Page 61 of A Story of Sinners

“You’re throwing caution to the wind, and it’s going to come back and bite you.” Redmond’s voice was background noise at this point.

“I know,” I responded, tilting her wrists to the ray of daylight breaking through the window. I missed Faerie and its ever-present sun. “Fin, hand me the key.”

I held my palm out and felt the cool iron of the key burn my skin, but I still gripped it tightly. My fingers wrapped around the cuff of her nearest hand and unlocked it. The cuff dropped to the floor, and I moved to the other, swiftly throwing it behind my back, the key alongside it.

My hands were blistered and red, but nowhere near as damaged as her wrists. “Lyra, put some gloves on and take those cuffs to the witches. Have them burn the awful contraptions to embers.”

My fingers traced the irritated skin on Dahlia’s wrists, and I stroked my hands around the marks that would surely scar. Aiden and his kingdom would be doomed from my actions, but he deserved nothing less. I planned to offer him a new treaty, but seeing what he had done to her, the damage he had wrought upon her poor skin, I wanted nothing more than to let him die.

“So this is who you picked for a mate,” Lyra seethed behind me, but I paid her jealousy no mind. “A pathetic girl who can’t do anything for herself.”

“Lyra, take the cuffs and go,” Fin commanded. “Green is not your color.”

Her footsteps pounded through the room and out the door, and I shifted my attention back to the female in front of me, my own little crow in distress. I cradled the top of her head and smoothed her hair away from her neck.

I bent down and sniffed her, inhaling her lovely, sweet scent. My canines lengthened to sharp deadly points. “Redmond, you should go. You’re not going to like what happens next.”

The air stilled behind me as Redmond seemed to brace himself for a fight. “Ryken, what do you intend to do?” His voice was low, holding an edge of warning.

He already knew what I intended, that I would bite her as she lay comatose, but I turned to him, the corner of my lip tugging up to reveal a sharp fang. “I’m going to claim what is mine—what willalwaysbe mine.”

Redmond moved, but Fin sifted in front of him, placing a hand on the mortal’s chest.

“Don’t you dare,” Redmond argued. “Not without her consent. Not again.”

I didn’t care if she approved or not. I should have never rejected her, should have never removed that claim from her neck, leaving her free to be sold and bartered to the highest bidder. It was a mistake I would not make again, and so, I turned back to Dahlia, placing my fingers on where the claiming mark used to be, and pinched the skin.

Her eyelids fluttered. Her eyes snapped open.

Then, there were flames. Everywhere.

Chapter26

Dahlia

There was a woman’s voice, light and airy, insulting someone, possibly me. Then, a familiar male voice, by the sounds of it—Fin—insulting the woman in question. Ryken’s gruff baritone broke through my trance, soon joined by Redmond’s cautious voice.

My eyelids fought against me as I tried to force them open. From the brightness behind my lids, I could only surmise that wherever I was, it was someplace sunny. Relief filled me at the thought, but a note of warning underlined that bliss. Memories tugged at me, and questions filled my head. Where am I? How did I get here?

I sifted through my memories, realization dawning. No, this wasn’t right. I was supposed to be in Cambriel, where I would sign the treaty then leave for the Otherworld. Neither Ryken, nor Fin, nor that strange female were in Cambriel.

Redmond’s stern voice pierced through my thoughts.Don’t you dare.Not without her consent. Not again.

Like the breaking of a dam, the memories of last night flooded my mind, assaulting me like a barrage of angry hornets. Ryken in my room, asking me to break the treaty and come with him to Faerie. No, not asking, telling me—and when I’d refused, the bittersweet scent of Redmond’s sleeping potion.

Redmond’ssleeping potion.

Redmond had betrayed me, had planned to abduct me and start a war. I could feel Ryken’s fingertips grazing the empty skin where his claiming mark last sat, the touch soft and filled with promise. A pinch followed, and my eyes shot open, landing on Ryken.

My magic crawled out from that pit deep inside me, rejoicing in glory and rage, burning angry and hot.

My magic!

Ryken flinched at the fire in my glare, and flames clawed their way out from beneath my skin. Every inch of my body transformed into golden fire, and I moved, pushing a hand against his chest as the comforter beneath me caught fire, then the pillows and the mattress.

He gripped my wrist where my hand lay planted on his chest, and he squinted to see my face beneath the burning inferno shrouding it.

“Your magic won’t hurt me, little crow, no matter how much it yearns to,” Ryken claimed.

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