He stumbles back, tripping over the wooden floor and scrambling away from me, a look of unadulterated terror on his face.
"If only your subjects could see you now. If you kill me, I will haunt you for the rest of your days. If Mikal is alive, and you lay a finger on him, you will wish you had never been alive."
Rholker’s once arrogant and confident demeanor shatters completely before my eyes. For all his brutality, I have never seen him so vulnerable. Pity should have filled me, but I feel nothing but satisfaction. He deserves everything that was coming to him.
"You wouldn't dare. You bitch!" he yells, slamming the door on my cage. "I will find a way to get that stone out of you."
With that, he turns on his heel and runs out of the room, the echo of his footsteps a bitter reminder of the change from stone to wood. I was wrong in the mountain;thisis what it was to be trapped with monsters.
Teo?I say through our mating bond.
Silence.
Such ugly silence.
I unclasp the necklace around my neck and look down at the ring, remembering what he had told me when he handed me my ring.
Amethyst, melanterite, obsidian, and ruby.
He had said the words like he was trying to tell me something.
Amethyst.
A.
My eyes widen, and I trace the letters on the ground.A M O R.
Amor.One of my words, written with Enduar letters.
I gasp and look back at the necklace. There are forty gems on that one, most of which I don’t recognize.
“Teo,” I murmur. “What message have you left me?”
* * *
The end…for now.