Page 76 of Court of Wolves

Behind them, Vawn groaned—a sound of pain, not pleasure this time. That was the split-second warning Kheir and Ark were given before power detonated through the hall. Pressure drove into his shoulders, bowing his back, forcing his knees to buckle. A moan of deep, unbearable pain left his mouth even as he clamped his lips shut. His knees hit the carpeted floor before he even knew he was falling, the weight of a saint’s presence crushing all the air from his lungs until every bone in his bodyscreamed.

Who had found them? Enryr? Or the pale-complexioned bastard who had chuckled as they were tortured by pain in the saints' circle, who smiled as Maia was torn away from them, as Kheir screamed and Bryon roared and Azrail laid unconscious on the ground? And as that horrific collar was snapped around Jaromir’s throat. Ark had never stopped seeing it, that vile ring of metal. The memory of Jaromir stabbing the woman he loved most in all the kingdoms haunted him in his sleep.

“Justwhathave you done to my pretty pet?” a petulant female voice slid through the hallway, lifting hairs on the back of Ark’s neck. He almost wished it was the Provider striding towards them. Better that bastard than the absolute psychopath gliding over the carpet, not a single foot touching the fibres. The Eversky, saint of sky and storm. The monster who helped Ismene harm Maia, who didn’t just enjoy torturing others but thrived in it,delightedin it.

Ark gritted his teeth and pushed against the floor, but the anvil of the saint’s power hammering his body kept him down. Beside him, Kheir muffled a cry.

Help us,Ark cried, reaching for the drakes, for a miracle. He tried again to get off the floor and managed to rise an inch, but he couldfeelthe Eversky, her magic caressing his skin like an unwelcome hand.

Hold on, Lord Justice,the deep male voice replied.The threads are aligned, and the realm hangs in the balance. I’m coming. Hold on.

Ark curled his hands into fists, wishing the candlestick hadn’t been knocked from his grip when he fell, wishing he hadsomeweapon. His breath caught as Kheir crawled forward, his right hand stretched out, the tips wreathed in pure black flame. The fire of hatred.

If Kheir refused to be beaten, Ark would not lay here on the carpet like a weakling. He was a general in the Sapphire Knight’s rebel army. He was the mate of a princess stronger, braver, and more resilient than anyone he’d met before. He’d be damned if he let the Eversky keep him from Maia when it was the first time they’d got out of that room in weeks.

Blood trickled from his nose, itching and warm, but he shoved against the floor and got his knees under him.

“What’s this?” the Eversky laughed, a beautiful, tinkling sound that made Ark want to scream. “Parlour tricks?Impressive, Archer. With my power buried in the walls, dampening all magic except ours? Very impressive. However.” Ark searched for the candlestick, grasping it as she neared. “It’s not nearly enough to stand up tome.”

“Don’t!” a hoarse, choked voice burst out from behind them. The back of Ark’s neck tingled worse, knowing someone stood in his blind spot, but he recognised Vawn’s voice.

“Ah, you’re awake,” the saint said with a smile that made Ark’s blood turn to ice. He tried to get to his feet, but weakness and agony made him slump into the wall, panting through gritted teeth. Fuck, ithurt. To move, to think, to breathe. Her presence was like a cart running him over, then turning around to take another pass. His insides didn’t feel to fit right inside his skin.

Silence hung for a moment, and then Kheir screamed. Ark tore himself away from the cold wall, moving on instinct, surging to his feet with a growl louder and more forceful than he’d made in years. He grabbed the first thing to hand and threw it at the Eversky’s head, watching the solid leather spine of a book drive into the flawless dark skin of Karmen’s face. Her head whipped back at the impact, fury and outrage choking the air with her power, and Kheir screamed again.

He was writhing on the ground, attacked by an invisible force, his eyes bulging, veins pronounced in his neck as the saint tortured him.

“Stop,” Vawn rasped, stumbling down the hallway.

“Stay right there,” Karmen replied with a reptilian smile, “or I’ll visit all my vengeance on your mate instead of this worm who deserves it.” Vawn froze dead, stricken with panic. The saint’s attention fixed on Kheir, her eyes pinning him like a taxidermied butterfly in a glass cage. “What would you have done? With those sad little flames in your hand? Would you have tried to kill me?”

“Don’t touch him,” Ark growled when the Eversky slammed her high heel down on Kheir’s hand, grinding until the pain was too much for Kheir to keep his magic lit.“Get away from him!”

Ark launched his aching body at the saint, not stopping to question the wisdom of the attack. He had nothing in his hands, no weapon, no magic, but knowledge struck him like lightning—a weakness. He drove his fist sloppily at her solar plexus and the Eversky stumbled back. It took her a single second to recover, then her rage slammed into Ark, so powerful it was a physical blow. It drove him into the wall hard enough that his forehead hit stone and stars swirled in his vision.

“Ark,” Vawn rasped. “Shit. Keep fighting. You have to.”

“Aw,” Karmen laughed, “were you hoping the valiant guard would be your salvation? You’ve proven to be a very disappointing enforcer, Vawn.”

Vawn’s voice was thin, raspy. “If you kill him, you kill her, and if she dies, you lose all leverage over me. If I don’t die, too.”

“What makes you think, pretty pet,” Karmen asked with a little laugh, “I need you alive? You’ve been useful thus far, and a sheerdelightin the bedroom, but you’re expendable, darling. I have other enforcers.Betterenforcers. You couldn’t even get a scroll of paper from an oversized bird.” Her laugh this time was abrasive. Ark jumped, flinching into the wall when she flicked her fingers, but it was Vawn who screamed, dropping to the floor holding his head in his hands. Tears bled crimson from eyes screwed shut, similar trails leaving his ears.

“Stop,” Ark rasped, trying to get to him, or get to the fucking saint, to dosomething.He staggered away from the wall, lifting his hands through pure force of will, teeth gritted, nostrils flared on rapid, panting breaths. The pain wanted him to destroy him, wanted to send him to the floor where he could do nothing but lay there and wait to die but—

If you kill him, you kill her, and if she dies, you lose all leverage over me.

Ark shook his head, a sharp pained breath whistling through his nose. He needed to sort out those words, needed to make sense of them, because his intuition told him they were important. Essential.

“I don’t like pets who misbehave,” Karmen breathed, advancing, close enough that Ark’s skin burned and his soul shrank away. He couldn’t stand to be this close to her, couldn’t stand to think about what she’d said.

You’ve been useful thus far, and a sheerdelightin the bedroom.

Kheir and he had been vile to Vawn, when he’d been suffering likethat.Ark’s chest hurt fiercely, a strange and more natural pain to what the Eversky inflicted. It was then, as she came within three steps of Ark, that the knowledge struck him.

If you kill him, you kill her.

If she killed Ark, the mate bond would take Maia with him.

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