Dread hardens in the pit of my stomach as Zairn steps out of the dark, but it’s not the sight of his lipless snarl that has me so terrified—it’s the beautiful woman he has clutched in his arms.

“Dagny!”

Her name enters the air in a thunderous roar, vibrating through the sky and shaking the ground beneath my knees with the weight of desperation and despair it holds. I fight against the two soldiers holding me in place, helpless to break free of their hold but needing to try anyway. “Dagny! What have you done to her!”

My vision tunnels as I take in her closed eyes and pale lips, the way her body drapes limply over Zairn’s forearms, and I think the worst. No. No, she can’t be dead. She can’t be.

“NO!” I roar, lunging to the side and attempting to sink my teeth into the soldier on my left, but he shifts out of the way just in time, and my jaws clamp down on nothing but air. A frustrated scream builds in the base of my chest as the sound of Slaine’s laughter makes its way to my ears, exploding from my open mouth in a thunderous roar that rivals the pain and anger boiling beneath my skin.

“You think you’re so clever, but you’re just predictable,” Slaine says, his mouth widening in a simpering sneer. “I always knew you would turn on me. As soon as I saw the way you looked at that one—” He gestures toward Dagny. “I knew it was over. I realized you would go back on our deal, and that I needed to have a backup plan in place.”

He gazes toward my mate, and his eyes flash with a desire that has my blood boiling. “I don’t think you or I really believed the extraordinary power she possessed. I think you were just as shocked as I was when she tore down the castle like it was made of paper.” A gentle chuckle shakes his chest, but it doesn’t match the demented gleam in his smile. “Remarkable, isn’t she? I understand now why you went to such lengths to keep her for yourself.”

His head turns back toward me, his smile never wavering. “You didn’t plan for her to destroy the palace, did you? You thought she would just make a nice little distraction so you all could flee… You didn’t mean for me to witness the full extent of her power—you couldn’t have. It wouldn’t make any sense.”

“Does it matter?” I growl, spitting a mouthful of blood onto the ground. “It happened.”