The Shadow Queen (Ravenspire, #1)(56)

She must have bespelled it. She studied the collar without touching it. Our trick failed, and instead of letting your blood oath kill you, she found a way to force you to do her will anyway.

He couldn’t find her name, but the image of a delicate beauty with terrifying power filled his head, and the girl stiffened.

Irina.

Irina. He tried the word and found that it fit. That it matched the empty space inside his chest and the pain that spilled out of the collar.

She punished you. There was pain in her voice. Sorrow. But there was also anger, sharp as a blade and twice as strong. She figured out that we tried to trick her, and she punished you by taking your human heart. My magic can feel the space where your heart used to be. We have to get it back, Kol. It’s the only way to heal you.

There was no healing for him. He was fire, blood, and death.

She shook her head. If that was true, I’d be dead. You’re at war with yourself. I can feel it.

Yes. He met her gaze and willed her to see that no matter what he did after she removed her hand, in this moment, he understood that she wasn’t prey. That she mattered for reasons far greater than a way to stop his inner torment.

We’ll start by getting that thing off you.

His dragon heartbeat kicked hard against his chest, but he nodded.

Please. He watched her bite her lip as she tugged at the collar with the hand sheathed in the undamaged glove. Please.

The collar remained stubbornly in place.

“Lorelai?” A man’s voice cut through the morning air, and her hand slipped from his chest as she turned to face the sound.

Pain was an inferno blazing through his body. Fury was the force that kept him alive. And the terrible stinging power from the collar flooded him, begging for the girl’s beating heart in his hand.

“What is that boy doing back here without his shirt on? And where are his friends?” the man asked.

Kol whipped his head toward the man and roared, his fingers digging into the ground as he crouched beside the girl.

The girl who must die. Who must give her heart to him.

The girl who hadn’t run, but had tried to reach him.

To save him.

“Get away from her!” The man ran toward him, his hand reaching for his sword.

“Wait!” The girl said as she stretched her hand toward Kol’s chest.

The dragon inside him snarled in vicious triumph as her outstretched arms left her heart exposed.

Kol turned and threw himself away from the girl. Away from the knife.

Away from the temptation to destroy the one ray of hope he’d found since the pain began.

“Halt!” the man yelled. The cold rasp of a sword leaving its sheath scraped the air.

“No, wait! He doesn’t want to hurt me.”

But he did. He wanted it more than he had words to describe.

Come back. I can help you. Her voice filled his head, all comfort and beckoning light.

If he returned to her side, he’d kill her, and the pain would stop. But in the warmth that lingered where her touch had been, some part of him knew that the cost he’d pay for ending his agony was more than he could bear.

Kol turned his back and ran.




TWENTY-TWO


LORELAI STARED AFTER Kol’s retreating back, her magic searing her palms, her breath coming in gasps, before leaping to her feet.

He’d run away from her, even though he desperately wanted to kill her. Even though the punishment for disobeying Irina was destroying him. Lorelai could feel his agony increase with every step he took. The part of him that had survived Irina’s brutality was fighting to overpower his dragon heart, and he was paying for it with every razor-tipped breath, every fire-laced thought that burned from his mind into Lorelai’s.

She’d underestimated his strength. She’d accused him of being without honor, when the truth was that he was trying desperately to save his kingdom at the expense of himself.

Trying desperately to save her—a girl who meant nothing to him—at the expense of himself.

Lorelai tore off her gloves and moved to follow Kol, although even in his human form, he was much faster than she’d ever be, but Gabril blocked her path, his sword still out.

“What is going on?” he demanded.

Lorelai met his eyes and her voice trembled as she said, “We failed to trick Irina. And instead of letting the blood oath kill him, Irina took Kol’s human heart and bespelled the collar around his neck to cause him incredible pain until he takes my heart back to her.”

A muscle in Gabril’s jaw clenched. “Without his human heart, he’s a predator through and through—one focused solely on you. I know this isn’t fair, I know the boy tried hard to act with honor, but we have to kill him. It’s an act of mercy for him, and it’s the only way to keep you safe.”

Lorelai lifted her chin. “No one else is going to die because of Irina. Including Kol.”

Die. Please. Kol’s thoughts burned against hers, though they felt distant, as if the bond they’d formed was tenuous, and the farther he ran, the harder it was to hear the words that slowly formed in the tormented chaos of his mind.

I’m not going to die. Lorelai snapped at him while she scanned the grove of hemlock trees that spread along the western edge of the Falkrains, searching for movement. For the broken king of Eldr who wanted so badly to kill her and yet was holding himself back.