Page 204 of The Stolen Throne
Shadow’s grip clamps tighter around me, digging into my flesh, and Reven still hasn’t answered me. Not even a hint that he’s there.
“She’s right,” the king murmurs. “We need more time.”
Now he’s looking at Reven, speculation in his narrowed gaze. I don’t have to guess what he’s thinking. It’s written plainly across his familiar features. He wants his Shadows back.
Find me, I will Reven. I’m here.
“I’ll take her now,” he says to Shadow.
Reven’s arms leave me as he walks away, only to be replaced by a rope of shadow that won’t let me move any more than being held by him did. My blood pumps hard through me, because I already know what’s coming.
My search for my mate in the darkness tumbles into sheer panic.
Again, Eidolon lifts his hands. In the light that comes from them, I can see the sweat dripping down his face, the clamminess to his skin. He can’t have much left in him.
It starts slowly at first. A layer of black mist pulls away from Reven’s features but remains in the shape of him at the same time. It lifts from his body, like the king is drawing it out, toward himself.
“Wait!” I cry out.
Eidolon raises his eyebrows, but the mist continues toward the king.
“Take your other Shadows and leave me Reven. He’ll only fight you from within. You know it.”
The process seems to still, the stretched-out misty forms hanging between them like parchment-thin dolls on a string. “Don’t worry,” one of the Shadows says. “We can control him.”
No. No. No.
I frantically cast around for Reven, desperation rising like dunes blown against our palace walls in a storm, but he’s still not there.
There’s only one thing of value I have left to trade.
The king can’t free the goddesses. Not yet. I know that much, so that makes what I’m about to try safer. I’m trying to convince myself that’s true. Because for my soulbound mate, it turns out I would do anything.
“I found one of the amulets.” The words tumble from my lips.
Eidolon’s face loses that sneer, his features and eyes sharpening with visible interest. He’s listening.
“I will give it to you.” He takes a single menacing step forward, and I know that I have him. “But only if you leave me Reven.”
We stare at each other, the king’s Shadows suspended between us.
I’m still reaching for Reven, but he hasn’t found me. This is our last chance. “Swear on your mother’s soul.”
Eidolon doesn’t hesitate. “I swear it.”
The king flicks a hand, and suddenly I can feel him again, returned to me in an instant. Reven is staring at me, his turquoise eyes brilliant and true, the Shadows no longer in control of his body.
“Don’t do this,” he says.
I want to reach for him, but I’m still bound. “I have to. I can’t lose you.” I look at Eidolon. “I need my hand.”
The shadow holding me loosens enough to work one out. I slip the amulet over my head and offer it to the king.
Darkness lifts the amulet from my fingertips, but the second Eidolon has it within his grasp, Reven falls to the ground with a groan, convulsing.
Wait. This isn’t right.
I struggle against my bindings. “What are you doing?” I yell. “You swore!”
