Sota wouldn’t miss.
The marshal’s face remained firmly neutral, as though this was nothing more than an inconvenience. It was a good act, but one neither I nor Eledan bought.
“Well.” Eledan clapped his hands together once. “Sota, if the marshal moves without a direct order from me, kill him.” Eledan pointed at me. “If she harms me, kill Hulia and then kill him.”
“Received,” Sota’s neutral voice confirmed.
I clenched my jaw. “Even without the tek, the fae won’t ever take you back. You’re an embarrassment. The tek exposure has twisted your mind.”
“Mmm…” Eledan tore open his jacket, his movements jerky with frustration. He pulled his shirt over his head, revealing the pattern of marks running over his abs and up his chest. And there, just to the left, the ugly tek scar and its metal veins clawed at the fae’s otherwise perfect body.
He sprang, too fast for me to counter, and pulled me by the wrist to the table with him. I tried to yank free, only for his fingers to tighten around my arm.
“Come now, Messenger,” he hissed through his bared teeth. “You won’t risk your friends’ lives, will you?”
I shoved against his chest, against him. “Let go.”
The blow came out of nowhere. His hand struck my face so damn hard I didn’t feel it until I’d hit the tabletop and almost dropped to my knees. Hulia’s giggles sounded alongside the marshal’s low growls.
Pain thumped through my head, blurring my vision.
And then his steely grip was on my arm again, yanking me upright. He shook me. “Come on, saru. Admit how much you want to touch me. Admit how you’ve desired my kind since that human body of yours aged enough to know what true desire means.”
He peeled back my coat collar and wet his lips. Upon seeing the circlet, he raised an eyebrow, but said nothing. “Do not lie. I’ve seen your dreams. I’ve featured in so many of them. I do believe there was one where both I and the marshal featured prominently in various positions. You have a talent with that tongue, saru.” He winked.
I looked away, face burning, and his cool hand settled against my stinging cheek, forcing me to look him in the eye.
“Sota,” Eledan said, his eyes locked on mine. “Shoot the marshal in his left shoulder.”
Sota’s motors whirred. The drone fired. Kellee cried out. I heard him fall, heard him panting. He couldn’t stop this. And Talen, if he was close, couldn’t stop this either. Sota was too fast. He would kill everyone in this room in a single second if Eledan ordered it.
Eledan didn’t even look to see if the marshal had fallen. He brushed a knuckle down my face, catching real tears. “That’s for dreaming of him. Now fix my fucking heart, saru.”
He took his dagger back from where I’d hidden it inside the coat and handed it over, handle first. “Careful now. It’s your friends’ lives at risk.”
Bracing both hands on either side of him against the table, he breathed in, presenting his chest, and waited for me to make the cuts. I mentally reached for Sota’s link but found it dead. I couldn’t communicate with Talen or Kellee without Eledan knowing, and even if I could, I could only tell them not to move, not to provoke Eledan. I hadn’t counted on Sota being here.
I spread my left hand against Eledan’s feverish skin and applied the dagger’s tip to the first metal suture. It popped apart, wrenching a hiss from between Eledan’s teeth.
The sound of Sota’s whirring motors filled the room.
“Kesh!” Kellee warned.
I hesitated and pulled the blade back. “Change the drone’s order.”
Eledan glared down his nose at me.
“This will hurt, and you ordered Sota to kill Kellee if I hurt you.”
A brilliant grin crawled across his lips. “Then don’t hurt me, Kesh.”
One maddening, terrifying thought climbed over all the others: to stab the dagger in and cut out his heart, no matter the cost. Hulia and Kellee would die, but so would Eledan. It would be over. And I’d be finished.
My hand trembled.
“Kesh…?” Eledan purred.
At one time, I would have made that trade, but I couldn’t. Not even to kill a fae I despised with my every living, breathing moment. There were lives at stake.
“Close your eyes,” I told him.
His brow furrowed.
“I can’t hurt you, but with you watching me… I can’t do it like that. Just close your eyes.”
He had to trust me with his heart. And despite holding Kellee and Hulia against me, he still wasn’t sure whether I would kill him. He was right to hesitate, but his need outweighed the risks. He had no choice. Warily, his eyelashes fluttered closed.
I pressed the blade to another suture with my right hand, but with my left, I eased the second iron circlet from inside my coat. This one hung open on its hinge. I pushed the blade in deeper with my right hand as I brought my left hand around, angling the open circlet toward Eledan’s neck. When it closed, he would lash out. He might order Sota to kill Kellee. But Hulia would be free of his dreamweaving. I couldn’t save them all. I didn’t save people. I killed them. Kellee was fast and strong. He might be able to deflect Sota—somehow. This was the best I could do.
Kellee, I’m so sorry…
I snapped the circlet around Eledan’s neck. It clicked, locking into place. He opened his eyes, fae colors blazing.
Hulia screamed. Her eyes were clear and filled with terror.
“Saru bitch! Drone, kill Kellee!” Eledan roared.
Chapter 29
For one terrible, breathtaking second, nothing happened. Just like when Crater’s face had exploded in front of me, time funneled into a singular point, crystallizing the citrus scent of magic, Sota’s whirring motors, and the color of blood streaking Eledan’s chest. Then it snapped, unleashing chaos. Eledan brought his forearm up and shoved me back. Pure, blazing fury possessed him. He locked his hands around the circlet and fought to yank it free. His power flexed outward, drawing tight, about to snap.
Hulia reared up on the table, her murderous glare fixed on Eledan’s back.
I tossed Eledan’s dagger over the fae’s head. Hulia snatched it out of the air and sprang, landing on Eledan’s back. The blade punched into his shoulder, up to her knuckles, and they both screamed.
I whirled and saw the blur that was Kellee duck and twist as Sota’s single red light brightened. The marshal thrust his claws through Sota’s under armor, hooked into the drone, and slammed it into the floor, smashing Sota wide open. Sparks flew.
Eledan’s magic breathed out, crushingly tight, and shattered. The oak roots that had entwined the room crumbled, in great clouds of brown dust. The iron circlet had broken the prince’s link to his magic.
He screamed, but not in pain. His scream of rage sounded like twisting metal, and the saru in me whimpered away. I dashed for Kellee. He tried to wave me off, but I wasn’t saving the marshal. I gripped his shoulder, sinking my fingers into the gunshot wound and smearing his blood across my hand, and then spun back toward Eledan.
I flicked my whip open—heart racing—and cracked the weapon in the air.
Eledan had Hulia by the hair. He bowed forward, pulling her over his head, and tossed her away like she was nothing. The whip cracked, drawing his eye. He reached for the circlet around his neck. The whip’s tip sailed in and wrapped around his neck, trapping his hands there. A dangerous thrill buzzed through me, lighting me up. I have you now. I jerked him forward, reeling him in. Mine. He pulled, bucking and snapping against the whip’s hold, but the magnetic links tightened, choking off his air.
His eyes blazed, his teeth bare, but I had him.