Page 28 of Bought By the Manticore

“The death energy of a starving hunter is overwhelming.” Eryx cut me off. “The resulting surge of power floods the host’s body.It brings a temporary euphoria. The relief you feel is real, Ianthe, but it is merely a byproduct of a beast’s feeding frenzy.”

He did not believe me. He perceived only a woman whose senses had been overwhelmed by a rampaging monster.

“It wasn’t a frenzy,” I insisted, my voice trembling. “He asked for my permission. He was gentle.”

Eryx shook his head slowly. “I know exactly who that was, Ianthe. I knew him in life, when he still understood the boundaries of morality. He came for you because he felt the corrupted affliction of Thorn-Sickness. Eventually, the hunger would have driven him to consume your healthy flesh as well. I could not let him hollow you out.”

The horrifying truth clicked into place. Eryx knew the secret Medea had shared with me. Somehow, he had perverted her words, viewing my mate as nothing more than the ultimate predator.

“We cannot leave her in this room, Iaso,” Eryx continued, turning toward her. “The foundation here is compromised. The shade knows her scent, and its hunger is stoked. When it gathers its threads again, it will return for her.”

“I will take her to the upper wards,” Iaso offered, tightening her grip on the blanket draped across my shoulders.

“No,” Eryx decided. “The upper wards are still connected to the city’s soil. I will take her to the Temple.”

I shrank away from him, my bare feet hitting the cold floor. “I’m not going anywhere with you. I have to stay here.”

“The beast has tangled its roots into your thoughts,” Eryx murmured. “I will not leave you exposed to the dark.”

He reached out, his hand finding my arm with unerring accuracy. His grip was gentle but unyielding.

I tried to pull away. I wanted to fight them, to run into the corridor and search the gardens for any trace of his silver-blue threads. But the horror of Skaros’s unweaving left me too weak to move. My knees buckled, and I almost fell to the floor.

Iaso caught me before I could collapse. Together, she and Eryx guided me away from the bed.

I looked over my shoulder as they led me toward the open doorway. The stone floor was empty. The shadows beneath the mattress held no warmth, and the air smelled only of spilled medicine. And as I left Iaso’s infirmary, I knew I was being taken away from the only place in Asphodelia where I had ever truly felt safe.

My mate was gone, and I couldn’t do anything about it.

11

Rampage

Skaros & Phix

The dirt beneath the infirmary was freezing.

I drifted in the dark. The pain of the gorgon’s gaze still burned through my severed threads. I’d been ripped apart, unwoven by a power that should not have existed.

But I wasn’t worried about myself. Eryx might have temporarily destroyed me, but I’d piece myself back together, like I always did.

The reality was far worse. Ianthe was gone.

It didn’t take me long to gather enough energy to investigate Iaso’s infirmary again. By then, there was nothing in the room. Ianthe’s scent lingered in the air, but the sound of her heartbeat and the taste of her desire were missing.

If I’d been in my true manticore form, I might have slipped into mindless bloodlust. How dare they? How dare they touch what didn’t belong to them? They claimed to want to help, but they’d only ever hurt Ianthe.

Vibrating with rage, I delved deeper into the island’s foundation. Everything in Asphodelia was a version of me, just death energy shaped in a different form. It spoke to me in a way the blind healer could never understand.

They wouldn’t be able to hide. Not now, not ever.

I’ll find you, Ianthe. I won’t let them keep us apart.

Patiently, I tracked the faint, lingering scent of her energy. The trail led downward. It passed beyond the upper corridors and plunged beneath the healing wards. I moved faster, reaching for her, needing her more than ever before.

I crashed against an invisible wall. I couldn’t experience pain, but the sheer force of the recoil threatened to unweave me all over again.

An abyss was carved into the bedrock, and my mate lay hidden below. I searched my scattered memories for anything about the place, any information I could use.