Chapter 46

Béke Day Thirteen

Ahand clamped over my mouth, and I smelled him – amber. My flailing limbs struggled against the male who trapped me to his chest, my heart pounding wildly out of control as adrenaline flooded my veins. I dropped the mugs of hot wine, and they fell into the snow without a sound. Cursing, I continued to fight Kazimir, but he dragged me backward and away from the stands where my mate waited for me.

"Shh, stop fighting," Kazimir purred in my ear, and my eyes jerked to the young male manning the drink stand. But he seemed oblivious to the fact that Kazimir had me in a chokehold. The male I had loved first dragged me against my will toward where I'd left Mistik.

Fuck.

Kazimir's intentions became crystal clear at that moment, and I snapped out with my teeth, hoping to graze his skin in any way I could. The moment I did, a corrupted black rope circled my head, gagging me as it bit into my mouth. "All I want to do is talk, but you need to listen to what I have to say instead of screaming for help or screaming over me."

The muscles in my neck strained as I fought against the bitter binding, but despite my obvious attempts to get his attention, the young attendant still did not notice my peril as Kazimir dragged me toward the horses.

Kazimir's laugh sent an icy chill skittering down my spine. "He can't see you. He can't hear you. No one will find you until I am ready for them to."

I screamed as much as I could behind the gag in a last-ditch effort to call for help, my throat vibrating with the force of my cry. Kazimir did not even acknowledge the level of distress he brought me, and that might have been the most terrifying part of this encounter.

Was this monster always lurking inside him? Had I not accepted him during those first few months outside the cave, would this have happened sooner?

In one swift motion, Kazimir threw my legs over Fek's back, then vaulted onto his stallion behind me, snatching the reins and kicking him into a gallop. Houses flashed by us as we raced down the street, which was devoid of life as the whole of Radence was preoccupied with the parade.

But I was an insidious bloom, and I needed no one to save me byt myself. I had reclaimed my power, and I had trained for this, and I would not be afraid.

Kazimir crushed me against him, and I struggled to free myself from his grip. Searching for the powerful white flames inside me, I called to them, stoking them higher in preparation to blow us off the street.

But nothing happened.

That's when Immonen's words drifted back to me. Binding magic blocks access to our Goddess-gifted power.

My eyes widened as panic clawed her way up my throat, stealing my breath as we raced to Goddess knew where. I tried again, grasping for my precious magic, but it slipped through my fingers. Cursing Kazimir, I dug my nails into his arm, shoving down with all my might, trying to break his grip.

The laugh he left in my ear was so sinister that my entire body went cold. Another malicious rope bound my hands together, and it was then that I felt truly helpless and utterly powerless for the first time since I'd left my cave.

I couldn't save myself.

Tears pricked my eyes, and I fought with every spark of hope left within me to crush the overwhelming feelings threatening to render me immobile. I was a fighter, a survivor, and I would not give up on myself – not ever. This insidious bloom had one final thorn, willing and able to prick, and I knew, without a doubt, it was my only chance of survival.

"Ruslan!"

"Sprite? What's wrong? Where are you?"

"I don't know. Kazimir took me, we're riding through Radence. I don't know these streets, they aren't familiar."

The roar that burst from Ruslan shook even the homes around us, and Kazimir snapped the reins, urging Fek faster.

"Please hurry."

"I will find you, sprite. No one will ever hurt you again."

"He bound me, I can't access my magic. I'm scared."

"Me too. But we have survived so much already, and we will again."

I tried to look up toward the sky, searching for my Demon Dragon, but Kazimir's hand threaded through my hair and shoved my head down, causing me to cry out against my gag. "No one can see us." Another rope wrapped around my eyes, blinding me from our path forward, and tears overflowed as I surrendered to the mercy of another male again.

But I was not giving up; no, I was doing what survivors did best – biding my time until I was certain I could strike. And then, I would offer Kazimir the same mercy I had offered the males who abused me in the cave.

Death.

Fek's pace slowed, and Kazimir pressed his chest into me, forcing me to lean forward as we began an uphill ascent.

"I think he is taking me into the mountains."

"I know, I'm almost there. Stay strong, Izidora."

Insidious bloom, insidious bloom, insidious bloom…

"That's right, mate. You have so many hidden thorns. Prick him with them all."

I hadn't realized I'd spoken my mantra down the bond, but I was grateful for Ruslan's reassurance.

The ground leveled out beneath us, and Kazimir pulled Fek to a stop, the stallion's sides heaving from the effort of racing away from Radence. The poor beast deserved better than the madness that was his rider. Kazimir jerked me off of him, throwing me to the ground with my limbs still bound and mouth still gagged. My head cracked on a rock, and I cried out around the rope in my mouth. He used the tight binds to jerk me upright, then removed the rope around my head so I was forced to look him in the eye. Blood trickled down the side of my face, wet, hot, and metallic.

But he did not care. Why did I ever think he cared?

"Izidora, listen. The prophecy states ‘there is a choice' but it doesn't say what that choice is. I'll share you with Ruslan. I already know you accepted a bond with him. There is still this string between us, don't you feel it? That means you can choose me too. You can have two mates." Kazimir's tone grew more desperate as the sentences spilled out of him, his emerald eyes begging me to hear his words and accept him too.

But he had hurt me. Stalked me. Made me fear for my life. Left me so on edge that I couldn't walk alone for fear of him doing exactly this to me. My eyes narrowed on him, and I willed my white fire to burn him on the spot. But, of course, his malicious magic prevented me from using the one fucking thing that leveled the playing field.

Fuck him. Goddess damn him. He would die for this, by my hand or by Ruslan's, and that time was fast approaching.

I bit down on the gag and launched myself at him, aiming my shoulder for his gut to knock him off balance. With lightning-fast reflexes, he caught my shoulder inches from his torso, then gripped my upper arms and stood me on my feet. The gag disappeared as if it had never been there, and Kazimir snatched my hair in one hand and my waist in the other as he trapped me against him and forced his mouth over mine. My body revolted, and I bit down with all my strength on his tongue. Metallic liquid coated the inside of my mouth, and when he jerked away with a roar, I spit it in his face.

"You will kiss me!" He slapped me, hard enough that my head whipped to the side and stars coated my vision, then crushed my jaw between his fingers and forced me to look at his disgusting face again.

Instead of faltering, I laughed – a crazed, wretched sound that perfectly mirrored my internal experience. All the rage I had locked inside myself bubbled up, bringing out the hardened, ferocious, pissed-the-fuck-off side of me that I loved best. I let my voice drip with disdain, not bothering to suppress or hide my true emotions. "I've had worse done to me, Kazimir. You aren't the first, though you will be the last."

I was so fucking tired of males thinking they could use me how they wanted.

"You will give in to me," Kazimir hissed, spitting blood. "You will choose me. You will mate me. You will forget him and come home with me. We will be king and queen of the Night Realm."

I sensed Ruslan's approach, our bond like a beacon despite the magic binding me and cloaking both me and Kazimir.

"It's too late for that," I purred, batting my lashes and baring my teeth. "I do not want to be mated to you, Kazimir. I am breaking off our bond and choosing only Ruslan as my mate."

And with those words, an invisible string snapped between us.

Kazimir turned feral, a snarl unlike any beast I'd heard tearing from his throat. My bindings fell away, but an explosion of moonlight and oily darkness blasted all the snow around us, throwing me backward and cracking my spine against a large boulder. Pain shot through every nerve in my body, and my throat was scraped raw from the scream.

It was drowned out by my mate's roar as he dropped from the sky, his massive membranous wings casting us in shadow as he breathed black fire. Not a speck of white was left in Kazimir's eyes as he rolled out of the way of the flame and faced Ruslan head-on.

"I should have let you die in the avalanche," Ruslan snarled.

"You should have." Kazimir took a step to the left, circling an enraged Ruslan, both males hunting for an opening. He threw his sinister black rope at my mate, whose talons slashed through them as if they were nothing more than air.

"You're going to have to do better than that," Ruslan taunted.

They traded magic blows back and forth while I tried to heal my spine. The pain roaring through me was more intense than any whip lashing I had experienced, and every small movement felt like it took ten times the normal effort.

Immonen's vision and subsequent warning flashed through my mind, intensified by the swimming in my head.

"Zuriel! Can you hear me?"

"I'm here, where are you? Ruslan went crazy and left the parade before we could get an answer out of him. Everyone dispersed thinking something horrible had happened."

"Kazimir kidnapped me. We're somewhere in the mountains now. I don't know where. Please hurry, I can barely feel my legs."

"I'm coming."

"Why don't you sheathe those talons and fight me like a Fae? That's what you wanted, right?" Kazimir challenged.

"I don't need talons to destroy you, Kazimir." Ruslan shifted out of his Dragon form, cracked his neck, and drew his sword. Flames licked the blade as he held it high, ready to pounce.

Kazimir sidestepped to his saddlebags, yanking out his own blade. The males circled each other, each waiting for the other to make the first move. When Kazimir leaped into a flurry of strikes, I tuned in to my magic, the crystal flickering and filling with power as I opened myself to every intense emotion for the male I'd loved first. I needed every drop of my power to end this, so I gritted my teeth and allowed the barriers around my worst memories to fall away, drawing on every painful emotion that cascaded through me. Tears overflowed of their own accord, mixing with the blood trickling down my face.

Then, I surrendered to them.

With a cry that held years of anguish, I directed my magic at Kazimir, willing his feet to stick to the muddy ground and sink into it like quicksand. The clash of blades rang through the mountain pass as Ruslan stepped in, and as Kazimir lifted a foot to shift away, my magic yanked it down and stuck it to the ground.

Sweat poured from my temples and down my aching spine from the effort of holding Kazimir still, and I gasped for air as agony speared through every fiber of my being. My focus slipped, overwhelmed by the intensity of everything, and a sob wracked my chest as Kazimir managed to unstick his foot a moment later.

Ruslan had already started to attack again, and the males fought with a ferocity I'd never experienced before. Desperation flooded me as I willed and willed him to stop moving, my magic flaring over and over inside that crystal as I called on it.

Had I used too much when trying to heal myself?

My entire body trembled, and I knew instinctively that I was closing in on burnout.

Ruslan's heavy blows backed Kazimir toward the mountainside, and when he was within mere feet of the rock, spears shot out from the wall, one catching him in the leg, the other scraping his shoulder. Blood gushed from the wound in his thigh, but he was a male possessed, and being impaled did not stop his crazed movements. His next three blows were like lightning, the last catching Ruslan's right shoulder and cutting deep.

"No!" I screamed, leaping to my feet despite the roaring agony in my body, hand raised and blasting white energy at Kazimir. The impact propelled him backward, flattening him against the ground and sending his sword clattering away as he tumbled over and over himself.

Ruslan gritted his teeth, switched his sword to his left hand, and hunted Kazimir down like the prey he was. Ruslan was the apex predator not only in the Iron Realm, but in all of északi.

And he was my fucking mate.

My legs buckled, unable to support my weight any longer, and I fell to my hands and knees. My heart raced wildly out of control, and my lungs burned as if the white fire that lived in my chest had decided to consume them.

Why hadn't I trained for this? How could I be so stupid as to neglect one of my greatest assets?

Ruslan kicked the fallen sword further away as he passed it, but Kazimir had already recovered and was on his feet. He reached for a dagger sheathed in his boot, then pinched it between thumb and forefinger by the blade, as if he were going to throw it at Ruslan's broad chest.

The three of us were poised on the edge of that blade for a moment, and I held my breath, waiting to see which way we would fall. Time slowed to a crawl, and Ruslan paused, eyeing Kazimir's dagger warily. What was left of my magic I called to my hands, ready to throw a shield in front of Ruslan should Kazimir decide to throw.

Ruslan had expressed time and time again that he would die without me; what he didn't know was that if he perished, I would want to follow him into death too.

Why had I never told him that?

The thought robbed me of breath.

"If she won't have me, then she won't have anyone," Kazimir snarled, then hurled the blade. I threw a shield of white magic in front of Ruslan, pouring every last drop I had into it, desperate to save him.

But the blade sailed past Ruslan and buried itself in my chest.