Page 131 of A Throne of Blood & Vengeance

Rynn dropped her arms, grabbed my hand, and tugged me towards the stairs. “I have no idea, but if we don’t calm Cali down, she’s going to kill him, and then our best-laid plans are going to be absolutely fucked.”

“Who?” I ran a little faster to keep up with Rynn’s long stride. “Fuck, it’s Malachi, isn’t it?”

“Of course it is,” Rynn answered tightly. “We should have killed that fucker years ago. I told you he was nothing but trouble.”

“You said the same thing about Vail,” I pointed out.

“Yeah, and I stand by that,” she hissed over her shoulder.

“Exactly how long are you going to be mad at me for, Rynn?” Vail asked from where he kept pace behind us.

Rynn slammed to a halt, and I bounced off her, only to be caught by Vail, who steadied me on my feet. My friend turned to glare at Vail, who was only wearing a pair of pants that he hadn’t even bothered to button up all the way. “You knocked meout and stole the crown, which I had basically promised Samara I would keep safe.”

“Fair enough,” Vail replied evenly. “I regret my actions that day, and while Samara and I have already worked out our differences—” I snorted, and he corrected himself. “I am in the process of apologizing to the love of my life and will do so with many, many orgasms. But since I can’t offer that to you, I will offer you my sword. Whatever you need from me in the future, it’s yours. Want me to kill the Alpha Pack? I’ll figure it out. Want to wipe out the Pack that essentially sold you to them? Also done. Whatever you want, Rynn. I’ll make right by you.”

I bit my tongue, not wanting to get between my best friend and my mate—even if I was literally standing between them at the moment—but I did make sure the gratitude I was feeling made its way down the bond. Vail and I might have had our issues, but they were just that—ours. Rynn had trusted him, and he had betrayed that trust. I couldn’t fix that between them, but I loved him for recognizing he’d fucked up and attempting to fix it.

“Alright,” Rynn said slowly, her mismatched eyes staring at Vail. “I’ll hold you to that.”

He nodded deeply, but any further conversation was thwarted by angry shouting coming from somewhere above us. The three of us took off running again and quickly made it up the stairwell and through the temple until we were outside in the hot afternoon sun.

Roth, Alaric, Kieran, and Draven stood just in front of the temple columns, watching the two Furies face off. Alaric and Draven observed with tight expressions, whereas Roth and Kieran were looking at Cali in concern.

I didn’t blame them. Outside of us, if Cali had a weak spot, it was Malachi.

Rynn was right. We should have killed the prick and spared Cali a world of heartache. The only thing that had stoppedme from pursuing such a path was the fact that I very much suspected my wild and untamed best friend was in love with the bastard.

Even though that love might get her killed one day.

Cali had never admitted to such a thing, and I was pretty sure Rynn just thought of him as someone Cali had a passing fancy for, but I remembered what Cali had been like after Malachi had ended things. She’d been so . . . broken.

That kind of pain was only caused by love. I would know.

Rynn skidded to a stop ten feet from the temple, and Vail and I stopped with her. A short distance away, Cali squared off against a dark-gold-haired Furie, who was a few inches taller than Vail and just as bulky.

My mind had trouble accepting that someone as large as Malachi could move as nimbly as he did. But when Cali thrust her sword at his gut, he easily twisted around the blow, his dark, leathery wings tucked in tight against his back.

Cali matched his movements, her dark red hair lit up by the sun, making it flow around her like living flames. Her golden brown eyes came alive in the way they always did when she was fighting. If Cali was fire incarnate, Malachi was the darkness that wanted to swallow her whole.

“Is that all you got?” Cali sneered, backing up a step with her sword raised, blood dripping from it.

“Don’t make me hurt you, Rayne.” Malachi’s black eyes were bottomless pits as he stared at her, not even bothering to acknowledge the rest of us. My eyes were normally a deep purple and only turned black when my bloodlust rose, but Malachi’s eyes were always a solid black.

If Cali was the most powerful Furie, he was a close second. I’d always suspected that was at least part of the reason the Elders had forbidden them from being together. On their own,Cali and Malachi were terrifying. But together? They would be unstoppable.

And the Furie Elders didn’t like anything they couldn’t control.

“What do you want, Mal?” Cali’s sword might have been stained with the other Furie’s blood, but she’d taken plenty of hits too. Based on the careful way she was standing with more of her weight on her left foot, I suspected the prick had injured her right knee.

Cali had been attacked by wraiths years ago. She’d survived—obviously—but it’d been closer than any of us liked to think about. Her right leg in particular had been badly mangled, and no amount of healing had seemed to fix her knee. It was her weak spot in a fight.

That type of knowledge wasn’t something most knew. Malachi clearly did—and he’d used it against her.

Rage at his callousness had my nails shifting to claws. I wouldn’t fuck up our plan . . . I’d just make him hurt a little. My Fae magic stirred, and I tried to focus on the ground beneath the asshole’s feet.

A crack formed in the dry, compact dirt of the badlands. I pushed a little more?—

“No!” Cali snarled, but not at Malachi—at me.

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