Chapter 3

3

T he world came into focus slowly, as if I were waking from a lazy afternoon nap. A gauzy overhead canopy became clear, the dark fabric highlighted by the golden sun. I blinked softly as my eyes adjusted to the light.

Where was I?

I tried to lift my hand, but the motion was stopped by something soft.

Sheets? Was I in a bed?

How did I get here?

I must have made a noise, because a heartbeat later, Zuriel stood over me.

“Izidora,” he breathed, his icy blue eyes bruised and his white hair spilling over his shoulders as he leaned down to examine me.

“Wha–” I tried to speak, but my voice was rougher than sand.

“Shh, don’t strain yourself. Let me help you sit up so you can drink some water.” My cousin took great care in slipping his arm beneath me, lightly wrapping the other across my middle and scooting me backward so I leaned against a stack of pillows.

My brain was still in a fog, and confusion pulled at every thread of thought I tried to conjure. Zuriel lifted a glass to my lips, and as I reached up to steady it, I found my hands shaking uncontrollably.

“It’s alright, I’ve got it,” Zuriel soothed, tipping the glass. I parted my lips, allowing the cool liquid to pass across my parched tongue. After several sips, he took the glass away, and I sucked in a deep breath.

“What happened?” I croaked, questions popping into my mind in rapid succession as the water lifted the haze.

“What is the last thing you remember?” he asked, his eyes roaming me as if he searched for any sign of pain or injury.

Pausing to scan my memories, I thought back to the masquerade, the lantern festival where the white fire burst from within and shrouded everything as far as the eye could see in light, the parade…

The parade.

Kazimir.

My fall.

Ruslan flying to my rescue.

The knife.

I clutched my chest, ripping at the fabric there as my heart thundered faster than any hoofbeats. Zuriel clutched my hands to still my frantic movements, dropping his voice into a soothing tone. “You are safe now. We healed you.”

I shook my head, unable to believe the words spilling from his mouth. Whipping my head around, I found no sign of my mate, and my stomach immediately turned over, causing me to heave.

“Breathe, cousin,” Zuriel pleaded, as he rubbed my back and I doubled over, desperate for air and answers.

“Ruslan…” The hoarseness in my voice was only increased by the agony I felt at my mate being gone.

“Is at Ryza Citadel. I will send Liliana to fetch him now if you can promise me you’ll be okay for a few moments as I slip out?”

Then, my head cleared enough that I sensed our bond awakening, filling me with an ache to rival that of my head. I nodded furiously, trying to regain control of myself, and Zuriel sprinted from the room, flinging open a heavy wooden door Ruslan had once carried me through when he’d shown me around the palace he’d built for us.

“Fetch Ruslan. Now,” I heard him say in the distance.

“What’s wrong?” the bubbly voice drifted through the door.

“She’s awake.”

“Oh, shit, I will go right now,” she replied. Liliana. My best friend was still here.

A moment later, a bang reverberated across the ceiling, and Zuriel was by my side, holding a bowl containing a thick substance. “Do you think you can eat?”

I crinkled my nose at the goopy liquid. “Maybe something other than that. Cinnamon rolls?”

The smile that broke across the Angel’s face was filled with relief. “I should have guessed. Don’t move. I’ll be back momentarily.” Again he sprinted from the room, and I waited patiently for his return.

I felt weak – so fucking weak – as I tried to shift to make myself more comfortable. Tears sprang to my eyes in time with my rising frustration, and I gritted my teeth before pushing my body higher.

How long had I been asleep?

I recognized that I was in our bed at Roc Palace, and craning my neck, I studied the wall-length fresco depicting an epic love story between an Angel and a Demon. Around the bed, various chairs and chaises had been dragged into the room, some still containing rumpled pillows and blankets. Books lay scattered in haphazard piles, and the fires were only embers in the hearths. Outside, the sun shone brilliantly, and not a hint of snow was visible in the distant capital city.

Zuriel interrupted my examination with his return, carrying a plate filled with steaming pastries along with a ruby red drink. The sweet scent drifted in my direction, vanilla and cinnamon making my mouth water. He placed both on the table beside the bed before crouching down and retrieving a tray. He settled it across my lap, and my stomach released a rather large rumble as he placed the plate in front of me.

“Eat slowly,” he warned. “It’s been a while since you had solid food.”

My brows pinched, and I narrowed my eyes on my cousin before I asked, “How long?”

His face remained neutral, unreadable as ever. “I’ll let Ruslan explain everything when he arrives. Eat, you need your strength.”

Dissatisfied with his caginess, I made a noise of annoyance before turning my attention to the food, lifting the roll with shaking hands and taking a small bite. Zuriel hovered like a worried mother, on the precipice of jumping forward should I need assistance. Chewing slowly, I savored the delicious flavors that warmed my mouth, then bit into it again and again until the first roll was nothing more than icing on my fingers.

By the time I finished the second roll, my head was clearing rapidly, and my hands no longer shook. Sucking my fingers clean, I studied the ruby liquid on the corner of the tray. “What’s this?”

“It’s to help with your strength,” Zuriel said, once again as nonspecific as possible.

Before I had a chance to express my annoyance, a voice popped into my head.

“Sprite?”

My heart leaped as my mate’s voice flitted through my mind, though it was frantic and strained with worry.

“Ruslan, please, I need you.”

“I’ll be right there.”

I didn’t even have time to take a breath before Ruslan and Liliana appeared in the doorway, and moments later my mate crushed me to him, a sob wracking his chest. “Sprite, sprite, sprite,” he repeated through his relief, stroking my hair as he soothed both himself and me. The power of his emotion traveled down our bond, and tears streaked down my face as I shared his feelings. “I thought I’d lost you forever. My soul has been empty since that day. Oh, fuck, I don’t even know what to say other than I am so fucking in love with you, Izidora, and I will never, ever let anything happen to you again.”

Lifting my arms, I wrapped myself around him as much as I could, needing him with the same intensity as he needed me. The moment I woke and feared he had died played over in my mind, and I dug my nails into him as if I could bring him even closer so we were fused from head to toe, never to be separated again. Tears tracked down my face as every ounce of anguish on both ends of our bond flooded it, and it wasn’t until the forcefulness of this eased that I dared to extricate myself from his hold. I needed to breathe and dry my nose and eyes so I could gaze upon Ruslan’s handsome face, the one that would always be my true home.

His smoky eyes swirled with so much devotion, I nearly drowned in it. Beneath them, dark circles told me just how much he had worried, though the rest of him was carefully groomed as he had always been. His dark hair was slicked back, and matching stubbled coated his strong jaw. This close, the faint scar across his temple was visible, as well as the tattoos that climbed up his neck.

I touched his face, brushing my fingers across the soft hairs and then my thumb across his cheekbone. He captured my hand with his, turning into it to kiss my palm. “Sprite,” he croaked, and it was as if the whole world fell away, and all we could see was each other. A hand captured the back of my head, pulling it forward so he could plant a kiss on my forehead. I closed my eyes and savored the feeling of fire racing to where his lips touched me.

Without missing a beat, he chucked off his boots and carefully removed the pillows propping me up before replacing them with his hard body, allowing me to lean against his chest as he enveloped me in his embrace.

Liliana and Zuriel hovered near the bed, the latter holding the untouched red drink, and I shot them both a watery smile before turning serious. “Can someone please tell me what’s going on? How long was I asleep?”

Ruslan rubbed the sides of my arms, soothing my turmoil. The breath he blew out was hot on the top of my head. “It’s been a little over six months since Kazimir tried to kill you.”

Six months.

Another chunk of my lifetime wasted by some male who thought he should have control over my life. My fists clenched around the sheets covering my legs, and another wave of hot tears spilled over my eyes.

“I’ll fucking kill him,” I swore, my body tingling with the depths of my rage.

He deserved it for what he did to me.

Without hesitation, I reached for the drink that Zuriel promised would make me strong, yanking it from his grasp and tipping it back. I gulped it before my mind and body reconnected, but when they did, I tasted the hint of metal cutting through the citrus drink.

Sensing my hesitation, Ruslan murmured, “Finish the whole thing.”

I obeyed, though Liliana and Zuriel shared a knowing look. Once it was completely drained, I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand. “Someone tell me what was in that.” It wasn’t a question, but an order that carried the force of my fury.

“Demon blood,” Ruslan answered immediately, and bile rose in my throat. “We’ve been giving it to you while you slept to maintain your strength. No one knew how long you would be out, and, well, I knew you wouldn’t want to be as weak as you were when you left the cave when you woke up.”

His consideration doused my anger like pouring water over a burning blaze.

“The Demons offered it up willingly for you after they heard what happened,” Zuriel added, and Liliana nodded her confirmation.

It was then that I realized I hadn’t addressed my best friend. “You stayed.” My voice cracked in time with her stoic facade, and she pushed past Ruslan to embrace me. A soft chuckle vibrated against my backside as he witnessed our reunion.

“Of course I stayed. You’re my best friend, and someone with a brain needed to take care of you. You can’t trust these males to know anything about female care. I washed your hair and trimmed your nails, even painted them when I was bored.” I glanced down at my hands to find a black varnish there.

“Thank you,” I whispered, hugging her back even tighter.

When she pulled away, she swiped at her seafoam green eyes, clearing them of salty tears.

“You haven’t been alone for a second these last six months,” Ruslan told me, and I understood then the meaning of the extra chairs, pillows, and blankets. “Drazen has been here too.”

“Where is he now?” I asked, wanting to see the half-Dragon as much as my cousin, best friend, and mate.

“Surveying our army. We’re preparing our empire for an attack from the Night Realm,” Ruslan explained.

“Empire?” My brows dipped together.

I felt him smile against my back. “The északi Empire belongs to us. You, my mate, will be its empress. We united the Iron, Crystal, and Day realms.”

The world swayed around me as I spun to face my mate in my excitement. Staring into those smoky grays that had captivated me since the moment I laid eyes on him, I saw the truth of his words, and a wide grin stretched across his lips. “Without bloodshed?”

“Without bloodshed,” he confirmed, hands moving to either side of my face as he pulled me in for a deep, bruising kiss. I moaned into his mouth, my body coming alight under his touch – a touch I had been deprived of for half a year.

He broke our kiss, leaning his forehead against mine, and the ache down our bond eased with our reunion. “After the other monarchs heard what happened to you, it wasn’t hard to convince them to band together. We’d already made it clear that the Iron Realm had enough power to overthrow them, and when I sweetened the deal with offers of access to those innovations they saw during Béke, they came willingly into the empire.”

My stomach rumbled again, and before anyone opened their mouth to speak, Zuriel was trotting off, no doubt in search of more food.

“Do you want to try to get out of bed? The sooner we get you moving around, the better,” Ruslan asked me.

“Surely I didn’t sleep for six months because of a knife to the chest,” I said by way of answer.

“No. Rares said you almost broke your spine. It took him a long time to heal it properly so you wouldn’t be paralyzed.”

The memory hit me like a punch to the gut, and I was suddenly transported to the moment I’d broken my bond with Kazimir. The explosion of magic that had knocked me backward. The snow scattering in a thousand directions. The boulder that knocked the air from my lungs and sent pain ricocheting through my body. Using every drop of magic in me to heal myself and try to save my mate. Closing in on burnout.

“Yes,” I managed to say as a tremble wracked my frame.

I was in Ruslan’s arms. I was safe.

Queen Immonen had been right – the moment I broke the bond with Kazimir, everything went dark. Her words were no mere metaphor; instead, they had been my reality since that fateful day.

Ruslan sensed the turmoil rising within me through our mating bond and pulled me to his chest, cradling me like I was the most precious gemstone in the world.

“First the cave, now this. How will you ever forgive me for not protecting you?” he murmured, rocking me.

“There is nothing to forgive. You were right there, and Kazimir managed to kidnap me from under your nose. All of this is his fault,” I swore, lips pressing into a line as more memories returned to me – how my necklace had fallen off and how I’d gone to fetch it from beneath the stands where we’d watched the parade.

Had he been the cause of the broken chain?

Zuriel returned with a healthier selection of food – a rainbow of fruit, chicken, cured meats, cheese, and some bread – and my stomach growled with the ferocity of a cat at the sight. Liliana crawled onto the end of the bed after he arranged the tray, stealing a handful of fat grapes for herself. I patted a spot on the bed across from me, indicating Zuriel should join us in it. My cousin kicked off his shoes and scooted around Liliana, the four of us forming a haphazard circle around the food I perused with gusto.

“Eat the chicken,” Ruslan encouraged, pinching the seasoned slice between his fingers and bringing it to my lips. I opened my mouth and allowed him to place the meat inside, savoring the herbs coating the skin.

“So what else has happened in the last six months?” I asked around my food, covering my mouth with my hand so I didn’t send crumbs spilling into the blankets.

“Right before Liliana burst into my office, Katrina, the Mage I assigned to the Day Realm, appeared with news of the Day Realm’s new princess,” Ruslan said, reaching around me for a chunk of cheese.

Liliana squealed, clapping her hands excitedly. “I’m so happy for them. When will she be presented to the world? Are we invited?”

“In a few months, and yes we are invited. Which means,” Ruslan rubbed my arms reassuringly, “we need to get you moving and strong again, sprite. I won’t allow you to leave the Iron Realm until I know you can defend yourself again.”

After drinking the Demon blood concoction and eating, I did feel better than when Zuriel had first propped me up against the pillows. The room did not spin, and my hands steadied, allowing me to lift grape after grape to my mouth with ease.

More than anything, I wanted to be strong again. The next time Kazimir tried some shit would be his last – I would make sure of it.

“Then get out of my way,” I stated, with a fierceness beginning to blossom in my chest. Ruslan scooted back, unwrapping himself from around me and landing lightly on the floor beside the bed. Bracing my hands on the mattress, I pushed myself from underneath the tray, then swung my legs toward the side of the bed.

Ruslan held out his hands, offering me support in lowering myself to the floor. “Careful, sprite, you haven’t walked on them in a while.”

The loose pants I wore tumbled to my ankles as I slid from the high bed, and my legs swayed beneath me when my bare feet hit the stone. Ruslan immediately grasped my shoulders to keep me upright, the worry in his gray eyes intensifying as I blinked rapidly. The world around me spun again, and I waited for the gray fuzziness to retreat before saying, “Hold my hands, please.”

He grasped them firmly and then retreated so I had space to move. Liliana and Zuriel held their breath behind me, and I lifted one foot, wobbling momentarily, then set it on the floor. I managed ten paces before I had to stop, and a wide grin broke out across my mate’s face. Liliana released a whooping cheer as I turned around, Ruslan hovering behind me in case I needed support. By the time I reached the bed again, my legs trembled from the effort, and I collapsed against it, sweat pouring from my temples. But I grinned like a maniac because I’d pushed through and done it.

Fuck these males who thought they could keep me down.

I was Izidora Valynor, future empress of északi, a survivor, and an insidious bloom.

They would not see how sharp and deadly my thorns were until I was slicing them to ribbons with my killing blows.