Elyon shook his head. “We never should’ve defected from the realm. Living in hiding on this rock, all of us isolated from the rest of world and forbidden to come or go.” He chuckled brittly. “Well, all of us except for you, Zael. And now here you are, asking us to put our fate in Breed hands? Never. We should go back to Selene before we trust any of the Breed. We’re better off with the devil we know.”
The male was getting agitated, and that meant he would soon be unpredictable. Zael edged him farther away from the pedestal that held the crystal, keeping him distracted with short bites of the blade. Finally, he had Elyon pushed toward the center of the chamber, Zael standing between his opponent and the crystal.
But Elyon wasn’t finished berating him. He glanced briefly down at Nethilos. “I tried to convince him, but he refused to listen. Why would he? I’m a lowly soldier, only fit for guarding the gates, not breathing the rarefied air of the council chamber. Again, unlike you.” Now he grinned, his gaze too avid to be fully sane. “What makes you so damned special? Nothing. Tamisia was no better than Nethilos. With her, I was good enough to fuck, but not good enough to be heard. Not good enough to obey. Well, no more.”
Light exploded from Elyon’s hands. Even though Zael braced for the impact, the sudden blast of power crashed into him like a freight train. The other warrior had always been strong, but this immense force was something different.
Bloody hell.
The crystal, Zael realized.
Elyon hadn’t had the chance to remove it before Zael interrupted him, but he had been close enough to touch it.
And the power he’d siphoned off that brief contact now gave him the strength of ten Atlantean warriors.
The force of Elyon’s light blew Zael off his feet, sent him hurtling across the chamber. He lost his grasp on the blade as he slammed into the stone wall of the chamber, bones shattering on impact. White-hot pain exploded all through him.
Elyon’s laughter was madness as he raised his hands in front of him and prepared to unleash another punishing blast on Zael.
CHAPTER 35
He was in agony.
Brynne felt Zael’s sudden, unbearable burst of pain echo through her blood as if it were her own bones breaking, her own skull ringing from a sudden, savage assault.
“Oh, no.” A jolt of panic—of marrow-deep terror—gripped her. “Zael.”
Her bond to him told her where he was.
She followed the beacon of that connection, moving through the council building and up the stairwell at the fastest speed her Breed genetics would allow.
“Zael!”
She smelled blood even before she reached the top floor of the structure.
So much blood.
The barred door to the chamber was no match for her otherworldly strength. It flew off its hinges as she smashed inside the room.
Streaks of blinding light collided between Zael and his attacker, the blond sentry she recognized from her arrival on the island. Elyon’s face was twisted into a mask of rage as he battled Zael. The sentry’s eyes were wild, his expression murderous.
Zael roared when he spotted her. “Brynne, get out of here!”
In that split-second of distraction, Elyon unleashed another blast of power at Zael from the centers of his glowing palms. The bolt arced like lightning, hitting Zael square in the chest. He flew backward on a shout of agony, held down by the force of Elyon’s blast.
Brynne screamed—not only because of her shared link to Zael, but out of fury for his attacker. Her bellow tore from somewhere deep inside her, morphing into an unearthly, alien sound as her transformation overtook her.
Her vision flooding with amber rage, she leaped on Elyon. She took him down, her black talons sinking into flesh and bone as she tore at him, tumbling the larger male onto the floor.
She was animal in her violence, but the Atlantean’s strength was immense.
Powerful light exploded in her chest and skull.