me. His face had gone white. I’d shocked even him.
“Very nice,” he said. He’d grown taller. He was no longer cloaking himself. I saw his true form. White-blond hair. Ears that came to a slight point. He was beautiful, in a cruel way. And he was old. Ancient. Maybe older than even my grandmother.
“Where is Archer?” I asked.
“You sure you still want him?” Krall asked. “I know Jameson told you who he is.”
“That’s not who he is. Able Valent was an abomination. Something you created. He wasn’t born a Tyrannous Alpha. It’s not the natural way. He was twisted. Groomed. And that was you. The Ring. Admit it.”
He smiled. “I don’t answer to you.”
“And yet, here you are.”
Krall laughed. “Did you think there wouldn’t be a price? Did you think you were in control?”
I swallowed my snarky comeback. Cold fingers of dread squeezed my heart. He wasn’t talking about now. He was talking about what I did to him in J.C.’s suite.
“Delicious,” Krall said. “I have half a mind to just eat you up. We could be good together, I think. A halfling with my blood and yours would be something divine.”
My skin crawled. I thought of Archer’s mother. What she faced. What she survived.
In an instant, Krall was on me. I never saw him move. He curled my hair between his fingers. “I can show you.”
Then, he did. I wasn’t in the valley anymore. I was in a sterile room. No windows. Bars on the door. I felt the pain of childbirth. Then, something ripped from me. He showed me our son.
“No,” I whispered. “This isn’t real.”
Half-fae. Part mage. Part dragon. He was right. A being with that kind of power had never existed before.
“Stop!” I yelled. I broke the spell.
“I could make it so you’d want it,” he said.
“No,” I said. “You couldn’t.”
Krall shrugged. “Maybe not. But, I’d make it so you couldn’t stop me.”
Fire poured out of me, unbidden. No. God, no. Krall drew it from me. My legs buckled. It felt like my heart exploded.
“I like the way you dance,” he said. And so I danced. He controlled me like a puppet.
Stupid. So stupid to think I could fight him.
Then, he let me go. I fell to the ground. Sweat poured down my back. I struggled to catch my breath.
“You’re scared?” Krall asked.
“No,” I said, defiant. I wasn’t. Disgust was my predominant emotion, not fear.
“Pity,” he said. “Your fire is stronger when you’re afraid. We’ll have to work on that.”
I reacted without thinking. I let out a blast of fire that caught Krall straight in the chest. His eyes went big as I knocked him backward.
Slowly, I rose to my feet. I had him pinned against a tree. His body was wracked with spasms.
Pure Dragonfire. I felt the power of the ages flow through me. Fae magic was strong. But dragon magic was earthbound. And this was our turf, dammit.
“Bring. Me. The. Wolf!” I demanded. I didn’t know how long I could sustain this and didn’t care. It felt too damn good to see Krall suffer.
Then, I heard Archer’s howl. It ripped through the air. In an instant, I cut off my flame. Krall gasped for breath, clutching his chest.
I towered over him as he lay on the ground. “I won’t ask you again,” I said.
Wheezing, Krall slowly brought his eyes up to meet mine. For a moment, I sensed his fear. Then, his face split into a smile.
“She’ll be perfect,” he whispered. “Better than I ever could have hoped.”
“What?”
I felt Archer’s agony then. Something struck him in the back. An arrow.
“No!” I shouted. I saw him from a distance. He was in his wolf. His body arched then crumpled to the ground.
Another body rolled before him. Another fae. He was dead. His throat had been ripped open just like J.C.’s. Archer killed him. But not before the fae stabbed him with a blade made of Dragonsteel.
I tried to go to him. Only I could help him now. If the wound was deep, he would die. But I was the cure.
I got two steps, then the ground shifted once more. We were no longer in the valley. We were far underground. And we weren’t alone.
I hadn’t seen them. My God. I was such an idiot. Krall hadn’t come alone. At least a dozen fae surrounded us, eyes blazing.
Krall recovered and rose to his feet. “I told you,” he said to the others. “Congratulations, Phaedra. You’re about to become the next big thing.”
As blackness began to blanket