Black Crown (Darkest Drae, #3)(100)

He stumbled to the ground and then straightened and shook his head. “I merely wanted to watch. Your lack of trust is disheartening. I had no choice but to incapacitate him to win, but that does not mean I want his death.”

I glared at Draedyn. “Liar.”

I waited for my Phaetyn blood to poison my father. Kamini was now unguarded, as was Dyter. Soon enough, Draedyn would succumb to my Phaetyn power while I stabilized Tyrrik. Soon.

Draedyn shook his head, still upright. “Stand up.”

I ignored him and sent another wave of power into Tyrrik, my chest swelling as he clung to life. Hang on, Tyrrik. Please don’t leave me here alone.

“Have it your way,” Draedyn said calmly. “I think we have everyone here.”

My flash of confidence waned. Why wasn’t Draedyn reacting to my blood? Maybe because of his age it would take longer to affect him, but I knew it was just a matter of time. Distraction . . . I could do that. I’d play along. “Everyone for what?”

“Everyone you care about, heir-daughter,” he said and then laughed, a cruel grating sound. “Did you think your blood would affect me? Why do you think I made you poison your aunt? I had to know my risk. Now, Queen Lahr, if you will . . .”

W-what? My mind reeled, and I struggled to process what that meant with the activity in front of me. Queen Lahr? The queen of Azule? There was no queen here . . . Someone moved, and I glanced at the Veraldian slave. Her makeup was smeared across her face, but her eyes gleamed. How had I ever thought she was a Veraldian slave? I blinked and remembered the woman standing next to Mily, just before Draedyn disemboweled the former queen. Queen Lahr yanked a blade from inside her tunic and stabbed Dyter.

My world stopped.





38





The only man I’d ever considered a father gasped. Dyter’s hands rose to rest on the blade protruding from his chest. As his knees buckled, my vision blurred.

“No,” I screamed, leaping at the Azule queen. I raked my talons not only across her body, but all the way through her. I blinked as her blood sprayed me and then spilled to the ground, mixing with Dyter’s, and her body dropped in large chunks to the dirt.

I fell to Dyter’s side, shrieking for help. “Kamini!”

The Phaetyn princess screamed as Dyter writhed on the ground. I reached for her as Draedyn sliced a short sword streaked with black Drae blood through Kamini’s leg. Blood gushed from the wound in her thigh, and she crawled toward me, her eyes wide with terror.

“Kamini, please, you have to help him,” I begged. “You have to heal him—”

Black lines webbed her face, and her movements slowed. “Ryn,” she whispered, her voice hoarse. “You need—”

I choked on my emotions as a fresh wave of agony tore through me. “No!”

I reeled to see my father, still alive, standing over my mate. The emperor held a long knife in his hand, dripping afresh with Kamini’s Phaetyn blood. He stood over Tyrrik and met my gaze.

Emerald surrounded me, and I screamed as I scrambled for my powers. It was happening too quick, all at once, everything in a mess. Draedyn’s power pinned me.

Ryn! Tyrrik shouted, his voice echoing from far away. Be ready!

I blinked through the crushing weight of my father’s power and watched as he drove the blade through Tyrrik’s abdomen.

“No!” I mouthed as Draedyn’s force flooded into me.

Onyx strands chased the emerald green down; Tyrrik’s strength coursed through my veins. Tyrrik pushed his energy into my body, bolstering me on his deathbed. Tyrrik’s power slowed to a trickle, and I gasped, unable to even clutch my chest as I felt our bond wither. Tyrrik’s onyx bands turned to threads then tendrils, fading into wisps. Tears spilled down my cheeks, and my heart gushed with agony as I watched the wisps turn to smoke. Then the smoke floated up into the sky to be lost among the dust and ash.

Tyrrik! I screamed, throwing up my defenses. Tyrrik!

No, there still had to be time. My soul, my very being couldn’t accept anything else.

I filled my mind with my moss-green power as Draedyn pummeled his emerald tendrils against my mind. And an epiphany blasted through me.

Draedyn shouldn’t have ever been able to get through my veil. He shouldn’t be standing before me now after I’d stabbed him. Drae repelled Phaetyn and vice versa, but he’d never had too much of a problem with me after my Drae transformation. I stared at my moss-green powers as though seeing them for the first time. I’d always seen my powers as different entities, my green Phaetyn power totally different than my lapis lazuli Drae. But Phaetyn powers were gold, not green. Whatever I possessed once, before my Drae transformation, had changed. I no longer had pure Phaetyn power. Blue and gold . . . made green. My Phaetyn power was a mixture, tainted by my Drae nature. That’s what he’d meant.

Just like I couldn’t kill Tyrrik with my blood because of our bond, my blood hadn’t killed my father. Draedyn was my kin, which meant we had a bond. Whoever I was bonded with had some immunity to my Phaetyn blood.

I needed . . .

I writhed with the force of Draedyn’s energy. He left the blade pinning my mate to the ground and walked to me.

“I knew your mother had lied, and when the Phaetyn queen died, I knew you would live. But I was content to bide my time. I’ve bided my time since the very beginning. Baeyn refused to see it, but Drae were never meant to serve. I was meant to rule. I was always meant to rule them all, Ryn. And you will help me.”