She fought as the thing’s blood soaked into the ground, struggling to get free. The monster didn’t want to let go of her. She made it stronger, somehow. Faster and smarter.
It didn’t want to die alone.
Frantic, Nika forced all her fear into the sgath, using that emotion to propel her out of its weakened mind before it died. She was sucked back into her own body, but by then it was too late. Her blood—the blood that sgath had used to take over her mind—now flowed through a dozen more of its kind.
They all wanted her inside them, making them faster and stronger, too. She felt them pull at her, tugging at her mind as if they were trying to rip it from her. She hardened herself, fighting back, refusing to give up for Tori’s sake.
But she was too weak. She didn’t know how to fight off one, much less a dozen. Her mind cracked and splintered. Glittering shards of what made Nika who she was were cast into the night. Each of the sgath claimed its own piece, ripping her sanity from her.
That was the night Nika went crazy.
Madoc had no idea how she’d survived it—how she’d lived long enough for him to hunt and kill the things that haunted her, so she could reclaim all the fractured pieces of herself. He wasn’t even sure if what he’d done had been enough.
Tori had been the one who’d really saved Nika’s life.
The tenuous connection between the two sisters shimmered like a braid of spider silk. Over the years, it had thinned until only a single strand remained. Nika refused to let that strand break. He felt her determination to hang on to that connection even as Tori worked to sever it.
Why she would do such a thing, Madoc had no idea, but part of him hoped she’d succeed. Nothing could ever harm Nika. Not even her own sister. He refused to even consider letting it happen.
Nika was his lady now and he was honor-bound to protect her with his life, if need be. He could no longer allow her to run around at night, risking yet another attack by a Synestryn who would rip away bits of her mind. He’d managed to slay most of the sgath, but what if one of the stronger Synestryn got some of her blood? What if she couldn’t fight it? What if his sweet Nika was left damaged beyond repair, living in a nightmare, forced to remain forever locked inside the monsters while they killed?
It was her worst fear. He could see the malignant pulsing of that terror echoing through her mind, shaping her every move.
She’d rather die than go back to that world of blood and death and insanity.
Madoc was going to make sure it never happened, even if she ended up hating him for what he now knew he had to do.
Chapter 14
Nika knew that the luceria would give her some kind of vision once she put it on—some peek into Madoc’s life. She wasn’t sure what it could show her that she didn’t already know. She’d been inside him, seen the darkness that plagued him, and bathed in the light of his soul. How could a view of what his life had been like, or what made him the person he was, top that?
But what she saw was no flash from the past, as she’d heard described. What she saw was something she’d never even considered.
The future.
It swirled around her, more a concept than a series of events. Comprised more of emotion than anything, the flow of possibilities was endless, pattering against her like hot rain. With each drop that fell, she saw another possible future.
Some were horrible, tainted with blood and death. Others were so sweet, she could almost feel the tears of joy sliding over her cheeks. She smelled a baby’s skin in one moment; then in the next, she felt the chill of Madoc’s lifeblood leaking through her fingers. The thrill of a battle won surged inside her, only to be cut short by the debilitating grief of both her sisters’ deaths.
Nika was laughing and crying, raging at the world and celebrating miracles. The barrage of emotions kept coming at her, swarming over her until a single one remained.
She felt trapped. Useless. Desperate. Defeated.
Those emotions coalesced into a vision so real, she knew without a doubt that the luceria was showing her more than simply a possibility. It was showing her her future.
She was locked inside Dabyr, a virtual prisoner. She recognized the space as Madoc’s suite, but it wasn’t the walls that kept her here. It was a vow she’d made in haste.
She’d promised him she wouldn’t get hurt and that vow had allowed him to imprison her inside Dabyr, where he thought no harm could come to her. It had allowed him to keep her there while the last connection she had to Tori winked out of existence.
At that moment, Nika knew that her sister was dead, and it had been her vow that killed Tori. Nika also knew that her failure would be the thing that killed her. The guilt would eat her whole, leaving her an angry, wasted shell of a woman.
Madoc would suffer watching it happen, being unable to do anything to stop it. The two of them would drift apart. The darkness that lurked inside him would grow.
Andra would blame herself, and Paul’s inability to fix it would gnaw at him, making him angry and afraid. Their relationship would suffer, too.
As their connections weakened, so did their magic. Battles became harder to win. More human children were stolen from their parents. Countless people died.
Nika couldn’t let any of that happen. She was meant to fight by Madoc’s side—to take the same risks he did. She wasn’t meant to be protected from her birthright.
Whatever she did—whatever promises he tried to force from her—she had to stay strong and refuse to give him that vow that would destroy the lives of so many.
“Promise me,” she heard him say outside the confines of the vision.
Nika opened her eyes and looked down at Madoc. Blood ran down his chest. His naked body was shining with perspiration, his muscles knotted with fear.
He gave her a little shake. “Promise me you’ll do whatever it takes to stay safe.”