Page 3 of Merciless Is My Crown

I urged my mount into the trees, heading for the narrow stone path leading to the castle jutting like a spear from the mountainside, the main tower tall enough to pierce the shifting mist that always gathered around this place, shrouding the entire mountainside.

One wing thrust out over a deep ravine, nothing beneath it except a dizzying drop and the far-off roar of water, thundering from a series of waterfalls spilling off the surrounding cliffs. I’d seen Anaria’s face the first time she’d seen the palace.

Awestruck. Like she was glimpsing the impossible.

I hated this fucking place.

Hated the sins I’d committed in the name of the king, the innocent blood I’d spilled.

Only Anaria’s survival could make me go back, but just as the Wynter Palace came into sight, disaster struck.

A simple stumble, my horse’s hoof sliding off a rock, sent a shower of stone tumbling into the ravine beside us. Barely a handful, but the noise echoed like a mountain avalanche.

I reined the beast to a full stop, dragging my cloak over us both as the Reapers stopped their lazy circling and floated in our direction like wisps of clouds moving against the wind. I held my breath as they closed in…Then Anaria whimpered.

The smallest sound, barely a whisper, but the Reapers moved faster now, and I stroked a shaking hand down her flushed face, pressing my lips to her ear. “Quiet, love, quiet now.”

Her low moans faded into the stillness, my horse shivering, as if the beast knew what evil bore down on us. I backed us into the shadows until my back was pressed against the cliff wall.

The Reapers were close enough I made out their individual features and the tatters of shadow trailing behind them when they passed overhead, making two frightening, slow turns before heading back toward the city. Only once they resumed their circuit above the Citadelle’s highest spire did I resume my upward climb.

My horse’s chest was froth covered by the time we reached the front doors, and I raced through them with Anaria in my arms, memories of the past nipping at my heels.

The palace was eerily quiet, like a tomb that had been closed up for centuries, not months, and I laid her on the faded settee in the first room we came to, trying to ignore the ruination, swallowing down thoughts I never wanted to face again.

I tossed wood into the fireplace, found matches, and the dry kindling burst into flame, filling the room with a golden glow that did nothing but highlight the sweat dripping off Anaria’s face and the blue tinge of her clenched lips.

Never in my life had I felt as helpless as I did right now.

I had the wrong kind of magic to help the female I loved.

Her heart beat fast as a rabbit’s, skin ice-cold to the touch, and she wouldn’t stop shivering, not even when the room began to heat. I peeled up the bottoms of her leather pants—little more than scraps stuck to her blackened skin now—and cursed.

The twin wounds seeped foul, yellowish pus. From the reek, rot had already set in. Fuck. She needed a healer, and right now. The wolf inside me panicked, whining in fear.

If that healer didn’t arrive in the next hour, she wouldn’t survive.

“I don’t know how to fix this, Anaria. I don’t know how to save you.” I curled around her, sliding my arm beneath her head, burying my face in her hair. Willed my body heat to sink into her skin, for the fire to chase away the chill that made her teeth chatter uncontrollably.

She couldn’t die.

I would not allow her to die.

But over the next hour, her heartbeats slowed to a crawl, as if she was giving up. I couldn’t face this. I couldn’t. “I refuse to lose you, Anaria, so you have to fight. You have to hang on until the healer arrives, just a little longer.”

I smoothed back her hair, still streaked with dried blood—hers, mine, the Mistress’s—before I pressed my lips to her freezing cheek, tasting her tears. “You can trust me, Anaria. I’ll keep you safe, I need you to know that…” I closed my eyes, the cold from her cheek numbing my lips.

“I’ve never allowed myself to love so completely before. Stay with me, and I will prove I’m worthy of your love. Just…don’t leave me behind.” I blew out a shuddering breath as fear took me over completely. “Please don’t go where I can’t follow.”

I kept repeating the words, as if I could keep her heart beating through sheer will alone.

But as her breaths grew shallower and her skin turned to ice, even that faint hope began to fade.

2

ANARIA

Darkness surrounded me, my face squashed against a hard, bare chest that smelled faintly of blood and a dense summer forest. I tried to think around the consuming pain, to claw my way back to consciousness, but couldn’t dig myself out of this soupy, throbbing blackness.

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