Page 1 of Oath-Maker

CHAPTER1

My throat constricted around too many words. Things I wanted to say. Things Ineededto say. Everything in between. Instead, only a dry squeak came out as I locked stunned gazes with Lucius before looking back to the Guardian.

No—to Merek.

My Merek.

My thoughts raced faster than I could process. I hadn’t been there when he had died, and no one had been able to bring his body home. All of the paladins who had gone with Merek to Alastia’s border that fateful day had said they’d seen Merek fall to shadows and demons.

But here Merek was, standing before me, outfitted with opulent armor and a new title. And a new allegiance. But the same tall, football player build, all broad shoulders and fair skin. Green slate eyes that felt like home beneath his blond hair.

Too much like home.

“I have to admit,” Merek said in a much calmer tone than he had any right to be using. It didn’t fit him. Neither did the striking armor or the arrogance with which he was carrying himself. This man—the Guardian—looked and sounded like my Merek, but he was a total stranger in the same breath. “I had expected more enthusiasm from you than this.”

I pulled the sheets tighter around Lucius’s and my naked bodies. Lucius and I hadn’t even gotten out of bed for the day when Merek had appeared on the balcony. How had he even gotten this far into Alastia and into the palace?

Emotion welled in my throat. Tears pricked at my eyes. I squeezed them shut and shook my head. Merek’s voice was more a balm to my heart than it should have been after so many months—after falling in love with Lucius, my fated mate. But his familiar voice, his bright green eyes—hell, even the way he carried himself—it was all so familiar and all-consuming that I was frozen, no words coming to my lips. Because once upon a time, I’d confused what might’ve been just a deep connection for a mate bond with Merek. Now that I had Lucius, I knew that feeling had been wrong. But we’d been young and stupid, Merek and I.

Maybe we were still fools.

Merek stepped toward me, a hand outstretched. Before I could react, Lucius lunged forward, placing himself between Merek and me, with a thin shield of his magic around us. Lucius staggered as he stood, his body shaking. He’d used his magic to give himself pants, but the combination of magic uses had left him clearly exhausted.

Surprise flashed across Merek’s eyes, followed by hurt. “I wouldn’t hurt her, demon lord.”

“Get out of my city.” Lucius growled. His arm shook.

Merek raised a hand full of red-tinted radiant magic. Fallen celestial magic, so tainted from the power he’d wielded as a paladin. “It won’t be yours for much longer. The Light has come to reclaim it.”

That broke me out of my stupor. “The Light? What are you talking about?”

“Go,” Lucius warned me. “Get out of here.”

I shook my head and touched a hand to his shoulder. His muscles tightened there, but his body still trembled. Lucius was weak—too weak to be confronting Merek like this. Not with what Merek had become and the power he now wielded.

“No,” I said quietly in his ear. “This is my city too, remember? I’m not leaving.”

The glowing orb of red-tinted radiant magic grew larger. Tendrils of magic floated from it, expanding like an infection around Merek. “Come with me, Ayla. You no longer have to submit to this demon.”

“I’d never submit toanyone,” I spat. “You should know that.”

“Go,” Lucius snapped again. He threw his hands forward and the thin magic shield with it. Lucius’s magic soared toward Merek, but Merek split it with a torrent of his own power. Radiant and dark shadow sparks danced and fizzled where the magic met—at least until Lucius’s gave out.

“Stop!” I shouted as I jumped between them, still clutching the sheets to my fair-skinned body. A lock of my brown hair flew into my vision.

Merek put out his magic. He was unwilling to hurt me—that was good information to keep tucked away. Maybe he thought there was still a chance for us. He’d implied as much with his earlier words.

No matter how much my heart had leapt at seeing Merek’s face again, there was nothing—nothing—that’d bring me back into his arms now knowing what the Fallen had done. What they were. How they’d manipulated all of us, even the good celestials and celestial-kin. The good paladins who fought for what we’d sworn an oath toward.

Except… now Merek was saying the Light was behind this. I didn’t know what to think anymore, aside from I wanted to protect Lucius from him. All other investigations could wait.

“Leave,” I commanded Merek. “This is not your city. The Light has not claimed anything, and I am not yours. Not anymore.”

Merek lifted his chin, a wild look on his face. But he swallowed thickly and it was gone, replaced by an entirely neutral expression that sent cool shivers through me. A deadly sort of neutral that might have frozen another, more easily scared woman. “We will see. The day is young. Choose soon, my love. I do not wish to burn you, too.”

And gods, I didn’t want to kill him, either. Right? I mean, this was Merek. But my feelings for him—the love, the years of our relationship—it all crashed into the present. Our current loyalties. My love for Lucius. Our purpose, our combined power of potentiality to keep the people Merek was fighting for out of this world. Only a magic based on potential could possibly keep the Fallen, evil celestials, at bay. Nothing else would be strong enough to hold the Veil between our world and theirs together.

I did not want to kill someone I’d spent so long loving. But I would not stand by while he and his evil destroyed this city. Its people. The rest of the world.

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