Chapter 223 Check mate!

Chapter 223 Check mate!
"Lys? Lys?" Finn was fumbling around in panic now. And then his eyes fell on the ruby pendant resting on my chest.

Those aqua-colored eyes darkened, and before I could get a word out through my coughs and splutter, he grabbed the chain with both hands and broke it.

I swam in and out of consciousness as he flung the chain across the room. The red pendant smashed against the wall, and crashed like marble, jaggged pieces flying all over.

The coughs ceased, and my body seemed to melt further into the bed as I stared at him in defeat.

He really was destined to die with me. And now they would need to get an Ascendant immediately instead of enjoying ten free years.

His trembling hands cradled my face, wiping my lips, "Did it work? You're not shaking anymore."

"Finn," I whispered, aching to touch his face one last time, to feel the kisses he was pressing to my shoulder.

"Can you feel your body, baby?" His words came in a rush, his eyes searching mine in panic. "Lys?"

“You should not have done that.” My body was still, a peaceful feeling settling over me. "I needed you here to tell Mordaine the truth about what happened to me. I needed you here to tell him all I just told you."

His hands froze on my face, and then fell away. I watched all the emotions play out on his face. Confusion, understanding, and then horror.

"I need to talk to him, please. Tell Hale to let him in,” We could not waste any more second. I could feel the strength leaving my body at this point. He would soon start to feel it too, the life force slowly bleeding away from our bodies. "Finn."

But he was frozen, unmoving. And suddenly, I realized he was not here. His body was, but his mind had been transported, gone to a distant place like mine the day I recovered the bulk of my memory from previous lifetimes.

The door burst open at that moment, and the dragon appeared.

My eyes went round at the sight of him. He had not shifted in years, and I had forgotten how terrifying he looked even in a partial shift.

Like a giant, he leaned down to cross the doorway. A serpentine tail, as large as three firefighter's hoses joined together, was curled around him. His skin had gone from its natural tan to bright ivory like mine, his hair was the same bright color, as were the two horns sticking out of it.

His large wings knocked down the chunks of stone wall as they brushed past into the room, and on his hands was blood that was not his own.

My heart stopped.

DAINE

I could have fallen to my knees when I saw her on that bed.

My wife was dressed like a common Ascendant, in a simple white dress even though, oddly, the ruby was not on her chest. And the... blood. That was wrong. There was never blood. Why was there blood?

She was staring at me with those large doll eyes, her lips moving inaudibly. But I saw the words they formed. “Mordaine.”

I moved, rushing towards her when something slammed into me from behind. It was Hale, weighing as much as an apartment building and managing to knock me sideways even though he was bleeding out.

And it was in this distraction that it happened.

My eyes were pinned on her even as we both went crashing onto the floor, so I saw it clearly. Hale must have sensed the danger from that mate bond of theirs because his head jerked that very second, and he screamed with that Lycan power in his voice.

“Fiiin!”

I would live a thousand years and never forget the fear in my wife's eyes as she turned to look at the man who was her soulmate. Neither will I forget how my body failed me.

It was a split second, but it was long enough to alter our destiny.

Because in that tiny second where my body remained frozen on the floor, Finn jerked his head forward and sang his fangs deep, deep into her neck. Almost as if he had forgotten the power in his fangs, what they could do to someone with even a drop of witch's blood in their veins.

Get the man away from her, because he will kill her, the witch had said that rainy day in December.

I jumped to my feet, barreling towards her as it all came together.

I had been a blind fool the whole time. I was too busy preparing for war with arrows and guns when saving my wife required a clever mind game. I had been sitting at a game of chess with Aionis these last few months and I did not even know it.

He had turned everyone around me into puns. He made sure to juice out every single value from everyone I loved. His acolyte broke into my home, my vault with bloodline magic. The damn thief got access to my vault because he shared the same blood with Finn, who had access to it.

Aionis broke down Hale's mental defenses by starting this war that affected his pack. Hale had stopped thinking clearly from the day Rosamund's wife died in that meeting at the Grunder's mansion.

Now, he ran past me and reached my wife before me, gathering her in his arms as he bled and howled.

I crashed to my knees.

The men I loved had turned puns, compromised puns to leave my queen vulnerable. That coward never intended to challenge us directly. The goal was for us to destroy each other.

And for his final move, he set me up against the only villain I could not protect her from. Herself.

For the last time, my wife embraced death all on her own.

I failed.

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Hi readers, thank you for reading and engaging with The Dragon’s Bride. Book two of Our Luna Series: A THOUSAND NIGHTS WITH MY VAMPIRE is currently in development and will be available soon. 💝💝