Page 5 (1/2)
He turned away froainst the pain
“I hate this, I hate this, I hate this,” she chanted, her face tucked back against his chest
He hated it too The only Vrekener in history who despised flying—and it was because of his ownthose four childhood months he’d spent with Melanthe, he’d once encountered a crazed sorceress who’d told him, “Melanthe will never be what you need her to be”
At the tiht that he and Melanthe would prove her and everyone else wrong
How naïve he’d been
His mate couldn’t be more unsuitable for him In addition to all their history—and all her offendments—Melanthe was a Sorceri, a species that confounded him with their counterintuitive ways
They covered up their faces withit ornamentation—instead of concealment They didn’t trust their own kind, had no unity They loved to revel with other Loreans, but if they possessed so of value, they would hole up in faraway keeps like hibernating dragons They could be brave when facing a violent ene one of their precious powers
Though Melanthe’s sinister persuasion wasn’t lost, it was contained—a step in the right direction
She wanted that torque off? It would ring her neck for eternity!
“Where are we going now?” She was no longer shaking Her body shuddered in his arms
He forecasted more sorceress vomit directly “I told you I have means to leave the island”
Thronos had inforuard station, and he’d heard theency
There were rumors of a ship on the far side of the island
All the members of the Order were dead No mortal would’ve lived to take Thronos’s ship And even if other Loreans happened to hear of it, they wouldn’t be able to cross the mountainous terrain of the inner island before he could
He didn’t expect the berth to be visible fro their structures—but Thronos would be able to scent the craft’s engines Once the rain stopped pouring
He would use the vessel to get hih for hi more clearly, he would decide her fate
She’d asked if he planned to kill her Never But that didn’ther his wife and princess
Maybe if he could eventually teach her right fro, he would use her—his mate and therefore his sole option—to continue his line He felt a duty to reproduce since his fa Aristo’s heir
But that would mean Thronos would have to marry Melanthe first He couldn’t even explore her body until then The mere kiss he’d taken from her was an offendment
He peered down at her in his ar he’d heard about her? When he didn’t know the extent of her involven?
He reo, “Your mate and her sister have allied with their brother Omort the Deathless, leader of the Pravus Reports filter out froit’s beyond appalling”
Incest, blood orgies, child sacrifices
Melanthe—the sister of O?
WRATH He felt like he was drowning in it Engulfed in it
“You’re hurtinginto her He didn’t loosen his grip
“What are you thinking of to ed?”
He clenched his jaw, unable even to speak He listened to her heartbeat, focusing on it Get control, Talos Early in his life he’d seen the tragedies even a brief loss of control could wreak
Glass shards like fangs flayinghis speed
In a softer voice, Melanthe said, “Nïx wouldn’t have soldto hurt o in thethe foot he’d lost because of Melanthe Nïx hadn’t see reality when she’d told Thronos where to be to get captured—and when to be there, just a week ago All those
“What did that Valkyrie tell you about me?” Melanthe asked “What was her advice?”
It’d been one cryptic sentence: Before Melanthe becaabout s intensified steadily
With the pain came equal parts wrath
Because of the creature in his arms, he’d had lifetimes of both
FIVE
Numbed to the drizzle and cold, Lanthe was lulled into a kind of exhausted stupor as the flight went on and on and on When they’d crossed over an expansive forest, the noises of the battles grew dilance back, could still see bursts of spectral light Soon that melee would spread outward all over the entire island Thronos had to know that
His face was tensely set—as if he were concentrating on blocking out his pain There’d be no talking Think about so else