Page 76 of Renegade Queen

“Arik,” I said calmly, turning to look at the man now standing in the doorway. “If you were so desperate to see me, you really should have sent an invite.”

“Didn’t you get it?” he purred. “I wrote it in your father’s blood on your bedroom wall. I guess you haven’t returned to the Spring Palace since you ran like a coward.”

I didn’t have a response to that. I wanted to make light of his words with some kind of witty comeback, but how was I supposed to do that when it was my family he was talking about?

“What? Nothing to say?” he mocked. “Such a disappointment. What was it that you said? You were coming for me? And now that you’re here, you’re not even going to put up a fight?”

“Oh, I wouldn’t say that,” I seethed.

This man had taken everything from me, and now, when I finally had a chance to build something new, he was back to take even more.

Well, I wasn’t going to let him.

They were mine. And I wasn’t letting them go.

Darting forward, I unleashed my magic as a flood into the room. Punching out with all the force I could manage, I didn’t aim for Arik. Because I had a feeling there was a reason why he’d tried to block Nymeria from this place. And if he was trying to keep away the one thing that made everyone else feel stronger, then we needed to find a way to let it inside.

The wall to the cell exploded outward, revealing the corridor and the guards beyond. The stones in the ceiling above us creaked at the strain of losing their support, but I wasn’t done yet. It wasn’t enough.

Reaching out with everything I had, I forced a torrent of magic free of my body. All of the different strains wrapped around each other and created one reinforced stream as it reached out for Nymeria. It pulled at something deep inside of me. At a limit I never knew I had.

And just when I thought I had nothing left, I felt the connection. A smile pulled at my lips as Nymeria reached back for me.

But life had never been this easy, and of course, it wouldn’t end this way.

Chapter 32

Dean

Whatever Alyssa was doing had the guards outside frozen in fear. Or maybe that was hope, I could see in their gaze. Whatever it was, they didn’t make a move as they watched what was happening with wide eyes.

We needed a way out.

And as I looked around, searching for one, I saw a glint of steel that I couldn’t comprehend. Not when it was in Damon’s hand. Not as he dived toward the woman I loved with hate in his eyes.

It didn’t make sense. He’d been chained here. He was… he was their prisoner.

Wasn’t he?

I was moving before I had a chance to form the thoughts of denial in my mind. Because at the end of the day, the why didn’t matter.

All that mattered was her.

As I wrapped her in my arms, I felt the agony of the blade slam into my chest, the blade glancing off my ribs as it slashed through my flesh.

It was nothing compared to the pain I would have felt if it was her bleeding in my arms.

“Damon,” Maddox roared, colliding with his brother and sending him staggering away.

He kept his balance, dancing back toward the man Alyssa hated so much. He moved with a grace a man kept in this place shouldn’t possess, and it was then that I saw the betrayal. The pain of it, more than any injury could ever inflict.

Arik laughed. His joy at seeing the pain he was inflicting brought madness to his eyes. And it was one he revelled in.

“Tell me this is some kind of mistake, Damon!” Maddox shouted. “Tell me you’re not with this syphilis-infected cock.”

An impossible laugh burst out of me as Arik reared back at the name. It was blunt and to the point and definitely fitted the man in front of us.

A grey tint to his skin made him look like he was fighting illness. He was nothing like the man I’d envisioned in my mind. He didn’t look like he could take a punch, let alone take out an entire Court. His weak frame could have been knocked down with a stiff wind.