“But what about Lyssa?” Kyan asked evenly.
“Lucia, it’s a bluff,” Cleo told her. “He doesn’t have her, I’m sure of it now. She wasn’t at the temple last night, and Nic hadn’t seen her. He didn’t know anything about the kidnapping.”
Lucia’s breath left her as she considered this possibility.
If Kyan didn’t have her daughter, who did?
A thought occurred to her then, one that hadn’t even entered her mind until this very moment. Amara. It could have been Amara, using the chaos surrounding the king’s assassination, to kidnap her daughter.
Oh goddess, she couldn’t think about this now. Surely, she would go mad.
No, she had to stay focused or everything, absolutely everything, would be lost—including Lyssa.
Kyan stood up from the throne and descended the stairs. He stood in front of Magnus, studying him carefully. “How did you get past the gates?” he asked.
“There are other entrances into this city,” Magnus replied. “What, you think there’s only one way in, one way out? That’s not how a city like this works. There are books about this in the library. Perhaps you’d like to borrow a few and read up on the subject.”
Kyan narrowed his eyes. “Did you come here to sacrifice yourself to save the girl you love?”
“No,” Magnus said. “In fact, I’m very much counting on us both walking out of here alive and well. I believe she’s promised me another wedding very soon, and I intend to hold her to it.”
Kyan glanced at Cleo. “But you know the hard truth that your husband does not. There will be no happy ending for you—either of you.”
Lucia fully expected Cleo to break down, to start to cry and beg for her life and Magnus’s, but instead she watched the princess’s expression harden.
“Wrong,” Cleo said. “There will be no happy ending for you, Kyan. Today is the last day you will have the privilege of walking this world. A world that you could have embraced rather than tortured. One you could have helped rather than hurt. And here we are.”
“Yes, here we are,” Kyan repeated, nodding. Then he shot a look at Lucia. “Start the ritual now.”
“We need to wait for the water Kindred to fully take control,” Lucia lied.
Although she honestly didn’t know for sure whether it was a lie or not. She’d never done this ritual before, never wanted to do it. She only knew the steps because Kyan had described them to her.
The ritual needed her blood and the blood of an immortal—Olivia’s blood, which is what her grandmother had used during the last ritual at Amara’s compound—combined. The orbs would react to it, even without the wisp of Kindred magic within.
More proof that the orbs were more than prisons.
Magic. Pure magic.
“How long must we wait?” Kyan hissed.
“I don’t know,” Lucia replied.
“Perhaps this will help speed things along.” He gestured toward Taran, who came down the stairs, grabbed hold of Cleo’s hand, and wrenched the amethyst ring off her finger.
Cleo gasped.
Lucia turned to Kyan, clenching her fists at her sides to stop herself from lunging at him.
“Don’t push me, little sorceress,” Kyan hissed. His eyes were glowing—a striking blue color that matched the flames. “Or you will be very sorry you did.”
The fire surrounding Magnus rose higher, to his waist now, and the fire Kindred turned a cold smile toward her brother.
“Do you feel that?” he asked. “My fire burns brighter and hotter than any other.”
“Do you feel this?” Magnus asked, then his hand shot out and he grabbed Kyan by his throat. “That’s the bloodstone my father gave me to save my life. It’s full of death magic, and it has a rather interesting effect on people I hate. I think you felt it once before. Let me show you what it can do.”
Kyan scratched at his hands but didn’t succeed in breaking free. The skin at his throat where Magnus clutched him had started to turn a sickly gray color.
Lucia watched this unfold in shock. She’d known Magnus’s ring contained death magic, but she didn’t think that it might affect Kyan.
“Apologies, Nic,” Magnus growled. “But this has to happen.”
Kyan began to shake, and his eyes rolled back into his head. Olivia had descended the stairs to stand next to Taran, but neither of them made a single move to stop Magnus.
Lucia didn’t understand why. They could stop him so easily.
She shot a worried glance over to Cleo, and the girl didn’t appear at all surprised by what Magnus was doing.
Had her brother tried to kill someone with this death magic before today?
The next moment, the ring of fire extinguished around both Magnus and Ashur.
“Don’t kill him,” Ashur snarled, just as Kyan fell to his knees.
Magnus pulled his hand away, glaring at the Kraeshian prince over his shoulder. “You broke my concentration.”
“You promised me that you wouldn’t kill him.”
“Some promises were meant to be broken,” Magnus snapped. “Nic would understand.”
Kyan hissed out a breath as he collapsed to the floor.
Magnus nudged him with the toe of his boot. “He doesn’t look nearly as bad as Kurtis did. Much less dead.”
Lucia shook her head. “Oh, Magnus, do you even know what you’ve done?”
“Yes. I stopped the bad guy.” Then Magnus eyed the other two Kindred who were observing silently from a dozen paces away. “Don’t come a step closer, or you’ll get the same.”
Lucia held her breath as she watched the red wisp of fire magic rise from Nic’s unconscious body.
Then that wisp of magic swirled around Magnus for a moment before it morphed into a ball of fire and shot into his chest. He jumped as if he’d been struck by lightning, then doubled over, bracing his hands on his knees, gasping for breath.
In a single motion, Magnus then pulled the golden ring off his finger and threw it to the mossy floor.
Then slowly, very slowly, he straightened up, squared his shoulders, and swept his gaze around the throne room.
Lucia’s heart stopped at the sight of the fire magic mark now on the palm of Magnus’s ringless left hand.
“Yes . . .” Kyan now spoke with Magnus’s familiar deep voice. “I like this vessel very much.”
“No!” Cleo cried out. “No, you can’t do this!”
“I didn’t do anything.” Kyan walked over toward her, then hunched down so he could level his eyes with hers. “The little prince did this because he thought he was smart. That he was the hero. He thought he would save his beautiful bride and all her friends. He should have stayed in the shadows, where he belonged.”
“Get out of him right now,” Cleo snarled.
When Kyan smirked it was Magnus’s smirk. Lucia’s heart sank at the sight. “No. In fact, I think I’ll keep this vessel for all eternity.”
Out of the corner of her eye, Lucia saw Ashur move to Nic’s side, where the prince pressed his fingers against the young man’s throat.
“Is he dead?” she asked.
“No. Not yet, anyway.” Ashur scowled at her. “This is your fault. I blame you for all of this.”
“You’re right,” she replied. “It is my fault.”