“Please just run!” I begged the woman. Karmuth would see her as a threat. “He’ll come for me. You shouldn’t be here when he does.”

Something in my voice must’ve gotten to her, as she stopped her attempts to free my hands from the long chain now lying around me. Her eyes darted to the wide-open door, the sounds of battle now so close I could hear it with my own ears.

“It’s too late to run, child,” she whispered but shuffled away from me, nonetheless. I saw her back hit the wall farthest from the door, but not far enough.

The room was not big. With the door wide open and light streaming in from the hallway, no corner would be dark enough to hide her. Her rapid breathing worked against her as much as the tight space.

I wasn’t feeling Karmuth any longer, but I heard him just fine as the thundering footsteps ran down the hallway and stopped right at the doorway.

I was already crying before I saw the leather boots step in, followed by the warriors with him. My blurry vision hazed even more with the tears blinding my sight. He was here, he’d come, and he’d bathed in the blood of every single fae he’d run into. He’d killed every one of them on his way to find me.

Eyes on me, he kneeled, brushing hair out of my face with a gesture so gentle it couldn’t possibly be the same man who’d just wreaked carnage on so many fae.

“Hey beautiful, I’m going to get you out of here,” he rasped, his voice not managing the gentleness his touch did.

Studying my restraints, he did not resume the violent pulling Elia had attempted. Instead he motioned Sinister closer, smoothed out the chain in several places, and had him chop through the metal as if it was firewood. It didn’t release my hands completely but removed the extra weight.

The sound had been loud enough to hide Elia’s muffled terror. I was the one who involuntarily gave away her location as my eyes sought her out while Karmuth wiped at the vomit on my shirt and looked over my flesh for any serious injuries.

He was too busy fussing over me that he didn’t catch the movement, but Regar did. He saw Elia at the same time her hands raised up in surrender.

Her yield was not accepted. Dread coiled within me.

“Kar, you might want to deal with this first.” Regar pointed his weapon at the fae in a lazy motion. Cornered, Elia had nowhere to run. It was too late to run, just as she’d said.

I fumbled to hold onto his hand, his shirt, the fabric of his pants— anything to keep him from doing what he was about to do, but he ripped free from my hold when he saw the Felrothian in my prison cell.

“Karmuth, nooo!” I cried, but that didn’t hold him back either. “Please, nooo!”

My vision was so clouded I didn’t see it happening, but I heard the thump of the body. I felt his boot slamming into her for a good measure after she’d dropped dead.

He didn’t know. He couldn’t have known. What had he done?

Convulsing with sobs, it took him several tries to get me off the ground and into his arms. I didn’t stop shaking, pressed up against his blood covered chest. Not able to control the floodgates, I hid my face in Karmuth’s shoulder and wrapped my arms around his neck.

A pure calm replaced his inner turmoil as he held me close, while my insides raged in a lightning storm. I saw the body over his shoulder as he carried me out of the room.

Blue eyes, blank and cold, stared back at me. Karmuth had killed his own mother.

Chapter 40

KARMUTH

GETTING BACK TO THE CAR WAS QUICKER. WE FOLLOWED THE TRAIL of blood strewn around the hallways and avoided all of the dead ends that left us wandering around the maze for longer than I’d felt comfortable with on our way to Isay.

I was glad she wasn’t looking at the damage we’d done; blood mixed with ashes and distorted bodies scattered around every corner. She didn’t have to see the massacre, did not need to know the monster residing within my soul.

We were not stopped as we left the building. The warriors were dead, and any fleeting life forces I picked up were escaping in another direction.

As much as I wished to chase them, Isay came first. We needed to get her back to Vindica. She needed to be examined, tended to, fed, cleaned properly and tucked into bed. Guards would be posted around her quarters twenty-four seven, all of them gone through a background check and a binding vow.

What happened today would never happen again.

We filed into the car in the same formation we’d left the club in. Hiko in the driver’s seat, Regar riding shotgun, Sinister pressed against the back door while I gripped Isay tighter to me as I slumped against the seat. She had not stopped weeping since I’d found her. I did not understand what hurt her, as all of her injuries were healing and the throb of each and every one of them pulsed in my body as I drew it to me.Her ankle was the worst of it; she wouldn’t be able to walk without a limp for several days.

No, her pain had to be internal. Nothing visible to the eye. When I searched for the source, she hid it from me.

While I needed to know she would be all right, I knew I couldn’t push her through our mate bond. She hadn’t asked for any of this, and our connection must’ve come as a shock to her as much as anything Lord Terwyl had done. She needed time to come to terms with it.

I would shoot myself in the foot snooping around her psyche without her consent. If she decided to break the bond… Well, I wouldn’t survive it.

It was rarely done on purpose, but I’d heard of an occasion. It was better to wait for Isay’s consent.

I pulled her shaking body tighter against me, fighting the instinct to puke at the stench stuck to her clothing. In the cramped space of the car, it was hard to avoid breathing it in.

Hiko opened the windows, and cool air whooshed through the car as we sped through the streets towards the portal. The breeze made Isay tremble more violently. Even with Sinister’s coat over her shoulders and wrapped in my arms, her shivers did not let up.

“Hey, Isay.” My throat was dry, and I had no clue as to what could make this any better. What could I say to stop her crying? “My beautiful, my love… we’ll be back home shortly.”

Her face rubbed against my shoulder as she nodded. Breath coming out in short and ragged puffs, she tried to control her sorrow.

The quiet whimpers still escaping through her clamped mouth broke my heart. It bled for her. I would kill the whole bloodline to wipe this weight off her, to see her smile again, to hear her laughter. I would kill every last Felrothian to make them pay for the torment in her eyes.

“I’m here, beautiful. I’ll be right here if you want me to. For you. I’ll be here for you.  Right here…” I murmured.

I didn’t know if she wanted me to be. I couldn’t say if my words comforted her, but I also couldn’t stop. I kept repeating the same thing like a broken record player.

She never said a thing back. The only response I got from her was her hand tightening around the collar of my shirt. What it meant exactly, I couldn’t tell. As long as she didn’t push away from me, I’d keep cradling her. It calmed my overwhelming anxiety to a steady thrum.

“We’ll be through the portal in a moment,” I told Isay so that she could prepare for the sensation of utter incapacity as we rode through.

It hit me with a wave of panic as everything froze when we breached the barrier. The cars on the highway behind us stopped moving, the air in my lungs got stuck, Isay’s breathing stilled. The Alfa Romeo rolled on while the world around us sat in slumber. Then we were through. Wind moved around the grassy wasteland outside our window. I could breathe again, and so could Isay.

She was quiet, her eyes red and puffy with the dried tear stains across her cheeks. I wasn’t sure if wiping at her face would be acceptable or a step too far. I kept my hands around her back.

“Almost home now,” I soothed.

With that admission, the manner of which we’d left tickled my awareness. The atmosphere in the car was tense as all of the warriors prepared for King Grath’s wrath.

The only one to receive a lesser punishment would be the prince. The rest of us? Likely dead after today’s insubordination. But Isay was safe, and I was able to hold her one last time before I died.

That would be enough.

It would have to be enough.

Feeling her heartbeat against my side, I knew it would never be enough. I needed to take care of her, protect her, and make love to her. I couldn’t die, couldn’t leave her alone.

“Hiko,” I croaked as we neared the northern gate. My heart thundered in my chest, and my next breath was shaky. “Do you think Grath will be merciful?”