I twisted in a desperate bid for freedom. Attes sidesteppedme, spinning me around. Before I could take another step, he hauled me back against him.
“Sera!” Ash thundered, and a flash of intense light followed.
Through the mass of bodies and dakkais, clashing swords and racing horses, I saw Ash several yards away, drenched in shimmery blood. Clothing ragged. Face clawed. Arm torn. Enraged. Beautiful. Fierce silver eyes locked on mine as he ripped a Cimmerian from the shadows, tearing the god apart. A dakkai came at him from behind. He caught it, shattering the creature with a touch.
Attes’s hand curled around my chin, forcing my head back against his chest as smoke and shadow poured over us. “All we want is you. Remove the charm, and no more blood will be shed this day. No more lives will be lost.”
Ash roared my name in the darkness as rage and desperation swirled through me.
“Refuse?” Attes continued softly. “And my brother will leave none but the Primal standing.”
Ash appeared in the darkness, his body charging with eather as he shoved a dakkai aside, and I saw Rhain behind him, fighting back one more beast.
“Sera!” Ash roared, beginning to rise, but the dakkais, they kept coming at him, jumping on him as they had with Orphine, taking him down. I struggled against Attes’s hold and attempted to get to Ash as he threw the dakkais off.
“It’s your choice,” Attes said. “And you should make it quickly.”
My eyes locked onto Ash’s, and they didn’t leave him until the smoke and shadows whipped through the space between us.
“Promise me,” I rasped. “Swear to me that no one else will be harmed.”
“No one else will be harmed,” pledged Attes. “I swear.”
I shuddered, my insides going cold. “I will leave.”
A sharp swirl of pinpricks swept over my wrists, just like when Vikter had placed the charm on me. The ancient words appeared briefly on my skin, a faint glow that faded quickly.
Attes turned sharply into a void of smoke-choked midnight. “You made the right choice.”
He was wrong. Because there was no choice to be made.
There never had been.
Chapter 47
I dreamt of my lake.
I was swimming, gliding effortlessly through the cool, dark waters. I knew I wasn’t alone as I rose to the surface. A figure waited on the bank.
A wolf, more silver than white in the splintered streams of moonlight, watched.
And as I let myself sink back into the water, I thought I’d seen that wolf before. Not in a dream, but many years ago when I walked these woods as a child. But that thought floated away as I drifted through the water.
I wanted to stay here, where it was peaceful and calm and nothing terrible could disturb me. I swam and swam until I felt the faint wiggle of the embers in my chest. Pushing to the surface, I turned to the bank of my lake.
To where the white wolfonce sat.
And Ash now stood.
My head thumped with dull pain that traveled down and along my jaw as I drew in a deep breath of air that smelled nothing like the last thing I remembered: the smoke and stench of charred flesh and death. The musty, foul scent of the ship Attes had shadowstepped us onto.
That was the last thing I remembered.
That and the explosion of pain along the back of my skull the moment Attes released me.
Which likely explained the throbbing headache. Traitorous bastard. Only the gods knew how long he’d been working with Kolis.
I vowed to myself that I would see him dead before I took my last breath, but how I would accomplish that was yet to be seen. There was a far more pressing concern at the moment.