Persephone's Wolves, page 59
“I have been weak my entire life. Weaker than my mother...than you. I couldn’t save anyone from the war the other gods brought to us,” she breathes out. “When they attacked me, killing our unborn child, I could do nothing. I was not powerful enough, but this...this is power.”
“Persephone.” Hades’s voice makes my heart hurt. His pain is enough to make even a coldhearted monster feel something.
“NO!” she shouts at him, her power escalating into a dangerous wave as she lifts the crown and places it on her head. It fits perfectly, like it was always meant to be hers. “I choose power, every single time, because loving you, god of death, brought me nothing but pain. Power will not.”
Green shifter energy destroys the room, and I cover my eyes, the light blinding, feeling the heat of the power flickering across my skin. A hand covers my hand, burning where it touches, and I gasp, lowering my arm to see Persephone floating in front of me.
“You will not die when you do not have my crown yet. Find it before I truly become angry.”
She shoves a hand into my chest, and I scream as pain like nothing I’ve ever felt seems to pull my soul from the very depths of hell.
I wake up with a gasp, a sharp, aching feeling in my chest, and everything is so dark, only scratches of light in front of me. My hand goes to where I was stabbed, only to find ripped leather and smooth skin.
The dream...it was real? Persephone saw me, saved me, threatened me for the crown. All this time, I’ve assumed Persephone was good and pure and wanted peace. But I don’t think any of that is true. I think I’ve made a big mistake trusting the goddess I’m bound to. I reach up, my fingers brushing against roots. It takes me a while to pull the roots apart, light beaming in, and I climb out of the thorn cocoon that was covering me. Next to the cocoon is Tualla’s body, a light covering of tiny yellow flowers all over her body from her neck down. The forest, or whatever rests in it, did this for her. I doubt Persephone would have saved me when I haven’t got her crown yet, and I think I would have known if she did. We are so close, and this magic scents so different, older, deeply woven into the world. Perhaps Tualla’s plea didn’t fall on deaf ears. Tears wet my eyes as I go to Tualla and lean down, softly closing her eyes.
“We endure the fall and rise in the ashes, my friend. Rest with the gods, Tualla Fall.”
My words feel empty of meaning as I rise, looking at the forest ahead. Gods know how many hours or even days I’ve been sleeping in that cocoon; my stomach rumbling suggests it’s been a while. I doubt Adira has found the middle of the forest and become alpha female yet. They would be down here, searching the forest for our bodies if she had done. No, there is still time. Through a wave of dizziness, I head to the stream and drink some water before finding a berry bush. From scent alone, I test the unusual berries until I find one that I know and trust not to be deadly. I eat a few handfuls of berries for much needed strength and drink some more water before heading off through the woods. I don’t find any sign of a path for a long time, and the forest is eerily silent as I walk for what seems like hours until my legs burn and tiredness threatens to force me to sleep for a while. I find a clearing and pause, shock making me still like frozen ice as Tualla stands before me.
Not Tualla exactly. She doesn’t scent like her, but she looks the same except for the eyes and the white dress she is now wearing. Her eyes are pale, lifeless, and her skin lacks any sort of glow. Tualla is dead, that much I’m sure, but somehow she is here. Gods’ magic.
“They gave me five minutes to speak with you,” she says, her voice like a whisper between worlds. It makes me shiver with how wrong it is to have her speaking to me and how it’s even possible.
“Who did?” I eventually ask, the words hard to speak.
“They, the Wolven gods, the ones who have watched over the seven for many, many years,” she breathes out. The Wolven gods, the ones my mama prayed to and believed were real? “They, of infinite power.”
I pale slightly, taking a step closer. “The Wolven gods are real? What is the seven? The seven children born connected to the gods?”
“The seven is...” She pauses like someone pulling a string on her is tugging. “That is not my place to tell you. I am here to give warning.”
I know better than to push on what the seven are. The Wolven gods don’t want me to know, but I will find out another way, another time. “What warning?”
“Ragnar Fall is not who he says he is,” she says. Everything in me is suspended, like a glass about to be dropped from a height. “He is a pretender, a king in disguise, and many pretend around you. You must trust little and few to win this game. He intends to destroy you and your pack. You will never wear the crown if he is at your side.”
Ragnar didn’t betray me…he isn’t Ragnar. How long has this been going on? How did I not see it? I think back to every moment with Ragnar, and I realise he has been strange since we got off the train.
“Where is my Ragnar then?” I demand.
“In the prisons...his mind slowly lost, but they say he still calls for you,” she replies. A sob escapes my lips, horror filling my chest. Ragnar is in that place, a place for monsters to feed on him. Erin...her father...what she said of that place hits me hard. I have to get him out as soon as possible, and I have to know who is pretending to be my Ragnar. How did I not see it?
“His name is Cenwyn, and he is the king of the angels,” Tualla states, telling me the name of my enemy I didn’t want to know or speak. He has been here the entire time, kissing me, giving me gifts. Sickness rises in my throat at the memories. Cenwyn? The male I met in Ravensword...he is the angel king, and he has been here the entire time. I can’t remember much of him yet. Those memories feel locked deeper than others, but I know enough.
Sickness now fills my throat as I look at Tualla. “Thank you for the warning. I will—”
“Do what must be done to save millions. To save this city as its alpha female and queen,” she firmly states. “I died for you, Mairin Fall, do not let me down. You are as strong as you make yourself.”
“I’m sorry I couldn’t save you,” I admit.
She smiles, the first time I’ve really seen her smile. “But you will save them. The weak, the ones unable to fight, and the world will finally be able to breathe. Be brave and tell my family I love them.”
I barely get to promise her before she disappears in a burst of white light, leaving nothing where she once stood. I step further into the clearing when I hear grass crunch under the feet of something, and I pull out Morganis. Slowly a huge white wolf walks into a clearing, its fur the colour of snow, its eyes white and clear like diamonds. Strange markings cover the wolf, glowing silver and white, and snow is left in every place the wolf steps. I freeze, the power of this wolf flowing through to me as it walks and stops a breath away.
Then it rears its beautiful head back and howls.
I feel the howl in every inch of my body, like a wave, and I nearly cry out from the cold magic that washes over me, smoothing over my skin. I feel the cut of my cheek close and heal; I feel something drawing itself onto my forehead and down my chest and back.
Markings.
When I open my eyes, the wolf is looking right at me. It’s a god, bound to this forest, and he has chosen me. I see my reflection in his eyes. On my forehead, dead in the middle, is a crescent moon and black swirls drifting down around my eyebrows. The same markings peek out of the leather on my chest, and tears fall down my cheeks as I slowly bow my head. The wolf bows with me, both of us moving like mirrors for a small moment. I lift my head as he does, and before he walks away from me, I’m already making a plan on how to save my alphas, my city, my pack.
I’m their alpha female, their queen, and I won’t let them fall.
Seventy-Three
The castle is dead silent as I walk in, and within seconds, the red pools of blood surrounding the guards’ bodies at my feet tell me why. Escaping the forest was easier than I thought it would be; the stairs just appeared when I decided I wanted to leave. The courtyard was silent, too silent, but no one appeared as I tied up my horse. This is the plan, the one I need to stick to. Something is terribly wrong, and I can’t scent my alphas anywhere. My leather clothes are ripped and torn, sticky with my blood still, but I push the escaped strands of my hair from my eyes. I don’t need to check to see if the guards are alive as I walk down the corridors, following the trails of blood and bodies; it is clear.
The castle doesn’t make a sound, and I place my hand on the wall for a second, to breathe, to take strength from the castle even for a moment. The bodies and blood lead to the ballroom, where at least fifty bodies are in piles outside. They fought hard to protect the alphas and alpha heirs, but not hard enough. The ballroom doors are shut, marks on the floor showing me that the blood was spilled first before the doors were shut.
It’s a trap, because I scent my alphas in that room. Their blood is too strong to not scent, and it makes me panic. My heart feels stuck in my chest, unable to beat. If anything happens to them…I couldn’t live with it. Ragnar is already…it’s unthinkable.
Phim and Trey are in the room, too. I can scent their fear. I look at my shaking hands and turn them around. In my palm is the upside-down mountain mark for this pack, for what it stands for. The pack needs me to do this and succeed.
My hands stop shaking.
I keep my head high and pull the doors open, trying not to react to the scene in front of me as I walk through the blood. Valentine, Henderson and Silas are hung on glowing blue chains from the ceiling by their hands, their blood dripping with every second that passes, and they are unconscious. Dozens of deep cuts, scratches and marks cover their bare chests, and they are so pale. Their blood is like a pool underneath them.
It takes everything in me to look away, to not reveal the panic and dread and fear controlling me now. The males I love are tied to the ceiling like animals. Phim is chained with Trey in the room’s corner, awake, but she doesn’t say a word as her eyes meet mine.
I feel what she is saying, her eyes black and blue with bruises, her lip cut, and she is cradling her arm like it’s broken.
Run.
But I can’t. Not from this, from my pack.
On the throne that is not his, is Ragnar Fall...and he isn’t alone. Fox and his brothers stand on one side of the throne, and Erin is on the other.
They betrayed me. Us.
Ragnar, well, Cenwyn, starts to clap loudly as I walk further into the room and pause in the middle. I force myself not to look at my alphas, to try and save them just yet.
This is a game and has to be played out perfectly, or someone will die.
“Lose the pretend face, Cenwyn. It’s been a long time since we truly saw each other.”
He grins at my statement, his eyes playful as he looks to Erin and nods. She places her hand on his arm, and his skin ripples, changing from one body to another, a new and familiar scent pushing away Ragnar’s. Cenwyn is just as I remember him in Ravensword, but there is an air of darkness, of wrongness about him this time, that he isn’t hiding. He runs a hand through his locks of curled brown hair, the ends blond.
Cenwyn’s hazel gold eyes, like gold fire on a wheat field, search my face and lower before smirking as he rests his head on his bent arm.
“Alpha female marks suit you. Far more than it did them.” He waves a hand behind me. I turn slowly, air getting caught in my throat when I see Alpha Reine and Alpha Soren pinned to the wall in their wolf forms. Pinned with swords.
They can’t have made it through that alive, and it feels like another knife is stabbed into my back when I can’t help them.
I turn around, tears filling my eyes. “What do you want, Cenwyn?”
“You,” he says simply, breathing in deep. “Always you, since we were kids. Well, if I’m being honest, I wanted your powers too and the knowledge your goddess has. Now I get all three.”
He smiles and I make sure my smile matches his for a moment. Two can play the game of being a snake. Or a viper.
“I’m never going with you,” I bite out and turn to Erin. “How could you?”
Cenwyn follows my gaze and places his hand on Erin’s arm. “Show her who you really are and not this pretence.”
Erin nods and her skin ripples like it’s alive, changing her pale skin into dark, her blonde hair into black locks that fall to her thicker waist. Her eyes even change, now a burning colour of orange I’ve never seen before. She is younger than I thought.
“I’m like you,” Erin says, her accent thick and unusual. “My name is Erin, and I am the eighth goddess brought into this world. A witch goddess. I killed the girl who worked here and became her to get close to you. You did not disappoint.”
“Oisean kept his secrets locked up,” Cenwyn says, amusement in his tone, and he pats his knee. “Like sweet Erin here. She is more powerful than even you, Mai darling.”
“Don’t,” I snap. “Leave my pack before I make you, Cenwyn.”
I let my power radiate to my hands, glowing bright green, the glow filling the room and reflecting off the glass windows.
Cenwyn stands up off the throne and spreads his arms wide. The ground beneath my feet starts to violently shake, and the walls crack, glass cracks, and Trey cries out my name. Cenwyn’s eyes are glowing like stars as he smiles at me. “Try it and I will bring this castle, this pack, into the earth and into dust. I will force you to watch millions die and still get what I want. There is no way you win this, Mai darling, unless it’s with me.”
The shaking stops as I take back my power, my body shaking. He has done it before to the humans, and he will again. This pack is nothing but an annoyance to him.
“Run, Mai,” I hear Henderson groan. I look up at him, tears filling my eyes. They never would have seen an attack by Ragnar coming. He is their brother.
We have all been played.
“I love you,” I tell him, hoping Valentine and Silas can hear me. My heart feels clouded as I walk to Cenwyn, and he offers me his hand. The hand of the devil himself.
“That’s my darling girl,” he purrs, his fingers clamping on mine, and I feel nothing but disgust. “Now cut your hand and promise on your blood to mate with me. That you will be mine.”
My soul feels empty as I take the dagger and cut my hand. “I promise to mate with you, Cenwyn.”
His eyes shine with pleasure as he leans down and brushes his lips with mine. I feel nothing but disgust and pain, a sharp sting as he bites my bottom lip. “We are going to rule the world together.”
Erin’s eyes meet mine, and I turn to Fox, who smirks as he leans on the throne. “Did you kill Adira?”
“No,” I state.
“Oh good. She was useful to us. If not to just warm our beds at night,” he states, and for a second I feel bad for Adira. But she is still on my list to kill the first second I can. Cenwyn laughs and pulls me closer to him. I push down the urge to be sick all over his clothes.
“Time to go home.”
I can do nothing but hold the new necklace of mine tightly as his wings of metal and sharp daggers appear, and he flies us through the broken window and into the empty, starless night.
Seventy-Four
RAGNAR FALL
There is someone new in my room, a male with a cloak the shade of black onyx, and he calls me a name I do not know.
The creature is scared of him, as he lifts a sword of gold and points it at me.
“Kill me,” I beg of the male.
“No, Ragnar Fall. You are coming with me. Maiy needs you.”
Even as the male grabs my collar and my weak bones cannot fight him off, I want to ask one question. “Who is Maiy?”
Epilogue
SILAS FALL
I slam to the floor in a puddle of my blood and my brothers’, and my brothers fall next. I crawl to my feet, the blood loss and injuries making it extremely painful to stand, but Mai needs me. I woke up with poison in my body, injuries, and my power drained by magic fucking chains from the castle. I never saw it coming, and I’ve failed her. I’ve failed my pack. I will—
“Here,” Breelyn offers me a wicker bottle with something pink inside. Phim and Trey are resting on beds nearby, Phim hitting away the healers tending to her. “To heal you. Trust me. Alpha Reine is healing, but I couldn’t save Alpha Soren.”
I glance to where two unfamiliar females are bowed over Reine, their hands making strange symbols in the air, but her chest is moving.
Next to Breelyn stands a man in shadows, and I know who he is. I sniff the water before drinking it, and instantly I feel my wounds healing from within, my strength growing. I hand the bottle to Valentine, and he nods, his eyes as broken as I feel inside.
Mai has been taken by that bastard Cenwyn. Ragnar is missing and hasn’t been here for a long time.
If he is dead... Fury builds in my chest. Cenwyn is dead, either way. “What are you doing here?”
The trickster smiles like the fox he is. “Mairin herself came to me only hours ago and made a life changing deal. I am to protect your city with my magic and wolves, heal you, and give you this.”
Mai did what?
He holds out a necklace, a silver cross with a diamond in the middle that fits into my palm. I vaguely remember seeing the same necklace on Mai’s neck before Cenwyn took her.
Valentine hands the drink to Henderson. “What is it?”
“A way of contacting Mairin while she builds alliances with the angels, figures out Cenwyn’s weaknesses, and finds someone she is looking for. This is her plan, because she knew there was no way out of this without her going with King Cenwyn,” he grins. “Because I was feeling generous and bossy Breelyn was glaring at me, I decided to give her some advice. That to make a blood bond, it had to be purely your blood given, and if she had a certain amount of someone else’s blood in her system, it wouldn’t work.”
