Death Bringer

Vadim drew Adam’s attention away from his mate, who looked ready to do him harm. “Did you kill her?”

“Who, Nia? No, she was weak. She couldn’t live with the idea that she’d betrayed you by pretending I’d died in your attack. She was more than willing to listen to my suggestion and take her own life.”

“Is that what gave you the idea for your little game, then?” Ella asked. “To take her face as a trophy?”

“Yes, Soul Sucker, how astute of you to notice.” He snarled. “I obviously underestimated your intelligence.”

“Most of us do.” Vadim recovered his veneer of calm. “So if we assume that you follow the sect’s usual rule of three, and that you wanted my face next, whom did you choose to complete the pattern?” Adam’s gaze flicked momentarily to Vadim’s right. “Ah, you wanted Father’s face, because once you had his, no one would remember you as Ciaran, and you could move on with your plan to control the whole of Otherworld.”

“What?”

In his desire to get up close and personal with the captive, the Fae king tried to push past Vadim, who put out an arm to hold him back.

“He intended to kill you. Didn’t you get that?”

“That’s impossible! I—” The king suddenly broke off as if aware that his estranged spouse and mother-in- law were regarding him suspiciously. “It’s not true.”

“Why would I lie?” Adam said. “I’m not expecting to come out of this encounter alive, are you?”

Blustering, the Fae king turned to survey his audience. “The man is mad. He obviously wants to implicate as many of us in his crimes as possible. Perhaps Death Bringer was right in the first instance, and Adam was trying to annihilate our whole family. Isn’t that rather more important?”

“Nice try, Fergal.” Ella pretended to clap. “And, by the way, that was my idea, not Morosov’s.”

Vadim reached out and took her hand. He half turned to face his family. “For once I’ll agree with my father that the state of the realm is rather more important than the state of his conscience. What do you want me to do about ‘Adam’?”

He couldn’t call that monster by his brother’s name. From what he’d sensed in the other’s mind, all vestiges of humanity had been leached from his soul over the intervening years. Adam cared for no one and thrived on power, hatred and vengeance.

His grandmother raised her chin. “What do you wish to do with him, Death Bringer?”

Vadim went still. Beside him, Ella squeezed his hand hard.

“It’s okay about my face, it really is. I don’t care if you execute him. He’s done enough harm in his lifetime even for an immortal Fae.”

Vadim stared at his brother for a long quiet moment and then raised his hand.

* * *

Ella wanted to close her eyes, but she owed it to her mate to watch to the end. She couldn’t let him destroy himself again. Didn’t his family understand the terrible burden he’d carried with him for centuries?

“Morosov...”

“No!”

A bolt of the Fae king’s magic shot between her and Vadim, releasing Adam from his bonds. With an exultant cry, he rose above the ground and grabbed for Ella.

“Get off me, you idiot!”

Vadim rose too, his huge wings unfolding, claws out, fangs extended.

“Let her go!”

Twenty feet up in the air, Adam held her out in front of him, and her legs dangled like a doll’s. “Father, kill her!”

She looked down at the Fae king’s face. The wound on her shoulder started to throb like fire.

“Don’t be stupid!” she shouted. “If you kill me, Morosov will kill you and Adam will have won everything!”

“She’s right.” Despite his aggressive stance, Vadim’s voice was eerily calm. “Now release her, Adam. This is between us. It always has been.”

She glared at Vadim. “Don’t you dare fight him! That’s what he wants! Why are all you Fae so dumb sometimes?”

She tried to turn to see Adam’s face, and he was smiling. The door to the hall crashed open. Beyond it was the long corridor leading to the trophy room. Was he intending to gather his trophies on the way out, or did he intend to destroy everything?

His trophies...

She looked from him back to Vadim and then at the Fae king.

Sets of three. The blondes, the brunettes and the final set of Fae royalty that would never be completed....

“Give me the dagger and give me your power.”

“Don’t be stupid.”

“Don’t argue with me! I think I know how to fix this!”

“Ella...”

“Please. Trust me.”

A second later, the blade was in her palm. Below her, the Fae king held up his hand, and the pain in her shoulder began to spread throughout her entire body. Without allowing herself to think any longer, she used Vadim’s immense strength to free her right hand and, turning, plunged the lethal blade into Adam’s throat. As he screamed, they started to fall. By the time they hit the floor, she was beyond feeling anything at all.

Chapter Sixteen

The moment Ella turned to strike Adam, Vadim lurched across the space and just managed to knock some of the power out of his father’s spell. Adam started screaming, blood gushing from his mouth, and fell, bringing Ella with him. Alighting beside them. Vadim picked his father up by the throat and shook him like a rat.

“What the fuck were you doing? If you’ve killed her, I’ll—”

A cool hand touched his arm. “I’ll see to her, my son.”

Vadim didn’t release his grip. “He still dies.”

“I wasn’t aiming at her, you fool! I had a clear shot at Adam!”

Vadim didn’t even deign to answer that; his attention all on his mate, who lay sprawled over Adam’s bloodied corpse. Blood oozed through her jacket from her left shoulder. His mother knelt in front of her and took her hand.

“She’s still alive.”

Vadim exhaled and loosened his death grip around his father’s neck a tiny fraction. “You are very lucky. Now she will be able to watch me kill you in person.”

“I didn’t intend to harm her. If I had, all I needed was to call in my mark. I was aiming at Adam!”

He bared his fangs an inch from his father’s face. “Release her from your mark right now.”

Sweat glistened on the king’s unlined forehead. “It is done. I swear it.”

Vadim dropped his father and went over to where Ella had fallen. His mother had disentangled her from Adam, and she lay on her back, her eyes closed, her battered backpack supporting her head.

“Will she be all right?”

“With your father’s influence now removed, I believe she will.” The queen hesitated. “She is a fine mate for you, my son.”

He sank down onto his haunches beside them and reached out a shaking hand to touch her unnaturally dark