Page 33 of Vicious Is My Throne

“He’s destroying that too.”

“Strategic move. Corvus is threatened, so he’s cutting off your power.” Zorander wrapped an arm around me and pulled me closer. “We have to cut off his. We weaken him, find his vulnerability, and exploit that.”

“How do we even do that?”

Zor looked around us. “He can’t touch this place. Why?” His eyes narrowed as a speck materialized out of the clouds above us. “This is where we start. There are a handful of spots left untouched by the blight. We figure out why, then we see where that leads us.”

Tristan returned with the terrified mule clutched in his talons, the poor thing too scared to make a sound, thank the gods. He set the beast down gently, then was off again, spiraling up through the thickening clouds.

“Storm is coming,” Zor observed as I let the mule bury his face into my chest, his fuzzy body trembling. “As soon as Tristan’s back, we’ll go in and get some fires started. Get you warmed up.”

I shivered and studied the darkening sky.

“Do you think Corvus knows we’re here?”

Zor closed his eyes and took a deep breath, his face changing by the second like he could taste answers on the cold snow-flecked wind.

And why not?

Somehow—I didn’t understand how—I’d known the palace would be safe.

Somehow, I’d known we would find answers in those tunnels. We’d have discovered more if we hadn’t been attacked, and I wasn’t naive enough to think that timing had been an accident.

Corvus didn’t want us seeing our past.

Didn’t want us to know the secrets hidden in those bones, but we’d never touch those skulls again. We’d have to find another way to figure out his weakness.

The keystones were an interesting angle, but so was this pristine border of untouched rock and forest around the palace.

“He knows.” Zor opened his eyes, and for a second, the briefest flash, stars burst in his eyes like galaxies exploding in the night sky. “But there is something here he can’t touch.”

“The Oracle’s magic?”

“Could be. Or the Wynters’. There is witch magic here, layered in the stones, into the bedrock beneath this place. My guess is, your ancestors spent as much time protecting the mountain as they did constructing the castle itself.”

Tristan dropped beneath the clouds, Raz and Tavion clinging to his back as he descended at an impossible speed. On purpose, I realized from the terrified expression on Raz’s face, the muffled curses coming out of Tavion’s mouth when the wyvern skidded across the stone, his talons raking grooves into the rock.

Raziel spilled off one side, Tavion the other, before they both doubled over and vomited.

I swore the wyvern was smiling when he stomped up to me.

“You were very, very bad, weren’t you?” I pressed a kiss to the top of his head, and he chuffed happily. “Thank you for getting us all here safely. Now as punishment for being an arsehole, you get to bed down the mule and make sure he’s happy for the night.”

Those eyes glowed and I gripped his face tighter. “Do not even think about eating him, Tristan. I mean it.”

11

RAZIEL

“You’d better sleep with one eye open tonight, arsehole,” I muttered, stalking past Tristan on my way into the palace, feeling like my legs could give out at any minute.

The cocky bastard just grinned, tossing his cloak over his naked arse before loosening the mule’s pack and dumping everything onto the front steps. “Only having a bit of fun is all. You need to toughen up, Raz. That landing was nothing.”

That landing nearly made me shite my pants.

My stomach was heaving, but I managed an evil smile, one that I sincerely hoped made this bastard think twice about trying anything like that again. I stuck my finger in his face.

“One eye open, DeVayne, one eye open.”

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