Chapter 21

Chapter

Twenty-One

~ Prince Callan ~

I want to flay the Perstalian king for daring to put his hands on my mate. I want to sever his head and gift it to my demon princess as a trophy, while pissing on the remainder of his ashes.

It had been agony watching from the crowd. An agony watching, and waiting, and letting Blake have the time she needed and a chance to defeat the king. But this Celzar has proven himself to be even more wicked and cunning than we had anticipated, and rage and fear makes my body tremble as I watch in horror as he slides his hand between my mate’s legs and steals her dagger, burying it into her chest.

Before I can fight my way to her, more guards filter in through the doors to one side of the dais, adding to the guards who are already assaulting us from behind. The rebels have all joined us now, striding from the crowd to take up arms, but with our powers limited, the fight is uneven, and it’s not long before the rebels start to fall.

Using one hand, I tear off my cloak, tossing it to one side before drawing another blade. I fight side by side with Mason, Dante, and even Nate, snarling as one of my blades sinks into a centaur guard’s eye. The guard cries out, swinging his sword wildly in my direction, but I easily avoid his attack, my own sword slicing along his neck deep enough that blood pours from the wound. The guard stumbles backward into the path of two rebels, and they take pleasure in finishing him off.

The crowd screams, some of the citizens trying to get away while others take up arms as well, fighting back with whatever they have on them. Soon, there are eight guards bleeding on the ground, which is a valiant effort, but I try not to think about the much larger number of rebels and innocent civilians who have fallen in the chaos.

Dante spins, his tail flicking as he slices at the guards near him, and Nate growls, jumping into the air before driving his sword into a centaur’s back, just above its wings. I peer over at Blake, my jaw set as I keep fighting to get to her, my blade always moving, always cutting a path to her. But just as a clear space opens up before me, more guards stream in, shouting as they charge at us, four guards abreast. I brace with Dante on one side and Mason on the other. Kill them all.

~ Princess Blake ~

I’m so cold that my fingers and toes ache as my body begins to shut down. I’ve died multiple times before, but it’s never been like this. Seemingly agonizingly slow. I can feel the depths of my power being pulled from me, stolen, like my very soul is being torn from my body.

I know I won’t come back from this. This isn’t just my body dying. For an immortal demon, this is a true death. Eternal.

The air is as cold as ice as it passes between my lips, and there’s this strange sensation like I’m being carried away, the claws of shadow monsters already sinking deep into my essence. King Celzar’s hand remains on me, and I know it won’t be long now. He’s taking everything from me. I feel his magic syphoning away my power, consuming it.

Truthfully, at this point I’m not sure if I care. I struggle to remember what I’d even been fighting for as my body grows lighter, the pain starting to ease. My eyelids fall shut, and the cold spreads up my limbs, bringing with it a numbness, like I’m turning into…nothing.

“Fight!” The angry growl comes from somewhere close by, and the command vibrates through my body, familiarity tickling my senses.

My lips part a fraction more as I suck icy air into my lungs. I hadn’t even realized I’d stopped breathing.

“Fight Enchantress .” This time the words aren’t simply a command. They’re a choked, guttural plea from one of my mates— Alaric.

My assassin mate cries out in pain, and I struggle to open my eyes, fighting against the edge of death. As some of the pain returns, so do my senses, and I fight harder as the sounds of the battle rush at me—the clang of steel, the cries of the fallen, and King Celzar’s manic laughter as my power fills his body.

No, not his power.

Mine.

Fury surges through me, obliterating the numbness that I’d embraced not long ago. The day would come when I’d happily sink into the abyss of death. But not today. Not like this. Not when Shade and my mates are battling for their lives, and an entire kingdom is in shackles. King Celzar doesn’t deserve my power.

I focus on where King Celzar’s hand is on me, his fingers digging into my shoulder. His magic is still reaching into me and stealing what’s mine like some kind of parasite. I focus on that transfer of energy, and for the first time since he started taking from me, I feel a little tug. Before I can investigate further, the scent of chocolate and mint fills my senses, and I gasp as King Celzar is thrown backward. With the loss of contact, the connection is severed, his magic no longer inside me.

“You’re stronger than this,” Alaric growls as he scoops me into his arms, blood trailing down the side of his head from a shallow gash on his temple. My chest heaves as I struggle to regulate my breathing, and I try to pull away from him. He’s too hot, his body like an inferno against my ice-cold skin, but he doesn’t let me go. “Where’s the feisty demon who fought me in the ruins?” he demands, sounding appalled, though worry shines in his eyes.

“She’s out of action right now,” I reply, and the hint of a smile lifts my lips. “Knew you didn’t want to kill me anymore,” I mutter, somehow still able to tease him despite our messed-up situation.

“I mean it, demon,” Alaric growls angrily, lightly shaking me. “Fight this.”

I try to swallow but my throat is so dry I end up coughing instead. “I can’t,” I admit, my limbs still completely useless and refusing to work. King Celzar might no longer be stealing from me, but he’s already taken almost everything I had. Fuck, I miss my crows.

Alaric’s furious gray gaze bores into me like he’s not willing to accept my bullshit response. “I said fight , Blake!” the assassin snaps.

A spark of annoyance flares inside me, because he’s clearly not hearing a word I’m saying, but before I can hurl abuse back at him, a trickle of energy starts flowing into me from… somewhere. I try to reach out and connect mentally with Shade, but I can’t feel her, and panic makes my chest tighten.

I’m jerked back as a guard lunges for me. Alaric holds me tightly with one hand while fighting with the other. His sword blocks the blow of the guard, and when they break apart, he twists, driving his blade into the centaur’s throat.

“Princess.” Dante appears beside me, and his voice is soothing as Alaric passes me into the demon’s arms. “I’ve got you.” If I had my power and, you know, working limbs, I probably would complain at being manhandled so much, but his words are tender, and it makes my heart hurt. I try to lift my arms, but they still won’t budge, even with the small flow of energy that’s slowly warming me. My physical body is mostly healed now, but it’s the lack of energy that’s keeping me immobile. Dante presses me against his hard chest, and even though he’s even hotter than Alaric, I relish the heat now. Glad that it’s helping to chase away the remaining ice in my veins.

“Thank fuck,” I hear Nate mutter from somewhere close, and even Prince Callan looks furious as he peers at me, twin swords in his hands, the blades coated in blood.

My mates circle where Dante holds me, forming a barrier between me and the surrounding guards. They’re disheveled and covered in blood, but my mates are alive, and they continue to fight. The power slowly building in me is fragile at best, but a spark of hope shoots through me when I realize I can move my fingers. Yes, come on. I grit my teeth.

Before I can get too excited, laughter booms in my ears, and as if the sound is a command, the fighting ceases. The guards stop their assault, standing at attention, and we all turn our gazes to where King Celzar stands near Princess Nerelia.

Angry tears spill down the princess’s cheeks. “Don’t do this, Celzar!” she pleads, struggling against the guards restraining her.

Mason stands at the head of our group, covered in sweat and blood as he faces his brother.

King Celzar ignores the princess, his laughter turning maniacal as he lifts his hands into the air, staring at them like he can see the power radiating from his fingertips. “Oh, I knew our new winged friend was powerful, but this—” He sucks in a breath through his nose, letting his chest expand before breathing out. “Now this will sustain me for some time. I feel…incredible.”

I peer at the king. At my mates. At where I spot Shade unconscious on the ground, her beak bloody, but her chest moving as she breathes. Rage tears through me, and the warmth inside me continues to build, that trickle of power flowing a tiny bit faster.

King Celzar grins, completely self-absorbed. “I’ll admit this isn’t how I planned my latest wedding to go, but I guess the end result will be the same.” He cracks his neck as a menacing smile stretches across his face, and then he’s in front of Mason, moving so fast I hardly register the motion. He lifts my mate into the air by his throat, clearly using my strength power. “I kept you as a warning to the others in the prison.” King Celzar sneers. “But oh, how I’ve wanted to do this. Defender of the realm?” He scoffs. “I don’t know how they still believe it after all these years. Even after you failed .”

Mason struggles against King Celzar’s grasp, slamming his fist into the male’s arm, but he can’t break free. The centaur king might have diminished his own power, but now he has mine. The cuff shines bright around Mason’s ankle, and from the expression of agony on my mate’s reddening face, it’s clear he’s trying to access his own magic.

“Mason,” I croak, struggling to get out of Dante’s arms, but my demon mate holds me tight. Nate and the others go to help Mason, but the guards block them, layering up and countering their attacks.

“They still believe in me because I’ve never lied to them,” Mason squeezes out. “I’ve only tried to protect our kingdom.”

“Noble as always,” King Celzar replies with disgust, and my heart races as Mason struggles to breathe.

“Please, brother,” Prince Nerelia begs, fighting even harder against her guards. Her face scrunches in agony like she’s trying to access her own power as well.

“That’s King Celzar to you,” he snaps back, but he doesn’t turn his attention from Mason.

“Oh, if only you’d chosen differently,” King Celzar says as Mason’s movements weaken. “Mother, Father, and the rest of the forsaken royal family deserved to die for how they treated me, but you brother. You could have chosen to stand by my side.” His expression hardens, a mixture of hatred and pain. “But instead, you ignored my offer, my warning, and you went onto that battlefield like a fool, trying to save those who were already lost. If it weren’t for me, you would have been dead that day.”

“You kept me alive because you thought you could sway me,” Mason rasps, his voice weak as he clings to the edge of consciousness. “But how could I side with a brother who is the one responsible for destroying our kingdom, killing our family, and imprisoning anyone who’s left. No one’s been living under your rule since we came to The Haven. Everyone’s been merely surviving.”

I fight to move my body. My limbs are still heavy, but I have feeling all the way up to my wrists now, and I clench my jaw, fighting harder to regain movement.

“You never understood me,” King Celzar replies bitterly. “No one did. But I’ll give you this last courtesy, brother. I’ll let you die by the sword. A warrior’s death. It’s more than you deserve.” He releases Mason’s neck, and my mate falls to the floor, coughing as he lands in a crouch.

A nearby guard hands King Celzar his sword, and my heart thrashes wildly. No. Fuck no! Crying out, I clench my teeth, hissing through the pain of my battered soul as I draw upon the small pool of energy that’s welled inside me, and struggle from Dante’s arms. My demon reluctantly lets me go, but he walks with me as King Celzar watches in amusement. “Now this is precious,” he laughs. “Tell you what, I’ll even let your new… ally die at your side.”

“Blake, no,” Dante snarls as the guards step forward, separating us and depositing me next to Mason. I tumble to the stone floor, my bones feeling brittle, and Mason grabs hold of me, his strong arms wrapping around my body. His voice is filled with hatred when he says to his brother, “She’s not simply my ally, brother. She’s my mate.”

“Mate?” King Celzar’s gaze ignites with interest, and he laughs again. “Now that is the rarest of connections, and a cruel twist seeing as she’s my bride.”

I fight against the nausea that’s gripped me. I used most of my energy to stumble toward Mason, and now all I can do is pray to Lady Fate that this will work. “Mason couldn’t join you because you’re right, he didn’t understand you,” I say, surprising everyone with the clarity of my words. “He only blamed you. He didn’t understand that you loved Yenna, and that taking her power was an accident.”

Regret and the reemergence of old emotional wounds twists King Celzar’s expression.

“He never understood your pain,” I say even louder, and I steel myself, hoping the king connects the rest of the pieces himself.

King Celzar’s expression grows contemplative, his mind working. “You’re right, he never did,” he finally says slowly, and he peers back at Mason. “But, perhaps, if you watch your mate die before you, you might just understand something before you join her.”

I don’t see the king move, and then his hand is on me again. Mason bellows, his face filled with fury as he moves to attack him, but King Celzar slams his free hand onto Mason’s chest, throwing my mate backward. I hiss as the talons of King Celzar’s magic sinks into me again, and the connection snaps back into place. “Now, I’ll finish what I started,” he says, his top lip curled, and I gasp as the energy that had started to replenish inside me starts to drain away. My mates’ cries sound in my ears, the sounds of battle starting up again, but I focus on the king.

I struggle to breathe, my chest feeling like it’s capsizing as that cold seizes me again, but this time I’m ready for him. I focus on the flow of power, and I grab hold of the thread tying us together. I grab hold, and I pull, sinking my own claws into the magic. Because like fuck if he’s taking everything from me.

I strain, mentally fighting against him, and I’m rewarded when the flow of magic slowly changes, the power no longer draining into King Celzar but back into me. Like a damn has burst, power races through my body, filling my veins, sparks of energy exploding inside me like tiny fireworks. Magic twirls and dances as it fills every part of me, and the golden tattoos light up on my skin, the color so bright it’s like my entire body is lit up from the inside. I feel the moment all of my power has returned to me, and a comfortable warmth spreads through my body, but I don’t stop there.

King Celzar lets out a garbled sound as he struggles against my hold, but I don’t release him. Reaching forward, my nails dig into his arm, the scent of his blood in my nose as I keep him there. Different types of magic I’ve never felt before flow into me, and I know it must be remnants of the power he’s stolen from his other brides, and the witch, Yenna. And then, through our connection, I feel them. King Celzar’s connection to the thousands of cuffs he has created and used to magically bind the power of the Perstalian citizens. I realize now that the reason Sassia could alter the cuff slightly and let me access a slither of my power, wasn’t because she’d found a way around the king’s magic. It was because as the king’s magic depleted, so did the magic of the cuffs. They were all connected. And now I was, too.

Crying out, I send out a burst of power across The Haven. The magic pulses and ripples in the air, and I’m rewarded with the steady ‘click’ as simultaneously, every magical cuff unlocks, dropping to the ground. King Celzar lets out a stream of abuse, still struggling against me, and I finally let him break free, knowing his power is almost depleted. He staggers back, glaring at me, and a roar shatters the air followed by screams. Moments later, Nate lands on the dais beside me, no longer on two legs but in his powerful jaguar form. The cat’s massive claws scratch deep grooves into the floor, and his maw drips with blood, a trail of fallen guards behind him. He bares his fangs at the king, his slitted eyes not moving from the male.

Mason’s body changes, growing in size as he turns into a majestic, winged centaur with a glistening brown coat and large brown wings, and Alaric, Dante, and Prince Callan step up as well, their bodies pulsing with power. Prince Callan sends out a burst of wind that sends all of the remaining guards flying backward. They slam against the walls of the ballroom, their bones cracking before they fall to the floor.

“She did it,” a feminine voice cries, and I turn to see Sassia and a handful of the servants watching from the doorway. Instead of standing on two legs, they stand as winged centaurs with glittering, glistening coats. I smile, and she grins at me as if to say she never doubted me.

“This can’t happen,” King Celzar spits, shaking his head furiously as the windows at the back of the dais shatter, glass raining down. I watch as Pask, and three other Pecos birds fly through the windows, their rainbow scales glittering in the light.

“No!” King Celzar shouts, staggering back.

I step forward, smiling grimly as they swoop down. “Oh, did I not mention? I passed on a message to some of your friends. I don’t think they’re too happy with how you’ve been treating them.”

Pask screeches as he lands, his large taloned feet pushing King Celzar to the ground and pinning him there while the other birds circle their prey.

“Brother!” the king calls out fearfully, his frantic gaze going to Mason who stands beside me. “You know The Haven will not survive without me.”

My centaur mate stays by my side, his gaze devoid of emotion. “This is your doing, Celzar. The Pecos have suffered just as the rest of us have.”

Realizing Mason won’t help, King Celzar turns his gaze to Princess Nerelia, his throat bobbing as he speaks. “Sister, have I not kept you alive and well all these years?”

The princess strides forward, no longer restrained, and when she lifts her arms, white crystals form on the ground, surrounding the groaning guards around the room, and half encasing them, so they’re frozen in place. I think of all the white crystal around Perstalia, including the palace itself. It was all her power. The king hadn’t just been feeding on the energy of his brides. He’d been stealing the power of his sister.

“You have kept me,” Prince Nerelia says softly, and there’s a sad but resigned look in her eyes. “And that is your mistake. I never wanted to take the throne, but you have shown why our parents selected me. Without you, we have a chance to heal.”

“N-no!” King Celzar splutters, and when Pask and the other birds cock their heads, asking for my permission, I give it to them. The king’s screams carry throughout the palace, but then it’s silent as his blood seeps onto the floor.

Pask’s talons release the king, and he picks up the king’s crown in his bloodied beak, and he walks over, offering it to me. I take it from him and turn, holding it out to Mason.

“I was never meant to rule,” Mason says with a shake of his head, peering over at his sister.

I walk to Princess Nerelia instead, noting the way her body shines, tiny crystals now glistening over her whole body.

“You’re the rightful queen by marriage,” she tells me with a soft smile. “And you freed us. You’ve earned this.”

I smile. “Would you believe me if I told you I have enough to deal with at home? I have the demon throne to worry about.”

“If the other demons are as powerful and strong-willed as you, I do believe you,” she replies with a grin.

I hold the crown out to her, and she takes it gingerly. “Be the ruler your kind need,” I say. “After what they’ve been through, they deserve it.”

Nodding, she takes a deep breath, standing a little taller as she places the crown on her head. It’s not until the applause starts that I realize citizens of The Haven have poured into the ballroom again, streaming through the doorway. Except instead of cuffed subordinates, hundreds of winged centaurs walk in, their heads held high, and their faces glowing with relief and awe as they stare at their new queen. And as they stare at me.

My mates crowd around me, and Alaric opens his hands, revealing Shade’s battered body. I realize he must have scooped her off the floor. …Because he knows how much she means to me.

I swallow hard, terrified that in the time since I last saw her, she might no longer be breathing, but then she lifts her head, peering at me with those beady eyes I love. “What happened?” she asks groggily, and her gaze finds King Celzar’s torn body. “Oh crap, I missed seeing him get his ass kicked?!”

Laughter bursts out of me, tears springing to my eyes, and my mates press in closer. Nate nudges me with his large nose, and I stroke his soft head, letting his fur slide through my fingers. A loud, possessive rumble starts in his chest, and I grin as the vibration works its way up my arm.

“So, princess,” Dante drawls. “Can we go home now?”