Cloves and tobacco.
Terror slid through my veins as I gazed up at my village’s archon. Vorl smirked, his dark expression highlighted by another burst of fireworks.
I tried to pull back, tried to make sense of how he could be here and now. This couldn’t be happening. I must be dreaming.
“Let me go!” I proclaimed, as memories of the seasons of abuse that I’d suffered under this male’s hands reared within me.
“I think not.” His hand shot up, gripping me by the throat before he pinned me to the maze’s wall.
I clawed at him, trying to free myself as that throbbing sensation grew and grew inside me until it felt as though something were about to be born, unleashed, or awoken, but I couldn’t breathe. I had no air.
No air.
Vorl winced when my nails raked down his skin, but I didn’t cut him deep enough for him to let me go.
“I wondered what he did with you,” Vorl hissed as his mouth met my ear. He pushed his large body against mine as his wings extended, blocking his activities from anyone who might happen to walk by. His erection speared my abdomen, his excitement at what he was doing evident.
“Wa . . . why . . . here?” I choked out. Thrashing, I clawed at him more as he lifted me, dangling me above the ground.
“Why am I in the capital, or why am I here pursuing you?” With his free hand, he scratched his chin, his cruel mask telling me he was relishing his show of power. “I’m in the capital because a courier arrived in our village earlier this week, stating that the crown prince requested Cailis’s presence at the Court of Winter. Naturally, as our village’s archon, I felt it was my duty to accompany her to ensure she had safe passage. And what can I say. I’ve missed you, sweet Ilara. I wanted to see you for myself.”
He pushed into me again, and his tongue shot out, tasting my skin.
I wanted to gag in disgust, but I couldn’t breathe, and my thoughts turned with rapid fire to my sister. I hadn’t seen her.
“Where . . . Cailis?” That burning sensation grew even more in me until it felt as though a volcano was about to erupt from my core, but it was just on the precipice. There, but not within reach.
“She’s probably in her chambers, waiting until the morning to seek you out as she was directed by the castle staff when we arrived. They said you were busy this evening but would be free in the morn.” His eyes narrowed, taking on a predatory gleam. “Imagine my surprise when I saw you tonight, parading alongside the crown prince as though you’re something special. And I see that you commissioned a fairy who actually has strong enough magic to glamour your hair.”
He leaned in closer until his hot breath wafted over my skin. “Do you really think that will hide that you’re defective? Doesn’t your wingless back already say that? Or is that how you won him? Have you whored yourself to him as you pretended to be something you’re not? Is that why he’s so enraptured with you?” Vorl’s hand tightened more around my throat. “And to think you never gave me that sweet cunt between your legs. But did you give it to him?”
His hand locked down harder. So incredibly painfully, much tighter than he ever had before.
A gurgling sensation came from my throat, and then nothing at all. My windpipe was crushing. Closing completely. I was going to die. I knew it. I couldn’t fight him. I never had been able to.
Stars danced on the edge of my vision as I pictured Cailis waiting somewhere within the castle, then I pictured my parents and brother.
This was how my end was to be. Hidden by a maze at the Court of Winter, while everyone else celebrated the next era of succession.
“Answer me!” Vorl slammed my head against the ice wall, and I blacked out for the briefest moment, but then his grip loosened just enough for me to suck in a whisper of air.
“Let. Go!” I choked on the words and clawed relentlessly at his hands, but his face darkened with rage, and his grip remained.
“I think not.” He wrapped his other hand around my throat, and in that moment, I knew his intention.
He was going to kill me.
He was going to murder me.
I would never see Cailis again.
The sheer terror that evoked brought a new round of panic into me. I clawed frantically. Hit. Kicked. Thrashed. I took every ounce of fight left in me as I tried to tear from his limbs and break free.
And just when my vision threatened to swim black again, a crack opened within me. A giant fissure. It pried my chest in two as a barrel of power shot out of me.
Vorl roared in pain just as footsteps came running from around the maze’s corner.
“Ilara!” Nuwin called.
I fell to the ground as Vorl flew off me. Erupting magic poured from me as fire and wind flew in a tornadoing spiral around my frame, and then I was stumbling to a stand as the prince’s illusion magic cracked all around me.
A cataclysmic explosion of power engulfed my body. And then the prince was there. The king. The court. They were all watching as my village’s archon staggered to his feet.
Vorl pointed at me accusingly, his face twisted in pain. “She tried to kill me! She’s a murderer!”
But when Vorl tried to cast an illusion over my throat, my magic ripped through it, and that was when I felt the prince’s power rise.
“You dared to touch her? To hurt her again?” the prince roared as a snarl of absolute fury split his lips. And then he was at my side, traveling to me on a gust of air.
“Lara,” he whispered. His gaze traveled over my face, down my throat, oscillating between fury and fear.
“I’m okay,” I managed to croak.
Gasps and cries came from the court as the fireworks continued. Explosions felt as though they came from everywhere.
“I’m sorry,” the prince whispered. His face twisted in pain before that mind-numbing rage coated it again. “I should have protected you.”
Power still spiraled around me as shocked whispers and shouts came from the crowd. I was out of control. I didn’t know what was happening, but fire and wind still swirled around me, bathing me in light and air that the prince seemed immune to. Or maybe it was purposefully cushioning him. I didn’t know.
“Nuwin, hold her,” the prince said, his expression savage as he handed me off to his brother.
Nuwin supported my weight as the prince flew to Vorl on the same beat. Rage contorted the crown prince’s features as he grabbed Vorl by his shirt and lifted him up. Prince Norivun’s affinity rose with a vengeance as a look of sheer terror covered my archon’s face.
“You dared hurt her?” The deadly calmness of Norivun’s words sent shivers down my spine, and the quietness of his question was more terrifying than any anger that could pour from his lips. “She’s mine, and you touched her?”
“I didn’t! I would never—”