Page 46 of Ruthless Royals

I swelled with pride. Avyanna slid her stare to me, and I smirked. Her smile dropped and Erianna whistled out a breath behind us, Zach suppressing a laugh.

Erianna cleared her throat. “Olivia has enough people looking out for her, not that she needs it.” She winked and then Zach and Anna stepped to her side too.

Avyanna chewed on the inside of her lip, her eyes flashing. “So, it would seem. Well, I only meant to help, like I am now.”

Olivia exhaled slowly. “Azia trusts you, and I trust Azia. I hope he isn’t wrong. That would be bad, especially for you.”

I glimpsed the same look in Olivia’s eyes from when I’d found her at the beach last month, holding Hamza’s heart in her hands, covered in blood. The crazed in her gaze latched onto Avyanna, who nodded slowly.

“You can trust me,” she drawled, and I sensed the restraint as her jaw clenched. She was holding back how she really felt, but why?

I glared. “Let’s hope so.”

I knew she was supposedly doing us a favor by helping, but I didn’t trust her and if I could cut her loose before we got to the castle, then I would. Azia could get as mad as he wanted. I didn’t give a shit.

Avyanna was powerful. I could sense it from her touches, but Olivia was getting stronger each day. The more she used the spell book the old bookkeeper gave her, the better she’d gotten at performing spells. Her confidence was growing, and even though I was terrified for her, I had faith that she could handle herself.

Erianna shifted as the door opened, her racing heart pounding in my ears. I reached to grab her hand, but she flinched away.

Something was wrong.

I leaned into Erianna as Avyanna stepped to the side and Anna and Olivia started chatting. “What did you offer Salvor for him helping us?”

I knew their so-called love story, including things she kept from others. Because Salvor never simply let her go when she decided she no longer wanted to be with him. He was obsessed with things, reminding me a lot of Niall, and the things Erianna divulged after I’d met him for the first time made my skin crawl. The stalking and imprisonment, along with the torture he inflicted, broke her. When she didn’t think anyone was listening, I’d hear her cries as she wrestled with flashbacks in her room.

I hated us being even close to the man.

“He wants me,” she said, and a growl reverberated in my chest as I turned to face her fully as Salvor jumped to the top of my kill list next to Salenia.

Her glare told me not to do a thing. I looked into her penetrating stare, and Zach shook his head gently. I would never let Salvor take her. The second I had the opportunity, I’d kill him.

Salvor opened the door and stepped into the street. The sunlight highlighted his sharp features, taking shape as if he rarely saw the day. Smoke trailed after him as he adjusted his immaculate suit. He threw a glance over his shoulder at the group of men walking behind him. They all matched each other’s strides, their feet hitting the pavement simultaneously.

He approached Erianna, then took her hand, his victorious smile driving the instinct to rip his throat out. “He tilted his head, his gaze focused only on her. “Shall we?”

She did her best not to flinch under his touch, but I could see the fear etched into her forced smile. “Yes,” she said. “What way are we going?”

“There are too many guards at the Black Mountain Retreat. We’ll go via the Lake of Laveniuess.”

I tilted my head at him. “We agreed on a route already.”

He shrugged. “I decided differently.”

I laughed, then pointed at his men. “Just because you have these idiots following you around like puppies, doesn’t mean you’re in charge of us.”

“I would shut your mouth, now,” he snapped, and Erianna placed her hand on his shoulder, the gesture calming him.

Olivia’s gaze met mine, and the corners of her mouth twitched in a barely there smile before smoothing back into a solemn line. My heart swelled as the memories of that place flooded back.

I shifted my weight from foot to foot as I watched Erianna, bathed in the golden light of the rising sun—everyone else unaware of the magnitude of what she was about to do. Her offer to join Malum Dominor seemed minute, but no one else seemed to understand that she was losing so much more than any of us could ever imagine.

Then there was my beautiful wife, ready to sacrifice herself as if it was easy. Zach stepped to my side, sensing my tension, his hand on the hilt of his sword. We shouldn’t have brought Anna, but she insisted on coming and Zach was all about free will these days.

Olivia pressed into my chest, ready to take flight. Salvor’s wings spread wide, and to my horror, he pulled Erianna close to his body. With a mighty thrust of muscle and wind, his team kicked off from the ground and their wings caught in the air, debris swirling around us.

I kicked off from the ground quickly, following them. We soared upward, my arms around Olivia, with Zach next to us, Anna held tightly against him. Every nerve in my body was on alert as I looked at Salvor and Erianna. “Stay near him,” I commanded to Zach, before focusing and flying higher over the City of Nightmares.

Zach rolled his eyes. “Yes,your majesty,” he snarked.