CONTENTS

  Keep in touch with Debbie

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Epilogue

  Other books by Debbie Cassidy

  About the Author

  Copyright © 2021, Debbie Cassidy

  All Rights Reserved

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, duplicated, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior written consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

  Cover by Covers by Juan

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  1

  TATE

  Quinn has to die. The fate of our world depends on it.

  Lorenzo’s words echo in my head. Impossible and unthinkable. Rage starbursts in my chest like a flash burn before icy calm settles over me.

  Quinn is mine to protect. “If you tell the Mageri about this, if you send them here for her, I will fight them. I’ll fight them with everything I have. They’ll know what and who I am. And they’ll know exactly where I came from.”

  Lorenzo is deathly silent for several aching moments. “They’ll kill you, Tate.”

  “I know and I don’t care.”

  “Dammit.”

  I don’t care that I’m emotionally blackmailing my father. I don’t care that I’m playing on his attachment to me, an attachment he’s nurtured all my life without me knowing. An attachment that’s grown during our time together. I’m merely grateful for the leverage, because all I care about is protecting the woman I love.

  “Tate, she’s taken the first step onto a road that could end us all.”

  “Could, not will. We have no real idea what activating her taint genes will do. We have a theory and that’s all.”

  “You wouldn’t have called me if you didn’t believe my theory.”

  I hate that he’s right. “Even if your theory is true, she can still be saved, I know it. One death, an accidental death, a death she feels deep remorse for, can’t be enough to taint her heart. It can’t be enough to free the taint.”

  “Maybe…” Lorenzo sighs. “Maybe not. I don’t know her like you do,” he concedes.

  “She’s strong.”

  “The taint is ancient. Wily. It’s played the game to perfection. Quinn is the final doorway, Tate, and she will use her.”

  Unease pricks my scalp. “The taint can try, but Quinn is no pushover. She has me and the Faoladh on her side. She has us to protect her. We can keep her safe. Just… please, don’t report this. Don’t tell the Mageri.”

  He sighs. “Even if I keep this development to myself, it only delays the inevitable. The Mageri monitor the taint’s influence in Hawthorne using hidden charms. They keep tabs on its power signature to make sure the Faoladh are doing their jobs and keeping it contained to the faewilds. If Quinn has unlocked her taint genes and used that power, they will sense it.”

  My pulse quickens. “But she hasn’t used that power, so they won’t know about her. Not unless you tell them what’s happened.”

  “Quinn is the taint’s progeny. She has its genetic code in her body, and now that she’s murdered an innocent, it’s only a matter of time until she goes dark.”

  “It was an accident, dammit.”

  “Maybe so, but that death has activated her dark genes and eventually they will overcome her. She won’t be able to resist using her taint power.”

  Her eyes…Her eyes had bled to black. “She’s not that far gone. She can control it. She won’t go dark. The taint won’t get what it wants.” I say the words with conviction, as if that alone can make them true.

  “I hope you’re right, Tate. The fate of our world depends on it.” He sighs again. “I don’t need to say anything to the Mageri. If Quinn begins to turn, their monitoring system will pick up on it and they’ll come. They’ll find her and do what has to be done to prevent the taint from escaping the faewilds.”

  “If they come, they’ll see she isn’t a threat.” I’m clutching at straws, and I know it.

  “You might be right, Tate, but the Mageri won’t care. They’ll kill her to prevent any possibility of her succumbing to her mother’s thrall.”

  It’s a game. A game the Dagda set up with the Faoladh as the first line of defense against the taint. He’d told Quinn there could be no direct interference in that part of the game. But he didn’t mention the Mageri as the second line of defense. He didn’t mention it because to do so would mean revealing Quinn’s part in it all. Something he isn’t permitted to do.

  But I’m not bound by such rules. “I’ll keep her safe. The Faoladh will cloak her from the taint and she won’t be killing anyone else.”

  “You know who she is right now, Tate, not who she could become. If her tainted genes fully awaken, if she goes dark, then we’re all doomed.”

  My jaw hurts from how hard I’m clenching it. “It won’t come to that.”

  “I hope you’re right, Tate, for all of our sakes.”

  I hang up, then check on Quinn. She’s fast asleep, sprawled on her back. Her expression is peaceful, the memory of what she’s done buried beneath sweet dreams.

  I want to crawl into bed with her and hold her. To run my fingers through the silken strands of her pink hair and kiss her pillowy lips. I want to wake her and make love to her, slow and leisurely, to anchor her here in this moment, but there is still work to be done before she can be safe, and I can’t do it alone.

  I close the door to her room gently and head for the stairs.

  I have three Faoladh to see.

  * * *

  QUINN

  I was back in the house. The house where I killed the innocent man. Why was I back here?

  This was all wrong.

  I didn’t want to be here. I didn’t want to be walking toward the kitchen. I didn’t want to see what I’d done, but my feet drew me down the hallway and through the door into the dimly lit kitchen.

  I expected to see the man on the ground, dagger in his chest where I’d put it. But the dagger was in my grip and the man stood staring at me, torchlight in one hand, plate of sandwiches in the other.

  Oh, God. No. Not again.

  The man let out a bellow and charged.

  Drop the dagger.

  Drop it.

  But the damn thing was welded to my palm and my hand was coming up in an effort to warn him off and his gurgle of pain was all I could hear.

  “No!” I backed away as he fell to the ground.

  Dead.

  “No, no, no.”

  “Such a shame,” a voice drawled behind me.

  I turned to find Tate leaning against the doorjamb.

  He smirked. “He was a good man, you know. Did a ton of charity work in his younger years.”

  The way he spoke…The inflection in his tone… “You’re not Tate.”

  His smile widened. “No, my child. I’m not.”

  The taint. How could she be here? I was mated to three Faoladh and those bonds were supposed to keep her out of my head.

  “Maybe if you hadn’t done what you did…” She shrugged.

  Shit, had I spoken out loud? Did I even need to for her to hear me in this dreamscape?

  The taint pushed off the doorframe and sauntered into the room. Tate’s form slipped away with each step until she was standing by the dead body in the form I recognized. Her dark hair spilled down her shoulders and her figure-hugging dress writhed with shadows.

  “You killed this poor innocent man.” Her mouth turned down and she shook her head. “You killed him in cold blood.”

  Guilt clawed at my chest. “I didn’t know…it was an accident.”

  “Excuses, excuses.”

  I pressed my lips together. “You’re right. There is no excuse. I killed him and I have to live with that guilt for the rest of my life.”

  “But that’s just it, sweetheart, you don’t. You don’t have to live with any guilt. We are apex predators, powerful and untouchable. There is no room for guilt in our hearts. Once you accept that, you can be free.” She shrugged. “Humans are lesser. Cattle to be culled. Would you feel guilt over wringing a chicken’s neck?”

  “Humans aren’t chickens.”

  “Aren’t they?” She arched a brow. “Humans are nothing compared to you and me. We are more. Evolved. Superior.”

  “Killers.” The word was bitter on my tongue. “You’re a killer. A murderer. I’m nothing like you.”

  “You are everything like me. You’re made from me. You belong to me, and nothing you do will change that.”

  Rage born of frustration ignited in my chest. “What do you fucking want from me?”

  She blinked sharply. “I want…”

  I curled my hands into fists, nails biting into my palms. “What? What do you want?”

  “I want you to stop fighting and accept the inevitable. I want you to be who you were meant to be.”

  “And what is that, exactly?”

  Once again that strange look came over her face, one that on anyone else I’d have labeled confusion. “My daughter…” She frowned. “Mine. I’m the only one who’ll accept you for who you truly are.”

  Panic heated my chest because there was way too much sincerity in her tone and there was no denying the tug of twisted longing in my chest.

  I staunched it, gritting my teeth and shaking my head. “Bullshit. My mates accept me. Tate accepts me.”

  Her lips curved in a knowing smile. “For now. But things change. You’ll change. That part, my child, is inevitable, and when it happens, you’ll see that their love isn’t as unconditional as you believe it to be. When that time comes, I’ll be there just as I’ve always been. But for now, it’s time to wake up. Time to take another step toward your fate.”

  The room melted away, taking her with it, and I sat up gasping for air, back in my bed, in my room. I reached for the other side of the bed, searching for Tate, and found it empty. The bedside clock showed it to be almost three in the morning. Maybe Tate had gone for one of his walks.

  I shoved the sheets off my legs and scrambled out of bed. There would be no more sleep for me tonight. Time to put on some coffee and wait for Tate to come home.

  * * *

  BRYCE

  Tate stands by the fire pit, his face in shadow. The fact that he’s here, at this unsociable time, tells me that something else has gone wrong. I shift into my human skin as I approach.

  Emmit appears from his den, already shifted, joggers hugging his hips. And Jax joins us, fully dressed except for shoes.

  A few weeks ago we wouldn’t have shifted into human skin, let alone donned any clothes, but being with Quinn, loving her and mingling with the people she cares about, is changing us.

  “Quinn?” Emmit asks.

  Tate shakes his head. “She’s asleep. Safe, for now.”

  “For now?” I narrow my eyes at him. “What’s happened?”

  He takes a deep breath, the kind of breath that precedes an epic tale, but what he delivers falls short. “Fuck, where to start.”

  “At the beginning,” Jax says.

  “Right.” Tate drags a hand down his face. “Let’s sit.” He parks his ass on the nearest rock and waits for us to do the same.

  I don’t want to sit. I want to know what’s wrong and why my mate is still in danger, but I sense that Tate needs a moment, so I lower myself onto one of the benches reserved for the fae females.

  “Tell us,” Emmit growls, unconcerned about showing his impatience.

  Tate nods curtly. “When I was with Lorenzo, my Mageri father, I told him about Quinn, about who she was to the taint, and he had a theory. One I didn’t want to entertain, but one I believe is coming to pass.”

  “What theory?” Jax asks.

  “Lorenzo believes that the taint wants to corrupt Quinn, to activate her taint genes and unleash her dark side. He believes that if it succeeds in this, the relic will shatter, completely freeing the taint.”

  “I don’t understand,” Jax says. “Quinn can’t go dark. It isn’t in her.”

  But he’s wrong, and I see where Tate is going with this. “She’s the taint’s progeny. The potential must be there. Her touch fractured the relic; it makes sense that embracing the darkness inside her might shatter it completely.”

  “Fuck.” Jax shakes his head. “The guy she accidentally killed…”

  “Yes,” Tate says. “It’s begun. That kill has tainted her. I saw her eyes bleed to black, just for a moment, but it happened. Those genes have been activated, and I have no idea what that means aside from the fact that if the Mageri find out, they will kill her.”

  “What?” I’m on my feet before I can check myself. “Who told you that?”

  “Lorenzo. You’re the first line of defense against the taint, and the Mageri are the second. They monitor the town for the taint’s power signature. If Quinn’s taint side gets any stronger, they will pick up on it and they’ll come for her. They’ll kill her even if she hasn’t embraced the darkness inside her. It won’t matter to them that she intends to fight it. As far as they’re concerned, the risk is too high.”

  “They’ll have to go through us first,” Jax says.

  “No one touches her,” Emmit adds.

  I want to join them in this assertion, to agree that we’ll protect her, but if what Tate says is true, if Quinn can cause the relic to shatter, then saving her means condemning the world.

  Tate watches me, waiting, and I sense his turmoil as if it’s my own. This shocks me, tearing an exhalation from my chest.

  “Bryce?” Jax watches me, waiting for me to add my words of confidence to theirs.

  “We protect her and support her, but if despite her best efforts she begins to slip, if she begins to lose herself, then we have to be the ones to end her.”

  Emmit stands, towering over me, a low rumble lighting up his chest.

  “Are you crazy?” Jax says.

  “He’s right,” Tate says softly.

  “For us to kill her?” Jax asks, incredulous.

  Tate’s throat bobs. “If she couldn’t stop the darkness inside her, if she felt that it was taking over, then yes, she’d want us to end her.”

  Jax covers his face with his hands.

  He sees it too. The awful choice before us. The possibility none of us want to consider because, fuck, it hurts to even think it. “I’d rather it be me than a stranger. Rather us than the Mageri. If it comes to that point, then she deserves not to make the journey into True death alone.”

  Emmit curses softly and turns away.

  “If it comes to that,” Tate says, “if we can’t stop the darkness inside her from rising, then I’ll do it…I’ll end us all. Together.”

  Jax shakes his head. “It won’t come to that. We won’t let it. Quinn won’t let it.”

  “Quinn not kill another innocent,” Emmit says. “No one manipulate her again. She not be tainted any more than already is. We keep her safe.”

  “Which brings me to my next request,” Tate says. “Quinn needs to come live here with you guys.”

  I nod. “Agreed. She’ll be safest here amongst the pack.”

  “There’s one more thing,” Tate says.

  “What?” What more can there be?

  “We can’t tell her about this.”

  I’m not on board with this plan. “She deserves to know what’s happening to her.”

  “And then what?” Tate asks. “She panics, and begins to obsess over it? Have you ever heard of the self-fulfilling prophecy?”

  That’s a valid point. If Quinn knows that her dark side has been activated and what the outcome will be if her taint side is fully woken, then the pressure, the worry, will make her obsess over it. It could leave her depressed and subconsciously believing there is no way out, and then…

  I nod at Tate. “We tell her only what we have to, and in doing so we protect her from herself.”

  “Dillon should know about this,” Jax says.

  “I’ll speak to him,” Tate says.

  He hurries away, shoulders drooping under the weight of the lies to come, the shadow of doom chasing his heels.

 

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