A redheaded man stood a few feet away from Brynleigh, and she… wasn’t screaming. Why the fuck wasn’t she screaming?
Ryker’s heart thundered like a bear banging against the bars of its cage. He recognized the newcomer from the Masked Ball as the man who’d danced with Brynleigh.
Danger, danger, danger.
A roaring filled his ears.
Shocked, he listened as Brynleigh conversed with the shifter. As if she wasn’t surprised by his arrival.
As if she had… expected him.
Icy horror coursed through Ryker’s veins, freezing him in place and forcing him to watch as his new wife of less than twenty-four hours betrayed him. The one person he thought he could trust, the one person to whom he’d given his heart, took it and ripped it to shreds.
He couldn’t move, couldn’t think, couldn’t do anything at all except listen.
“Love makes us do stupid things,” the shifter said. “I should know.”
What did that mean?
Brynleigh reached out a hand towards the shifter as if in protest. “What? Don’t?—”
“I’m sorry, B.” The man’s voice hardened, the promise of violence clear in his voice.
Danger, danger, danger.
The fae captain gave up pretending to be asleep and threw off the blanket.
He was too late.
Brynleigh shouted, “No?—”
A flash of silver filled the space, and then something popped.
Brynleigh screamed, the high-pitched sound forever ingraining itself in Ryker’s memory. She fell to the ground with a loud thud, her limp body covered in blood. The life-giving substance streamed endlessly from her chest. He’d always remember that, too.
How could he forget the worst moments of his life?
The next few minutes were a blur.
Ryker formed ice daggers, one in each hand. He leaped out of bed, and instincts took over his movements.
The shifter came at him, his murderous intent clear.
Ryker didn’t even remember fighting the other man. All he knew, all he cared about, was that he won.
The shifter was still alive when Ryker was done with him, but he would probably wish for death soon enough.
After Ryker knocked the shifter out and tied him up, he called for backup. He managed to get the request out without his voice shaking, which was a gods-damned miracle.
And then he went to Brynleigh’s side.
Crimson rivers flowed from her chest, staining everything in sight. There was so much fucking blood.
Ryker didn’t stop to think about what he was doing as he fell to his knees. He didn’t think about her betrayal because if he did, he might break.
His military training had him reaching inside her chest and pulling out the prohiberis bullet. He didn’t think the magic-blocking metal could kill a vampire, but he didn’t want to find out.
Even now, aftereverything, she was still… his.