Page 185 of Their Rejected Queen

The king gives me a gruesome grin. “The revenants,” he says as he traces a finger under my chin. Edward relaxes as if this makes King Njord more of an ally than a force he needs to control. “You, my dear, are going to give them to me.”

Not even Arwan controls them. King Njord seems to think that he does.

“You can have them,” I say, sweeping my hands wide. “Just let my sponsors go.”

King Njord barks a laugh. “If only it were that easy. The revenants are pieces of your prince, at their core. They don’t listen to anyone, which means that their spirit needs to be broken before they’ll obey.” He scans his gaze across the craggy soil, glaring at Arwan. “I need to break him first.”

“Cain isn’t going to break him,” I whisper as the massive beast moves in for a devastating strike. “He’s going to kill him.”

King Njord shrugs. “If he does, then the revenants will be set free. Once they’re finished with Monster Isle, they’ll come after the rest of this world. I’ll take chaos either way.”

King Cain won’t allow this kind of insurgence to come to pass. He’ll kill my mates first, if he has to.

He’ll kill them all.

“Please!” I shout, begging him to stop, but I feel helpless as his clawed hand falls.

He slashes across Arwan’s chest, using all his weight to take a direct blow straight at the prince. Arwan doesn’t dodge it and stumbles back as his robes tear around him, revealing the claw-shaped wounds over his skin.

He could have moved out of the way, but he had chosen not to. I realize why when he swings with his chain, sending the ends of it wrapping around Cain’s neck.

He needed him close enough to capture.

The massive beast roars as he crashes to one knee, and I draw in a gasp.

Cain is an ally.

Arwan is my mate.

The shadows shimmer and shake across the entire isle, proving that this is giving King Njord exactly what he desires.

“Stop this,” I say again through clenched teeth.

Edward shushes me as he brushes the hair from my face. He tucks the unruly strands behind my ear, then examines the curls in his palm. My hair is usually brown with streaks of gold, but in this nightmare place, it has turned completely white.

“There’s another way. I made sure of it.”

I blink up at him. “What do you mean?”

He smiles as if we’re back home, discussing rumors and frivolous things. “Did you know that when I made my soul contract with King Njord, it was a package deal?” he whispers.

Goose bumps rise over my arms as King Njord shifts around us and produces a contract that he rests on a rock rising from the shadows.

Ah. So that’s why my brother isn’t panicking.

Edward and his stupid contracts.

“My bondage was created by a deal,” King Njord says. “It would be fitting if it was undone by one.”

There’s a bloody signature on the bottom that states Edward Rinhold.

And there’s a blank line next to it, ready for one more.

He wouldn’t.

Skimming the terms, I spot the place where impossible promises are made.

“You can be whole,” Edward continues to breathe in my ear as I scour over the terms. “Your mates don’t have to die. I negotiated this deal myself. You can be restored, be able to have children, and we can all go home. We can overturn our family and pay back what they did to both of us. Whatever changes King Njord would make would leave us on top. We’ll be filthy rich. We’ll join the Immortality Sector, just like we always wanted.”