Blackbird Crowned (The Witch King's Crown #3) - Keri Arthur Page 0,110

of any regular weapon I might be holding.

“And how,” I said, voice still even despite the fear and fury roiling inside, “do I know she isn’t already dead, given your earlier threat?”

“A fair enough question. I guess asking you to trust me is out of the question these days?”

“Yeah,” I said. “It is.”

He sighed. It was a strangely sad sound. “Then you shall get your proof. Lads, stand back.”

There was a shuffle of movement, then light flared—a round, yellow-white beam that revealed Mo’s pale and bloody face. She might have been captured, but she’d obviously gone down fighting.

“How could you do that to her?” I ground out. “She damn well raised you!”

“Yes, and there is a part of me that’s sorry she was treated so abominably. But she did kill quite a number of my people and it left them with little choice but to take physical action.”

“What the fuck has happened to you, Max?” The question was out before I could stop it. “When did you become everything I absolutely and utterly abhor?”

That struck a nerve. I might not have been able to see him, but his emotions were so sharp they could have been my own.

And yet, the one thing I didn’t feel in that fierce wave was regret.

He might hate that I hated him, but he didn’t regret one single thing he’d done … or would do.

I’d thought there was no love left in me for him, but I’d been wrong. It had been buried deep, to be sure, but it had existed, praying for a miracle while still stubbornly believing that if I confronted him, I might somehow reach the man I’d grown up loving and believing in.

But this wasn’t that man.

This was a stranger wearing his form.

A stranger who wasn’t wraith infected, because even if he’d drawn a fake, it was still a creation of light rather than darkness. He wouldn’t have been able to wield her if he had been infected.

I sucked in a breath and, for the first time since this whole mess had begun, felt free.

Free to do what had to be done.

I studied Mo again, this time looking beyond the injuries and her bruised and bloody state. Her eyes were closed, and there was no indication she knew I was here. She hadn’t reacted to the sound of my voice, hadn’t moved, hadn’t done anything at all to indicate awareness. She breathed, which was at least something, and there was no sign of the shimmer that had indicated the wraith infection in Luc’s sister. That at least was good, but it didn’t really provide a whole lot of comfort. Something had to be wrong for her to be this still, this silent.

I narrowed my gaze and, after a moment, spotted the magic. It was a dark thread of evilness that not only surrounded her, but also wrapped tightly around her throat. One solitary thread ran off from this into the darkness, and I had no doubt it somehow connected her and Max, and definitely not in a good way.

“What have you done to her?” I growled, my fingers tightening on Elysian’s hilt. Energy flickered briefly down her blade, a sharp warning of the fury waiting to be unleashed. “What is the magic that leashes her?”

“That,” he answered, “is my guarantee. Kill me, and she will also die.”

It felt as if someone had reached in, grabbed my heart, and ripped it from my chest. I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think, could only stare at the woman who’d raised me and who meant everything to me.

An ungodly choice now faced me—to stop him, to stop Darkside, I’d have to kill the one person I cared about more than life itself.

“Come inside,” he continued blithely. “Or do you need a demonstration on just how effective the spell is?”

“No.”

It was a short, sharp bark, and he laughed. “Then move, sister, or else.”

I obeyed. As I passed through the spell, fierce heat hit my body, burning across my skin and leaving a trail of itchy uneasiness behind. Neither of the knives reacted, and though I could feel their distant thrumming, their blades remained quiet. Whether that would change if I held them, I had no idea and, right now, no intention of finding out. It was better if Max believed the spell was working.

“Now close the door,” he continued.

Once again I obeyed, though my grip on Elysian’s hilt was now so fierce her light peeled back the immediate darkness. The crown responded to that energy, shooting thin