Page 48 of Claimed by Night (The Queen's Consorts 1)

I screamed.

A flash of movement, and then Thana was knocked to the ground. Her Grace released me, and I fell to my feet. Tiernan charged Thana again, using his Grace of earth to pull the vines from outside. They grew with vicious speed, hurtling toward Thana.

I ran to where Kade lay and rolled him onto his back. His flesh was cool to the touch, his body still. His beautiful face was pale and twisted. I felt for a pulse, for anything,anythingthat would tell me he lived.

A clattering sound had me flipping onto my back. Tiernan lay on the ground, dazed, but still alive, his arm bent at an odd angle beneath him. Thana clutched the blade in her grasp, rage glinting in her dark eyes, her teeth bared. She surged toward me, blade out, a feral battle-cry tearing from her throat.

I jumped to my feet, my pulse galloping and my body tensing. At the last second, I twisted, catching her wrist, and diverting the blade from my chest. I tightened my hold on her, gasping at the rush of power as her Grace activated another of my own.

A torrent of air roiled within me, filling me until I was near bursting. She raised her hand, but before she could use her Grace against me again, I released the violent storm from my core, driving my palm into the centre of her chest.

She catapulted backward. And I watched as sheer terror flitted across her face before she vanished from my view, falling from the edge of the terrace—her screams fading the further she plummeted, until they stopped entirely.

Chapter Thirty-Two

Running footsteps rebounded through the corridor. A group of nobles came to a gasping halt when they saw me. The tears were flowing endlessly, streaming down my face and dropping onto Kade’s cheeks.

He wasn’t breathing. But I thought I could feel the faintest of a pulse, slow and off-kilter when I felt under his jaw.

“I need a healer!” I shouted at the nobles who were standing there, dumbstruck, not doing anything to help. Where was Alaric? Finn? I searched for their faces but couldn’t find them and the hurt in my chest intensified. “Now!” I commanded, my voice straining, when none moved to get help.

A female stepped forward, knocking two nobles out of her way. She knelt on the other side of Kade, her eyes wide and hands shaking as she searched for the injury.

“He suffocated,” I whimpered, “He can’t die. Hecan’t.”

The healer placed her hands over Kade’s chest, and closer her eyes, concentration drawing hard lines in her forehead. Her mouth tightened, and she removed her hands, “Not even the strongest of Graces can bring someone back from the brink of death, majesty. I’m so—”

My chest split wide open, “No,” I growled at her, and grabbed her hands, forcing them back onto Kade’s chest. “You willnotgive up on him.”

I placed one of my hands atop the healer’s and prayed to the gods that Morgana was also Graced with the ability to heal. The healer bowed her head and pushed her Grace into Kade. I did the same, digging deep within myself to find what I needed to heal him. But it wasn’t a healing force I felt there. Thana’s air still lingered within my core, and I felt the ring pulsate on my finger again.

Bent in concentration, I opened my palm and coaxed the air from my center, forced it to listen to my call and do my bidding. It left me in a rapid gush, and my chest contracted at the release. Kade’s chest rose, his lungs filling with the air I shoved down his throat.

Then I felt it, a peaceful warmth—a calm spreading inside me. The healing Grace. I sobbed at the discovery and pressed my hands firmly against Kade, careful not to lose contact with the healer. The ability radiated through me, coursing through my fingertips and into Kade, finding and fixing. Healing. His body warmed under my palms, and his heart beat strengthened. I pushed harder. Spots danced in the peripherals of my vision. My body swayed with the effort and a cold sweat broke out over my brow.

My breaths came in ragged pants, but still I forced the energy within me to keep flowing. Kade’s intake of breath was sharp and long. He choked on the air as it filled his lungs, his hand flying to his chest, clutching at his black tunic. Without thinking, I took his face into my hands and kissed him. He tensed in surprise, his skin heating in defence before he softened and pulled me against him.

The gathered nobles emitted sounds of shock and dismay. But I didn’t care. Kade was alive. He would be alright. I pulled away from him amidst the echo of footfalls charging toward us. Alaric and Finn barreled through nobles, knocking several right off their feet.

Finn raced to Kade, and seeing that his brother was awake and without physical sign of injury, he placed two gentle fingers under my chin, caressing my jaw, “What happened?”

Alaric took stock of the scene before him, and I swore I could see the relief rolling off him in waves when our eyes met. He seemed frozen, unable to move save for the shaking of his hands at his sides and the rapid rising and falling of his chest. Then his sights fell on something behind me and I heard a moan, turning to find Tiernan struggling to get to his feet.

The grating sound of steel being unsheathed was the only predecessor to Alaric’s attack. He flew at the Day Court emissary with a fury beyond any I’d ever seen in his eyes. It took the last dregs of my energy to stand and put myself between him and his prey.

“Don’t,” I said, trying to stave off the dizziness. I clenched my fists hard enough for my nails to draw blood from the palms of my hands, “He saved my life.”

The weakness in my limbs intensified, and I let my body slump back to the tile, “It was Thana,” I told him, burning claws scratching up my throat, my stomach twisting in protest.

He knelt before me, a look of mortified shock crossing his features, “Where is she?”

I looked to the terrace, an image of her face as she fell, twisted in horror and pain came unbidden into my mind, “Dead,” I told him, clenching my teeth against the string of her betrayal.

Chapter Thirty-Three

My eyes burned from exhaustion. I’d stayed up through the rest of the night and was watching dawn break over the bay in an explosion of soft colors. My males were all with me, lounging about my bedchamber. Finn was bent in pensive focus, twirling a small blade between his thumb and forefinger. Alaric sat next to Kade, who lay in my bed, now almost fully recovered, but drained. They were deep in whispered conversation.

The room was tense with unspoken words. I hadn’t wanted to talk about what happened. Every time I had to say her name, I winced, a lancing pain shooting through my heart. The palace guard had been searching for her body since the incident but had found nothing. The only explanation was she had been swallowed up by the sea, in which case, they weren’t likely to find her.

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