feral, and Blaer either didn’t know, or she just didn’t care. He dropped his head back and howled at the sky, a sad, lost song that had even the night fae tensing.

Blaer bent with him, tightening her grip on his quartz. “Kill. Them. Both.”

It was a fatal mistake. Luc had accepted the geas to save Marjani’s life. By ordering him to kill Marjani, the fae lady had broken their bargain, releasing Luc from the geas.

Luc tore off his clothes and shifted. Blaer went stick-still as the brown wolf’s fierce, half-mad growls filled the clearing. She threw up her hands and began to call on some other kind of magic, but it was too late. Luc sprang, slamming her to the ground.

With a muttered incantation, the prince raised a long-fingered hand. The leaves and twigs scattered around the clearing levitated off the ground and streamed toward Luc and Blaer.

The other night fae edged to the clearing’s outskirts, giving the prince a wide berth.

Marjani inched back to stand by Rosana. A brief caress of Adric’s back told him that she knew he was there, too, but her gaze was glued on Luc and Blaer and the debris swirling around them.

“What the fuck?” she breathed.

A twig formed itself into a wolf that knocked Luc off Blaer, tossing him three yards away before falling back to the ground, a twig again. Langdon rotated his wrist and the other leaves spiraled around Blaer, faster and faster, before morphing into ravens that flew around her in tight circles.

Blaer scrambled to her feet, but it was too late. She was enclosed inside a living cage of ravens.

Luc got off the ground and gave himself a shake. He bounded back to Blaer, lips peeled in a furious snarl—and then stopped short. He prowled around the circling birds, searching for a way to get at Blaer.

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