Queen of Blood and Vengeance (Secrets of the Faerie Crown #4)

70. Arran

70

ARRAN

It was her . Her eyes were black instead of blue. She bled black bile. But I could feel her, right there—in my hands and in my mind. I could feel the mating bond between us. That thread of connection was still intact, was still gold. But it was weaker.

Where once it had been hundreds of fibers all wrapped together in a strong, unbreakable thread, now it was… less. It felt as if the majority had been stripped away, leaving only a few strings twisted and braided together to hold the connection between us. It felt wrong.

“She cannot be a succubus,” Cyara protested, walking up to Veyka as if nothing had changed. Ancestors be thanked for her elemental upbringing; she did not flinch an inch. “She’s not trying to rip us to shreds. She is talking. She is reasoning .”

“But I wanted to,” Veyka said, her voice trembling.

She was afraid.

Of course she was fucking afraid.

“I wanted to feed on the magic of this place.” She looked around at the rest of the group. “On all of you.”

Evander stepped in front of Mya. Percival mirrored the motion with his sister.

Lyrena did not retreat, though she kept one hand on the pommel of her sword. Morgyn actually stepped forward, as composed as ever.

Veyka looked over my shoulder at her sister, but did not make any attempt to remove herself from my hold.

“This bile… it is my soul,” she said.

Morgyn nodded in confirmation.

We’d figured that out months ago, in Castle Chariot with Palomides.

“The succubus cannot physically travel from their realm. They come to the most vulnerable minds, the males, when they are at their weakest, while sleeping,” Morgyn intoned.

Again, all information we already knew. And not an answer for how my mate could stand before me, when seconds before she’d been wreathed in shadow and hungry for my fucking blood. And not in an erotic way, for once.

“They take over their bodies and expel the soul until all that remains is a physical husk, with the female succubus inside,” Cyara finished, her impatience showing as the tips of her wings clicked together.

“So it is only a matter of time until I expel my soul completely and then I’m fully a succubus?” Veyka’s voice rose as she spoke. Her eyes might have been black, but her emotions flashed in them just as they always had.

“You are not male,” Cyara said, braving another step. She put herself between Morgyn and Veyka. It did not take Cyara’s wit to figure out who the knight blamed for the current state of Veyka’s soul.

Morgyn did not advance another step, respecting the boundary that Cyara had silently drawn. But she did nod. “A wakeful female mind is infinitely stronger than a sleeping male one.”

“Great. So I’m only a danger while I’m asleep,” Veyka seethed. But as she did, something in her shifted. Her stance tightened, her hands going slack in my grip where before they’d been clenched into fists. She tilted her head to the side, as if seeing me anew.

“Fight it, Veyka,” Mya said.

I had not even noted her approach, much too focused on my mate. Evander was there too, trying to pull his wife away. But she shook him off by sending a splash of water into his face.

Mya laid a hand across Veyka’s arm, ignoring the snarl that ripped from Veyka’s bared teeth. “There is darkness within you. But you can control it. You have always controlled it.”

Veyka’s hands flexed into action, she tried to twist out of my grip. But Mya’s hand did not move, her voice dropping to a murmur. “Reach for the light, Veyka. Reach for Arran.”

I watched in horror and then amazement as the darkness faded from her. Shadows that I hadn’t even marked fell away from Veyka’s shoulders, and her posture changed, a heavy exhale that seemed to steal all of the strength from her body. Suddenly, I was the only thing holding her up.

She stared up into my eyes. “Kill me now.”

“No,” Evander cut in. “You did this to have the power to banish the succubus—to become the supposed master of death . If we kill her now, it will all be for nothing.”

“She is not a tool for you use,” my beast snarled at him through my mouth. “She is my mate.”

“Being your mate is why she is still here,” Morgyn said. “Part of her soul resides within you. That part is safe. That is the part that allows her to exercise some control over her mind, to keep the monster inside of her at bay.”

Veyka ignored Evander, her eyes fixated on me in what could only be described as a plea. “Please.”

Even I could not say what she asked for—the reprieve of death, or help staying in control long enough to banish the succubus. Because as I looked into my mate’s eyes, changed but still her, we both understood. Defeating the succubus horde on the battlefield was one war. But it was the one that raged inside of her that was most dangerous.