Page 111 of Merciless Is My Crown

“I can’t see Zeph or Torin; I don’t want to burn them. If I use too much, I can’t shift and fly back,” I warned, but this time I sent more magic into that dark pit, a thundering plume of fiery death that bent the air around us with rippling heat.

Inside that darkness, hundreds—fucking thousands—of eyes stared out at us. Unblinking, glittering black orbs in groups of three, sets of powerful, crushing pincers moving below. But within that teeming mass, Torin’s pale face was outlined against Zephryn’s massive chest, as if the dragon stood guard over her.

“Here.” Simon waved his arms and every single beady eye homed in on that movement. “We’re right here.”

But Zephryn and Torin saw the movement, too, clawing a path through the beasts, wounds opening on the seer’s face and arms as pincers gouged her skin, Zephryn snapping and spitting out bursts of blue-flecked fire that sent the monsters careening back.

Torin collapsed the moment she emerged from the dark, but Simon was already there, dragging her through the gauntlet of crushed corpses and steaming poison. Zephryn thundered out of the dark with monsters clinging to his back, pincers cutting through scales as thick as flagstones to reach the vulnerable flesh beneath.

I killed two creatures with bursts of fire while Zephryn tore off the rest with meaty chomps, a writhing, gnashing horde streaming from the dark.

“We have to get airborne. Now.” Simon half dragged Torin over to Zephryn and heaved her onto the dragon’s back. She wasn’t even fully seated when those powerful wings beat downward and lifted his massive bulk up off the ground.

Out of reach of the lunging insect creatures.

“Shift, Tristan, right the fuck now,” Simon screamed. “I’m going back for the pendant. Get in the air. I’ll catch up.”

44

ANARIA

Iwas half asleep, curled around Zorander, Tavion’s arm thrown over my waist when the shout of alarm went up.

The screams were muffled from the thick stone walls, but I heard them, then the ripple of silence that raced through the fortress like a killing wave.

I was through the door before I even knew I was moving, racing to keep up with Tavion, who was so much faster than me. Down and down and down the stairs and through the front doors to where Raziel lay in a crumpled heap on the front steps.

“Help me,” I shouted, but Tavion was already slinging his arm beneath Raz’s, lifting his limp form up off the snow, leaving a…leaving a…

A pool of blood as big as his body stained the dirty snow.

“Hurry,” I told Tavion, skimming my hand down Raziel’s pale face. Frozen. He was fucking frozen. How had he flown like this?

We were barely inside the doors when I ordered, “Put him down. Here.” I pointed at the floor.

Tavion’s eyes shot to the stairs. “It’s warmer upstairs. He’ll be more comfortable there while we figure out where he’s hurt.” But all I saw was the blood trail leading inside, and all I heard was his labored, wet breaths.

“Now.” My roar rang off the unforgiving stone like a lightning crack as I ran my hands over him. They came away red. Soaking. “Find Bella. Or Vesper. Or Morgana. Fucking find?—”

“I’m here, I’m here,” Bella called in that grave, unshakable tone. “Move out of the way so I can see him, Anaria. You’re not helping.”

No, no, no. She wouldn’t have hurt Raz, she wouldn’t have.

I’d gambled everything on the fact that the Oracle still harbored feelings for Gattica…for Raziel, and wouldn’t lay a finger on him. How could I have been so fucking wrong?

I tore away his blood-soaked leather armor, fumbling through the buckles and trying to claw my way to bare skin. Raziel was hurt, somewhere he was bleeding and there was so much blood. He’d been hurt before, been hurt so badly, but this looked so much worse. I shredded through layers of fabric with my bare hands, desperation beating through me like a drum.

“By the Three Mothers.” Bella rocked back on her heels as we took in what the Oracle—because that was the only possibility—had done to him.

A shard of black metal, as black as night, and as cold as the Great Beyond from the frost rimming the wound, pierced Raziel’s chest. Red blood gushed out so steadily, I knew exactly how fast his heart was beating.

“We have to stop the bleeding,” Tavion said gravely, his blue eyes somber. “But we can’t remove the shard or he’ll bleed out.”

“Let’s lift him enough for me to get a look at his back,” Bella ordered, and I wrapped my hands around his shoulder and pulled enough to roll him toward me. Bella’s face turned whiter.

“The blade goes all the way through but missed his heart,” Bella said quickly. “I don’t know how Raziel flew all the way here.”

“He couldn’t,” I whispered, weighing the possibilities. “There is no way Raz got himself here in this condition.”

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