Page 74 of Vow of the Undead
“What?”
“Silver!” I blinked, finally recognizing Kayn’s heavy voice. “I can help.”
I twisted my neck, if for nothing else than to angle my face away from the man I hated, to break our gaze before I screamed at him and descended into a pitiful, grief and rage-induced disaster. At the corner of my vision, I saw his dark frame in the doorway.
“Come,” I whispered with as much effort as I could give to my splitting voice. It didn’t help that aching exhaustion was tugging at my bones. I needed to listen to what my body was screaming at me, but another rush of tears blurred my eyes as I spoke the same word that was my mother’s last word.
How could he claim she wasn’t dead when I just witnessedhim drinking the life of another innocent person only two nights ago?
He’d done the same to her, sinking his spiked teeth into her neck until her blood coated his fangs.
Through the tears, I only made out vague shapes as King Drakkar’s grip on me went slack. My arm fell limp at my side and I stumbled back, no longer held in place by his grasp.
Kayn was upon him before I knew what had happened. His eyes shining a brighter gold than I’d ever seen on the king. He ripped King Drakkar away from my mother, away from me, and slammed him against the wall between the benches. Somehow, Kayn was stronger than the king, able to pin him to the solid stone.
King Drakkar seethed, his eyes golden again, though not as striking as Kayn’s eyes. “Think about this Exile. You cannot kill the king.”
“I have nothing to lose.”
“Don’t you? Opportunity is a great stake.” King Drakkar tilted his head, his mouth a wry smile even though Kayn still overpowered him and held him pinned like a criminal ready for the swing of an executioner’s blade.
“You will leave,” he said. “And I won’t rip your head from your shoulders.”
King Drakkar only laughed. “Try to kill me, Exile. You can’t. We’re perfectly matched in strength and speed, made by the same power. We’ll destroy each other.”
“Except I don’t care if I die.”
Another laugh slipped from the king. “Really? You’re not hoping for a soul first?”
Kayn grunted, holding his gaze on the king. After a moment of thick air and little breathing, Kayn finally wrenched his hand away from the king’s throat. His chest heaved with what I could only guess was a mixture of frustration and fight.
King Drakkar stared down at him for a moment beforeshoving past him. He marched toward me but I thrust out the pendant as a silent reminder to keep his distance from me. He didn’t bother to even glance at it, keeping his gaze on me. The iciness had softened. Was it that Kayn’s threat had stripped the king of his arrogance? No, the arrogance remained at the corner of his mouth where his lips lifted in a perpetual curl.
“When you see what I’ve done, come to me,” he said.
I recoiled. “Never.”
“I’ll either marry you or kill you, Silver, and I’d really hate to do the latter.”
“Leave!” Kayn shouted.
King Drakkar didn’t move, clearly unbothered by the vampire who could easily overpower him. He took no threats which only sent heat flaming up my chest and neck. Anger burning all the way to my tongue.
He’d threatened me, trapped me, used my past to claim me and now he’d done it again. I wanted Kayn’s threat to bring him to his knees—no,Iwanted to bring him to his knees.
What had made the trance successful? And how could I recreate it? If I could compel him to leave, he’d have no choice. Maybe I could even compel him to never return.
What had I done when I saw King Drakkar covered in blood? I’d nearly vomited.
But I didn’t. Instead, I’d tried to calm myself. I whispered the incantations to keep my heart from exploding.
My lips parted, the phrases my mother used to say coming to my mind. “I am in control of my own fate.” My mouth moved of its own accord as energy tingled through my veins. Freya’s words in The Thorns of Betrayal, my mother’s phrases, my incantations, memorized and repeated a hundred times to slow my pounding heart.
My pulse thumped twice and then paused, twice again then paused for too long as a pang struck across my chest and then the beating resumed slow, too slowly. “You’re a blightupon this realm…” my voice faltered as my head spun. Black spots dotted my vision and a heaviness tugged at my limbs and face. My mouth felt as if it was melting off my chin, sealing shut as it slid down, down.
I slumped, my body suddenly thick and falling like gathered snow tumbling down the mountain. King Drakkar darted forward and I opened my mouth to scream but it felt like it was lost on the floor beneath me. I fell into the crook of his arm, as vulnerable as my mother, when darkness overcame me.
I’d pushed myself too hard and without enough rest. Yet Freya wasn’t granting me a vision now. I was on my own, succumbing to the darkness that my foolish, relentless determination had driven me to.
