Page 96 of A Throne of Blood & Vengeance

It screamed and reared back, creating a clear path for me. I raced forward but halted when Vail held up a hand.

“I’m sorry, Sam.” There was a note of finality to Vail’s tone that sent a chill down my spine. Shimmering eyes of silver bored into my soul. “I’ve always loved you. Even when I hated you.” He laughed darkly. “There is no force in this world that could have ever stopped me from loving you. I’m so sorry I fucked it all up.”

“Don’t,” I growled and took a step towards him only for him to move back. “Whatever it is you’re thinking of doing, don’t you fucking dare.”

He smiled at me, and in that moment, I didn’t think there was anything I hated more. “I was wrong about the prince too. I’m happy you have him and the others. They’ll keep you safe. Nowrun.”

“Vail!” I shot forward, then jerked myself back as the kùsu-shaped wraith recovered and dove at Vail. Just as the wraith solidified and snapped its pinchers, Vail dove underneath it and shoved his sword through the beast’s skull.

For a second, I felt relief at knowing Vail had survived his stupid fucking attack—but then the second wraith pounced. The shadow form of the feline wraith lunged towards Vail with his taloned paws extended. It felt like time froze as the outstretched claws swept towards Vail and turned solid for an instant. That was all it took for blood to spray as three jagged wounds opened across Vail’s stomach.

“No!” I screamed.

Vail clamped one hand over his abdomen but stayed on his feet. The two wraiths momentarily forgot about me as they found something to vent their rage on.

Just as I was about to dash after Vail—because there was no way I was obeying his order to run and leave him to die—Draven grabbed me and hauled me back.

“Let me go!” I struggled to break out of his iron grip.

“Close your eyes!” Draven ordered.

“Wha—”

Before I could get the word out, a flash of white bounded past us. Rynn. She had a glowing orb in her mouth as she sprinted towards Vail and the wraiths. She tossed her head back, and the orb flew, arcing upward, impossibly bright. The last thing I saw before one of Draven’s hands left my waist to cover my eyes was Rynn shifting to her human form, grabbing the orb out of the air, and throwing it down—directly beneath the wraiths.

Through the cracks of Draven’s fingers, I caught the blinding light. If I thought the wraiths had screamed before, it had been nothing compared to now. They were still shrieking when Draven’s hand fell from my face, grabbed my hand, and yanked me forward.

“Wait!” I tried to pull free. “Vail?—”

“I got him!” Rynn yelled as she half dragged Vail. He was conscious but barely, based on the way he struggled to put one foot in front of the other, a trail of blood leaking behind him.

“We’ll fix him inside!” Draven scooped me up in his arms. “We’re out of both luck and time!”

The four of us raced towards the temple as the last of the light from the orb faded. Cali and Kieran darted out, helping Rynn carry the now-unconscious Vail the rest of the way. Dark shapes rippled across the ground and walls as the wraiths gave chase through the temple, only to slam into an invisible wall as we darted down the secret stairs and across the ward.

We’d survived.

I sucked in a shaky breath as Draven carefully set me onto my feet.

Rynn glanced at me. “Did that wraith turn into a fucking dragon?”

“What’s a dragon?” Cali perked up. “And can I kill it?”

I sighed.

An hour later,Vail limped into the room we’d all set up in after leaving him passed out but mostly healed on a bed. This space under the temple was massive. It was far larger than the secret room I’d discovered near House Harker or the one under Lake Malov. It reminded me a little of the tunnel system the Devereux clan had found. There were multiple levels beneath this one with living quarters, and beneath that was another level that had some rooms for storage and—much to Kieran’s delight—a cavern full of hot springs.

We’d only explored enough to get our bearings and make sure everything was secure. The wraiths were still prowling the temple above us, but Rynn had been right—they couldn’t get in here, which was something they were extremely enraged about, based on the way they had screamed and trashed some of the marble structures. I was a little worried they were going to bring the whole temple down in their temper tantrum, but it was still standing for now.

I’d gone back to the entrance a couple of times, but there was no sign of Serril yet. He’d get here eventually, I had no doubt.

Alaric, Roth, and Rynn were pouring through some texts that had been locked away in a chest. Rynn had also been right about me being able to unlock the more secured items. It was a simple locking glyph, but it’d been keyed to my blood. I’d opened everything I could find, and we were sorting through the items now. Most of them were books and scrolls, but there were also some weapons and other artifacts.

Normally, I would have been positively giddy about finding lost Fae treasures and my nose would have been in those books immediately, but I was too fucking pissed to concentrate.

The source of my ire was currently slumped in a chair at one of the tables where we’d piled up the weapons and artifacts, which Draven and Kieran were going through. Cali was passed out and snoring in one of the rooms downstairs. We were under orders to wake her up when “it was time to kill something.”

“Find anything good?” Vail asked in a gravelly tone as he idly scanned the weapons laid out before him. He still looked like shit. His normally tan skin was pale, and he’d had none of his lethal grace when he’d walked across the room.

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