Page 67 of The Unseelie Wish

All she had to do was stop the song.

And it would all be over.

It was right there. Beneath her grasp.

All it would take would be?—

A slow clap broke her concentration.

Whirling, her heart crashed through the floor.

“I have to say, I am impressed.”

Valroy.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

The panic that welled in Alex made it seem as though her heart had stopped cold in her chest. For a moment, she wondered if it had, but she was still alive. At least for now. That was about to swiftly change.

Valroy was standing atop one of the ruined stone walls. Unfurling his wings, he spread them out behind him like a dragon. The thin membrane of skin connecting the bones was translucent enough to see the moon behind him.

And in his hand was a sword that looked like it was two thousand years old in design—some enormous, ancient, two-handed blade he held with one as though it weighed nothing.

“A clever plan. And nearly successful.” Valroy stepped from the wall and landed in the bloody muck with his bare feet. If it bothered him, it didn’t show. It also seemed he was in no rush to kill them. Which was both good and bad.

Izael was now in his true form and standing in front of her. He hissed at the King. “You will not harm her.”

“No. I shan’t. Not until she has served her purpose.” Valroy chuckled darkly. “If she is powerful enough to perhaps defeat even I—just imagine the ruin she will bring. What a wonderful toy you have made, Duke of Bones. I commend you, though it is a shame you will not be around to see our triumph.”

Alex ran her hand over the ring on her finger, reassuring herself that she still had a way out. That she still had a chance to avoid being the weapon of the power mad Unseelie King. Maybe there was another way—maybe—her thoughts reeled and scrambled to go through all the possible ways forward for the few seconds she had left to act.

Izael was uncharacteristically quiet, every muscle in his body tense as he stared down Valroy, tracking every movement of his foe.

“I do wonder, however, what changed your mind. Why betray me? You, of all of us, yearn to return to Earth.” Valroy tilted his head, pondering the Duke. It was clear he found them perfectly harmless.

“I yearn to return to Earth as it is now. As the humans would have it—not as what you would make of it.” Izael clenched his fists.

“Hm.” Valroy looked up at the tree behind them. “How gloriously short-sighted. Would you rather not own them all? You could rule a continent of them—raise them and breed them as you would see fit.”

“We aren’t cattle,” Alex interjected.

“I beg to differ,” Valroy replied with a laugh. “That is precisely what you are. Cattle, let loose to ruin the field. Unchecked in your numbers, unrelenting in your mindless destruction. Humans will destroy all of Earth’s bounty before your ruthless need to consume sends you to the stars to repeat your sins.”

“I—okay, fine—” she sputtered, hating that she couldn’t argue with him on that point. “But what you’re suggesting?—”

“Don’t bother, songbird,” Izael cut in. “You have a better chance of arguing with the moon and convincing it that it is the wrong color. And as for the humans? Respectfully, my King, I have decided I only need the one human.”

“And here you stand, ready to die for her—ready to die because she has decreed it?” Valroy huffed and began to step slowly toward them. Methodically. “I never knew how weak you were. A shame. I will be glad to root out such rot from my court.”

“I stand ready to protect the woman I love from suffering a fate she deems worse than death.” Izael held his ground, though he obviously knew it was suicide. “That is the sacrifice I am willing to make for love.”

“You insinuate that I do not know what it is to make such a sacrifice.” Valroy’s expression tipped toward anger for the first time since he showed up. “You know nothing of what I have surrendered in the name of love.”

“Alex,” Izael turned his head to address her but didn’t take his eyes off Valroy. “Run. You may buy yourself some time.”

Valroy laughed at that, clearly not agreeing with Izael’s sentiment. “And where would she go? She has no friends who would help her now—no saviors to take her away from here. You would have her captured twenty paces yonder.”

“Go, Alex,” Izael insisted. “Remember all that I have given you.”