Page 80 of Claimed By Stone
“There was something,” I muttered. “Stone magic. Restoration rituals. I read it months ago…”
The texts blurred together. Diagrams of rune formations. Genealogy records. Aphrodite sigils. Nothing. Nothing that could tell me how tosave her.
Behind me, the door opened again. I didn’t turn.
Footsteps. Heavy. Familiar.
“Thavros,” Khuldruk said gently, his voice a strange mix of confusion and caution. “Brother… what’s going on?”
I didn’t answer. Couldn’t. I shoved another scroll aside, heart slamming against my ribs like it wanted to break free.
More footsteps. Frema. A pair of guards. The room was filling, but it didn’t matter.
I could still feel her.
She was still in there.
A hand touched my shoulder.
Not forceful. Not commanding. Just… grounding.
“What is happening?” Khuldruk asked again, this time softer.
I shrugged him off, spinning back toward Seraphina. Her marble cheeks were streaked with petrified tears.
“I can still feel her,” I said, voice hoarse. “She’s not gone.”
Khuldruk stepped beside me, looking down at the crystal embedded in the center of the war table below. Its light was pulsing—erratic, sickly. Dying. Fading away like the very light of the crystal.
That was it. I could feel the confirmation sing through the bond. I knew what I must do.
“It’s the crystal,” I breathed. “It’s what’s killing her.”
His eyes snapped to mine. “Thavros?—”
“I have to destroy it,” I said, the words tasting like fire in my mouth.
Khuldruk’s expression darkened. “No. Youcan’t. That crystal holds our clan’s magic. You destroy it, you riskeverything.”
I looked back at Seraphina. “I’ll risk everything. She’s mymate.”
“There is no wisdom in this,” he argued. “That is not in all your books. Not in all your scrolls.”
My voice dropped to a growl. I pounded my fist against my chest. “The answer isn’t in the books. It’s inme.”
Khuldruk reached for me again, but this time I bared my teeth. The calm scholar he knew was gone.
Now there was only the orc willing to burn the world for his mate.
Khuldruk’s face tightened, jaw flexing. “This is madness.” He took me firmly by the shoulders and shook me.
“No,” I said. “This islove.” I shrugged out of his grasp and turned to move.
And then he lunged.
We crashed into one another with the force of fury and desperation, knocking over scrolls and sending ancient tomes flying. His arm locked around my shoulder, trying to drag me away from the ledge above the war table. I shoved back, snarling.
“You’d sacrifice our people?” he growled, grappling for my waist.
