Page 147 of Rise of the Siren Queen
The trident plunged into his chest, clean and final. Power rippled up my arms, the recoil sharp. His breath hitched. His sneer fell apart.
For a heartbeat, there was silence. Peace. Victory.
Then agony.
Searing white-hot pain exploded through my back.
I gasped as ice—thick, jagged, merciless—tore through my flesh. My tail spasmed, vision swimming. I turned, barely catching the smug grin on Thalor’s face, his arm still raised in mock triumph.
It was his last moment.
Lightning flashed, Adrian’s bolt of rage slicing through the water like a god’s fury.
Thalor’s head separated cleanly from his body, and the room illuminated in a burst of blinding gold.
The scent of ozone and blood flooded the space.
My body gave way. My vision fractured.
Adrian’s face—twisted in panic—was the last thing I saw before the darkness swallowed me whole.
28
Prince Adrian
Adrian
Iryen’s viciousness stunned me into silence.
The way she commanded Ithra’s body—forced her to deliver each agonizing slice to Draven—was nothing short of divine carnage. It was graceful in the most violent way, a symphony of vengeance played with unflinching precision.
And,fuck, it chilled me.
Not just because of what she did.
Because I’d felt it before.
The same effortless domination, the same icy grip tightening around my mind the day she bent me to her will without even blinking. The memory shot like ice down my spine, sharp and familiar. But this—this wasn’t the same girl.
She wasn’t my princess anymore.
Not just the rightful queen of Aetheria. No. She was somethingmore.
A goddess.
Avengeful, blood-soaked goddess cloaked in wrath and grief andunrelenting fury.
I couldn’t look away. Wouldn’t even if I could. There was something feral about her power, something raw and old. And it stirred every part of me—lust, awe, reverence, dread. It was like watching a storm take form in a woman’s body, beautiful and devastating all at once.
Though beneath the thrill and pride, unease twisted inside me. Could thisconsumeher? Could she wield this darkness for too long before it started wielding her? I’d seen what vengeance did. How it hollowed you out and left you bleeding from the inside. I saw it in her eyes, the glint of something not entirely hers. A madness whispering behind the lull. If she let it keep whispering, it wouldn’t just be Draven who shattered.
It’d be her. My Woman. My mate.
Andthat, I couldn’t allow.
No matter how magnificent or terrifying she became, no matter how deeply she reveled in this moment of righteous fury, I wouldn’t let her lose herself to it. As much as I admired her strength, her sheer command over this chaos, I was here to protect her, not just her body, but her soul. I could tear kingdoms apart, drain oceans, annihilate everything that breathed,but I couldn’t let her destroy herself.
Not for them.
