Burning Dawn (Angels of the Dark #3)(91)
Author: Gena Showalter

Not even if you pay me.

“But I’d like her to stay,” the newcomer intoned.

Suddenly, her feet felt as if they weighed a thousand pounds. She tried to lift one, failed, and tried to lift the other. Another fail. Her shoes had somehow adhered to the pavement.

“I’ve summoned my entire army,” Bjorn announced. “You may be a prince, Malice, but you cannot beat us all.”

The male shook his head, his hair so long it danced over the flowers on the ground. “I can. I will. I’ll just have to work quickly.” His voice was a whisper on the wind, and yet, it was now laced with screams of anguish.

Elin cringed, certain her ears were bleeding.

For seemingly no reason, Bjorn’s legs collapsed, the bones in his calves snapping and pushing through his skin. As he bellowed with pain, he threw one of his swords at the prince.

Rather than take the blow, as he’d done with the boulder, Malice easily glided out of range…

…and both of Bjorn’s arms broke.

Another bellow sounded. Elin crouched and reached for him, thinking to grab Bjorn and yank him behind her. She would be his shield.

Malice laughed, and though the screams were thankfully absent, the gleeful cadence of his voice scraped at her nerves. “I didn’t expect to have this much fun.”

“Stop,” she shouted. “Enough.”

He smirked. “Is it?”

Crack.

Bjorn’s neck twisted to an unbearable angle. His chest stilled, no longer rising and falling.

“No!” she screamed. He was…he was…

Dead?

Unlike the Phoenix, he wouldn’t regenerate. But a Sent One couldn’t be killed so easily, could he?

Acid replaced blood, rushing through her veins. “Free my feet and fight me. Or are you too much of a coward?”

His gaze raked over her, and he tsked. “So brave…with so little reason to be. Let’s see what we can do about that.”

The next thing Elin knew, she was being lifted from the ground, floating closer and closer to the prince. Instinct demanded she flail and try to stop the motion. But she didn’t. She balled her fists, ready to throw the first punch when she got to him.

Of course, he stopped her just out of reach.

“Is the big, bad warrior afraid of a girl?” she taunted.

He pursed his lips. “You’re beginning to bore me, my sweet.”

“I’m devastated. Really.”

“Not yet. But you will be.” He glided forward, and just when he was within reach, he managed to immobilize her arms without even touching her. “I’m going to do Thane both a favor and a disservice. I will make you fully Phoenix, giving you an eternity with him…but he’ll have to watch me kill you over and over again.”

Fully Phoenix equaled fully immortal. It was what Thane desired for her more than anything. Once, she might have worried that he would freak out over the Phoenix aspect. Now, she knew him better. He loved her, no matter her race.

“Do it,” she gritted. “Make me stronger. See what happens when I unleash my wrath against you.”

He chuckled as he held out his empty hand. A syringe appeared in the center of his palm, crimson liquid swirling in the belly. “I had to trade a few favors for this. I know the Sent One has come to accept your heritage…but I doubt he’ll be so forgiving of Kendra’s ability to enslave. Unlike the princess, you won’t be able to turn it off at will.”

What! “No!” she shouted, twisting and turning, contorting her body to avoid the needle. Not the poison. Anything but the poison. Because he was right. Thane could get over anything—except that.

Grinning, the prince held her steady and jabbed the needle into her neck. In a blink, fire spread through her entire body. Screams reverberated inside her skull.

“Blood from the strongest of the Phoenix, as well as Kendra, with a little something extra from me to help speed the process along.” He brushed a fingertip along her jawline, making the pain ten thousand times worse. “You will come find me when you revive.”

“No.”

“Ah, well, you’ll soon discover otherwise. When next you wake, you’ll be bonded to me. You’ll do everything I tell you.”

He was too smug to be lying. She longed to respond—every fiber of her being was screaming, “Never!”—but she didn’t have the strength.

He held out his hand, empty now, and Bjorn’s sword flew into his grip. Her eyes widened. What did he—

He stabbed her in the stomach, once, twice, a third time. Agony. Such agony. Blood burned a path up her throat and gurgled from her mouth. The moment he pulled the metal out, she tumbled to the ground, unable to hold herself up.

“See you soon, my sweet.” He stepped over her.

From the corner of her eye, she watched, horrified, as he stabbed Bjorn in the heart. If the warrior had managed to survive the severed spine, he was a goner now.

No, no, no. He was a Sent One. Stronger than most. He could survive even this.

Please.

The sword clattered to the ground. Whistling, the prince entered the castle.

Bastard. As she writhed in burning agony, her mind locked on a single fact. If he wasn’t stopped, he would hurt and kill everyone she loved. Can’t let him.

She reached for the sword, but the action caused her heart rate to increase, and her blood to pour out faster. She stilled. I’m dying, my last minutes ticking away.

It was okay, she reminded herself. She would come back. Malice had seen to that.

In Thane’s eyes, she would be a monster.

A whimper budded in the back of her throat.

Can’t worry about that right now.

To face the prince, she had to be stronger. And she would have to face him, not just because he’d compelled her—she could feel the desire to find him already stirring in her chest—but to help Thane.

Elin wiggled, and kept wiggling, hastening the flow of blood. The darkness waiting on the periphery spilled into her mind, closing in…growing thicker…

What if the prince lied, and you aren’t really immortal?

The thought hit her, and she stilled. It was a possibility.

No. No, it wasn’t. I’m coming back, even if I’m not fully Phoenix. No matter what, she was fully determined. Nothing could pry her spirit’s kung-fu grip from her body. Nothing.

…cold slithering through her limbs. Destination: her heart.

It was coming. Death was coming. There was no stopping it.

…pooling in her chest…

“Thane,” Elin said with the last of her breath.