Page 103 of Curse of Darkness
Not safe. Not yet. But hidden for the moment.
“Fuck you,” I spit in Malakhai’s face.
Hard fingers lock around my throat. “Oh, I’d love to take my time and play with you, little queen… but I’ve got a granddaughter to kill and her soul to reap.”
No!I scratch and claw at his arms, but ice steals out from his fingers as he lifts me out over the castle walls.
And then there’s nothing underneath me.
Nothing but a glimpse of the city, far below.
No!I grab at his hand, trying to reach for my magic, but there’s nothing there. Only that glacial chill stealing through my skin and crystallizing in my throat.
I can’t breathe.
Wherever that ice touches, the heat and warmth of my magic dies down, like a fire being tamped.
Shadows swarm at the edge of my vision as if he’s stealing even that from me.
“Send my regards to Kato,” Malakhai whispers, the faintest hint of a smile touching that cruel mouth.
“Vi!” someone yells, the sound cutting through the dull ringing in my ears.
And then Malakhai lets me go.
* * *
The wind grabsat me as I plummet past the castle walls.
A scream tears its way from my throat, right through that ice.
“Vi!”
I swear I’m dreaming it.
“Vi!”
And then a shadow plunges toward me from the right.
Thiago.
The impact of his body drives the breath from my lungs. Hard arms lock around me, those familiar black eyes meeting mine. Wings block the sky, and suddenly I’m no longer falling. I grab him desperately, fingers tangling in his coat. He sweeps me up in his arms, and with a powerful thrust of his wings, we swoop along the ground—barely three feet below us.
My breath catches in my chest as I realize how close I came to being smeared all across those cobblestones.
But I don’t have time to worry about myself.
“Amaya!” I tug at his sleeve. “He’s up there with her. Malakhai’s on the top of the castle walls. He’s going to kill her! Take me up there!”
Thiago’s gaze cuts sharply to my face, and then he banks hard, right above the rooftop of a house built into the base of the walls. “Stay here,” he says, dropping me lightly on the roof. And then he mashes a desperate kiss against my lips. “I love you.”
“Thiago!” I scream as he launches himself into the air.
But he’s nothing more than a black blur as he spears into the sky.
Right into Malakhai’s trap.
Because it has to be a trap.
