Page 148 of A Fate of Blood and Magic
Right, we still had to find a way to contact Alastor.
Hiding the dagger beneath him, he closed his eyes. I grasped his hand, and with another violent shiver, I sought out Alastor. Letting my instincts guide me, I rested the hand he’d bitten into against the open wound of his stomach.
He winced in pain, but I kept it there. Words I was becoming familiar with swam in my mind. I reached for them, chanting them in my head while I thought of Alastor and the vibrant colors of his magic. I focused on the deep green threads that braided with the gray and red. I grasped the blinding white and tugged on it hard.
“Teddy.”Alastor’s alarmed voice rang in my head, and I jolted at its sharpness.
Elias did the same.
“Where are you?”he asked.
“I don’t know,”I answered.“In the woods somewhere in the human realm.”
“Keep this connection open. We’ll find you.”
“I don’t know how.”I wasn’t ashamed of the way my words shook with terror.
“Keep doing what you’re doing. We’re coming for you and Elias.”
I let the string of tears slope down my face without batting any of them away. Instead, I focused on picking at the small puncture wound Elias had made so that it kept bleeding, not only to maintain a connection with Alastor but to make sure I paid the cost of this mage magic with Elias’s and my joined blood.
Pietro stalked toward us, his long legs eating the distance with silent footsteps. When he threw a pile of wood beside us, he used his fire magic to light it.
I jolted back, expecting that same fire to turn to us to consume us, the way it’d flamed across Elias’s skin earlier, but the fire remained on the logs.
Elias shifted on top of me, blinking a few times as he scanned my face before he closed them again. I wasn’t sure if the small burst of energy he’d had after drinking my bloodwas gone or if this was an act so as not to alert Pietro that he was somewhat better.
Although I doubted he felt any better. Sure, his eyes had gone to their normal color before he’d slipped into his primal instincts. But his right hand and arm were burned, and he had two stab wounds that hadn’t stopped bleeding.
Maybe he’d be able to hold on long enough for Alastor to get to us and return us to Niev, where a healer could treat him.
Suddenly, Pietro stilled. With his face in the air, he sniffed. Then he turned to us, eyes the color of night, and kicked Elias. I threw myself on top of him before Pietro could kick him again. It didn’t stop him, and I braced myself for an impact that never came.
I wasn’t sure how it’d happened. One second, I was using my body to shield Elias, and the next, I was lying on the snow, unharmed, while Elias stalked toward Pietro with the small dagger in his hand. Blood spilled from Elias’s mouth, and when he bared his canines, I saw the blood that covered his teeth as well.
“Did your mate truly believe a little bit of blood would save you?” As if unbothered, Pietro leaned against a tree, watching Elias move closer to him.
“I’m not worried about whether I live, just that you don’t,” Elias said.
He snarled. “You’re so worried about killing and righting wrongs. What about the wrongs you and your family have committed?”
“Is that it, then?” Elias took a few more controlled steps. “You hope to kill me to right my family’s wrongs?”
“I plan to kill you, the human you made our queen, and the abomination she carries.” Pietro’s canines elongated pasthis lips. “Your bloodline dies with you, leaving Niev to find a new ruler.”
I felt like a prisoner, stuck in Pietro’s journey for vengeance, but I still wasn’t sure who he was avenging. Maybe in his twisted mind, he sought revenge for all of Niev. Perhaps he thought his anger made him powerful, but somehow, I’d make sure I carved out his death with my dagger.
“I assume you want the position.” Another few steps.
Pietro straightened to push away from the tree. “Guardians, no.” He circled Elias’s approach. “Just like you, I don’t care if I survive this. My only goal is to make sure no one in your bloodline ever wears a crown again.”
“If all you wanted was my death, why did you help the humans kill your own people?”
Pietro’s growl was low but as powerful as his fists that trembled at his sides. “They weren’t supposed to kill anyone but simply cause enough disruption that the people of Niev would force you off the throne.”
“I saw your fire magic at the compound,” Elias said.
“That was my payment for their assistance.”
