Page 164 of Vicious Is My Throne

I felt invincible.

Holy fucking shite. I want to stay inside your tight little arse forever.

The air in the room tightened, not a single sound except the low crackling of the embers in the hearth. I wondered if I’d imagined Zor’s voice inside my head, then…

Why the fuck are you inside my head, Zorander?

I’m…You can hear me?

What the fuck just happened? Raz reached up and rubbed his chest. I feel like I have a vise around my chest.

Me too.

Me three, arseholes. A long pause then Tavion growled. This feels like the mating bond but different. I think…this is a soul bond, like what Bexley was talking about. Maybe that’s why all you aresholes are in my head now.

This is totally going to suck. Raz groaned. It’s bad enough listening to what comes out of your mouths, now we have to listen to everything you’re thinking, Montgomery?

I collapsed on top of Tristan while they argued back and forth, unable to do anything except smile.

If this was our last night, if tomorrow was the end, then I couldn’t have asked for anything more perfect.

“This is not our last night,” Zorander scolded as he eased me carefully onto my side, Tristan smoothing my sweaty hair out of my face before curling himself around me.

“But I have to agree.” Raziel climbed over us and nuzzled the back of my neck before he threw his arm over me. “Tonight was as perfect as it gets.”

“You can…really hear my thoughts inside your heads?”

We hear everything, so stop thinking so loud. Tavion settled between my legs, head on my stomach. This is going to be fun, wife. I’ve always wondered what you’re thinking about.

Zor chuckled, climbing out of bed, my limp fingers slipping off his arm. “You are in for a big surprise, Tavion.” He dressed then bent and kissed my cheek.

“I’m checking the perimeter before I sleep. Get some sleep, and you aresholes, don’t keep her up with your nonsense.”

I watched him until he was through the door, then snuggled down between them feeling safe and cherished.

No matter what happened tomorrow, we still had this.

I wondered if tomorrow would punish me—punish all of us—and take everything away.

The sun wasn’t even up when I dressed quietly in my new leathers and replicas of my eel-skin boots, snuck out of the bedroom, and went up one floor, resting my hand on the doorknob as I imagined exactly what I wanted to find inside. Then I gasped when I stepped into the room.

Straw practice dummies lined one wall; high windows let in plenty of light. The center of the polished black floor was wide open except for a few piles of shattered stone.

Light bounced off that smooth-as-glass surface, glimmering across the symbols inset into the floor, especially the white tree inset in the center. Not as large as the cave, but a close enough replica for a quick run-through before we left.

I stretched, my leathers creaking, my new boots gripping the smooth floor surprisingly well as I reached behind me, wrapped my fingers around the handle of the weapon, and drew the blade from the leather scabbard.

No sooner did my hand tighten around the hilt, the vision slammed into me, and the practice room became Corvus’s dank cave, the smooth floor carved with glowing symbols connected by a series of intersecting lines.

Everyone lay dead around me, Raz and Zor to my right, broken at the base of the stone wall, Tavion face down on my left. The golden wyvern had been the last to fall, Corvus’s darkness slowly pulling back to reveal a pile of decaying bones amongst a scattering of golden scales.

I firmed my grip on the hilt of the weapon.

No starlight glowed at the center of my blade, no magic remained inside me, that deep well of power drained dry, my legs trembling as I lifted my knife one final time.

When Corvus rose over me like an enormous black wave, the vision dissolved as he crashed down over me.

I came to kneeling in the center of the floor, head cradled in my hands, Raziel wrapped around me.

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