Moon Seduced: Raven Moon Wolves, page 18
The sun set, and I continued moving, still without an idea of how to fix this.
I flopped on the bed, though I had no interest in sleeping. Thinking was my only priority.
How was I going to get past the door that shocked me? Was it a spell or the door itself? I wouldn’t put it past a fae castle to have living doors.
I slid off the bed and tested the windows again. They shocked me, of course, and even if they didn’t, there was only a tiny ledge below the window.
Returning to the door, I studied it, poking at the wall around it. If I could find a way into the hall, would guards be waiting? Too bad I could make myself invisible.
Except…I could. Did I dare take on the beast again?
Hell, yeah.
Closing my eyes, I pictured the magic Asher taught me to collect. It floated everywhere, almost as if no one knew it existed or hadn’t thought to gather it. Under normal circumstances, why would they? They could use higher levels of magic.
When I’d collected a big bundle of it, I cringed, curling my shoulders forward, and sent it out.
“Part the world, part me,” I whispered.
This time, I only stepped partway into the misty world.
As if it sensed my arrival, the beast bellowed.
Ignoring the stomps coming closer, I stepped toward the door and touched it. My fingers passed through the panel as if it wasn’t there. The rest of me followed.
I stood in the hall but also in the cloud world, waiting for the four guards posted outside my door to notice me.
They didn’t. Cool. I spun on my heel and ran down the hall. Maybe the key was to only partly enter the world. If I was still a bit in the fae world, I could be safer.
Something stomped up behind me, and I shot a glance over my shoulder. Horror raced through me as the misty beast came closer. I bet this creature lived to destroy those who dared to enter its world.
I ran faster, down the hall to the elevator with the beast right behind. Would it trap inside the small space with it and consume me?
Locating stairs, I fled down them. I kept going until I’d reached the lowest level in the castle. The beast wasn’t far behind.
I rushed into the dungeon area. Kia and my sister lay on stone bunks, but they must’ve heard me panting or the sound of my steps.
“Part the world, part me.” With the words, I released the spell. My body sagged, and I crashed against the bars.
Chloe gasped and rushed over, her tentacled limbs snaking between the bars to help support me. “How did you get here?”
I explained about the spell while Kia shuffled over to join us.
“I’m breaking you two out,” I said.
“How are you going to do that?” Kia asked. “Richard cast a spell on the lock.”
“I don’t know.” I grinned. “But I’m going to do something. Stand back? I don’t know what might happen.”
They looked at each other and shrugged before moving back to their bunks.
Since the old magic still worked, I pulled in more. When I sent it out instead of using it to make myself invisible, I aimed for the lock. A click, and Chloe’s door creaked open.
I began to believe this was going to work.
“Let’s get out of here,” Chloe said, grabbing my arm as she passed me in the hall. She and Kia continued away from where I’d come, and I raced after them. At the end of the hall, they opened a big old metal door leading to a single flight of stairs. Moonlight shone through the door at the top of the stairs.
In no time, we ran across the big open lawn. I wanted to laugh. So there, Richard!
When we reached the woods, they started down a trail. I stopped.
Chloe and Kia turned back.
“We need to get out of here,” my sister said. “I know where we can hide.”
Kia nodded. “My army is…close. I can feel them. We’ll hide you until it’s time to attack.” Closing her eyes, she mumbled something before opening her eyes and nodding. “They’re on their way and will be here in seconds.”
“I can’t go with you,” I said, peering back. “I have to go back for Aunt Lucy.”
“Let’s regroup with my shifters,” Kia said. “Then we can rescue her together.”
“She’ll be dead by then,” I said.
“She could be dead already,” Chloe said softly, returning to stand beside me. “He kept hitting her with magic after he transported you away, and she wasn’t moving when he dragged her from the dungeon.”
“I have to know. She risked her life to help me, and I can’t leave her.” It felt right to stay, not run, though it would risk my life.
“We’ll come with you, then,” Chloe said.
“I can’t protect you, too,” I said. “You saw me appear in front of your cell. I can use that magic to get back inside and find her.”
“I…” Chloe sighed. “I understand. We’ll gather the army and be ready to attack the second you’ve left the castle.” Her limbs went around me. “We keep getting torn apart.”
“I’ve missed you. I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you,” I said.
“He would’ve killed you if you’d been around. I’m grateful you found Asher and that you stayed safe for as long as you did.”
It was anyone’s guess how long my safety would last. “The final battle is coming.” I could only hope I was ready.
“You’ll do what you have to do, sis,” she said. “If it helps any, I believe in you.”
“Thanks.” I pinched my eyes shut, wishing none of this had happened, that we were back in Old Orchard Beach hanging out together. That we were regular old shifters.
But I had to end this. Then we could start a new life together. Me and Asher, and Chloe and… Hmm.
“Go find Alimar,” I said.
She winced. “You…” Tears filled her eyes. “I hoped when you showed up, you’d found and helped him.”
“I did find him. Our Aunt Lucy took me to him. She helped me heal him.”
“I can’t go to him. You know that.”
“If you think he’ll care about this,” I traced my finger across a tentacle, “you’re wrong. If there’s something between you two, this won’t keep you apart.”
“You don’t know him.”
“Maybe better than you at this point, if you don’t trust him to see who you truly are.”
“I can’t.”
“We have to go,” Kia said, staring at the castle. All remained quiet, but that didn’t mean Richard hadn’t discovered we were no longer inside.
“Go,” I said, nudging Chloe away. “Do what you want about Alimar.”
“He thinks I’m dead.”
“Not any longer.”
She gulped.
“Why wouldn’t I mention you?” I asked. “You’re my sister. I love you.”
She flicked her limbs out. “He knows about this?”
“No, but he deserves to know you didn’t die.” Could I ever do something like this to Asher? Probably not, but we were different. I couldn’t judge my sister. She did what she felt was right at the time.
“I can’t tell him yet, but I will. Soon.” Chloe backed away. “Watch out. Stay safe!”
“I will.”
We parted, them shuffling into the woods and me slinking along the edge of the forest. I’d find a way inside and look for my aunt. Once she was free, I’d go looking for Asher and Alimar.
They moved into the forest, leaving me behind.
Before I left the shelter of the woods, I cast a partial invisibility spell. I scooted across the lawn and entered through the door above the dungeon. I suspected Richard was keeping my aunt there.
I hurried down the hall with the beast on the hunt, bellowing and gnashing its teeth. Terror filled me. If it caught me, that would be the end.
No one would ever know what happened to me.
So cells in the dungeon.
At the end of one of the halls, I found my aunt. She lay on a stone bunk without a blanket or anything to give her comfort.
Grasping the bars, I tried not to cry when I saw the gash on her head, the bruises forming on her exposed arms.
She didn’t stir, not even when I whispered her name.
But someone did.
Richard grabbed me from behind. “There you are. It’s time for your final session.”
48
ASHER
“Now that you have all that power, take us to Everly,” I told Alimar. The crown.…looked good on him, reminding me he truly was royalty and not just a pain in the ass. “It’s time to challenge Richard.”
“That’s just it.” Alimar winced. He removed the crown and stared down at it. “I don’t feel any different.”
“Do you need to…activate it?”
His lips scrunched. “This isn’t a video game.”
“Maybe that’s not the right crown, then.”
“It is. I know it. But…”
“What?”
His intent gaze sought mine. “I don’t think the crown is meant for me.”
We stared at each other and whispered at the same time. “Everly.” It made perfect sense.
As if someone hit the back of my legs with a sledgehammer, I staggered and fell forward, onto my knees.
“Asher,” Alimar said, grabbing my arm to help hold me upright.
“He’s doing it,” I said. “Richard is ripping our bond apart.” My brain spun, and it was all I could do to remain conscious.
“Stay with me,” Alimar said. “I’m going to take you to her.”
Pain overwhelmed me, like my insides were being wrenched out of me by sharp claws. “We’ve got to get to her, but I don’t know where she is.”
Alimar dropped to his knees in front of me, the crown still in his hand. “I can always find her; she’s a part of me and me, her. She’s my sister.” His chin lifted, and he showed me the wooden ring on his finger exactly like Everly’s. When he was dying, her ring was, too. Now, Alimar’s ring was cracked and blackened. “I’ll guide you to her, but we’ll need to use the alternate realm.”
“The beast will kill you.” I didn’t care about myself. Reaching Ev was all I could think of.
“It doesn’t matter as long as we get the crown to Everly.”
Did we really have a choice?
“Hold on.” I gathered power, tugging it in from the world around me.
“I won’t let go.” Holding my arm, Alimar tightened his grip on the crown. “Hurry.”
My eyes met his as I gathered the power and blasted it outward. “Part the world, part me.”
49
EVERLY
I lay on the floor of a room made up entirely of gold. After Richard hit me with a spell, he dragged me here and threw me on the ground.
He mumbled something I didn’t understand and extended his hands toward me. Magic poured from his fingers, wrapping around me. Binding me as I lay on the floor.
Like before, I couldn’t move. I couldn’t use regular magic, and even Asher’s magic appeared elusive. Each time I tried to suck some in, Richard sensed it and sliced through it before it could coil inside me.
Pain. So much pain. I couldn’t stand it.
“Break, damn you,” he cried. He kept blasting power twoard me, determined to purge the fusion.
Olivia stood behind him, cheering him on. They were a matched set of complete evil.
I held on, but I wasn’t sure how much more I could stand. Cold rose from the gold floor, seeping into me, freezing my bones. Soon, nothing would remain of me but an empty husk.
Richard flung magic at me again. I could see the bond extending out of me to Asher. It had started to fray, like Richard had taken a giant saw and hacked it.
Asher…
I tried to tug in more magic. Surely, I could use what Asher taught me to tighten our bond. It was his. Mine. Ours.
“None of that,” Richard said. He stomped closer and flung more magic at me. It arced down my spine like a bolt of lightning.
The door behind him and Olivia banged open, and Kia, Chloe, and the octopi army swarmed inside. Olivia yelped and tried to run, but they grabbed her, pinning her to the floor and binding her. Richard didn’t appear to notice them behind him.
Trion and his centaur stomped into the room, and Kia’s army attacked them. Cries and crashes rang out.
I groaned and struggled to rise. If Richard was going to kill me, he’d do it while I stood on my own two feet. I wouldn’t cower beneath him.
He laughed and watched as I swayed in front of him, barely able to remain on my feet.
“It’s over,” he said. “You’re nothing. I don’t know why Fatima predicted you were a threat.”
“She will be while wearing this,” someone said from behind me.
A glance showed Alimar had appeared in the room, holding a crown that gleamed brighter than the area around us. Asher stood beside him, staring at me, his eyes wide with dismay.
As Asher rushed forward and wrapped his arms around me.
Alimar dropped the crown on my head and gave me a bow. “Sister, I give to you the Crown of Stilliar. It, and the unending power that comes with it, is yours to do with as you please.”
“No,” Richard roared and shot power our way.
The crown settled and everything suddenly made sense.
The power of the dragons filled me. It tasted like the bit I’d used to heal Alimar.
I held up my hand, and Richard’s blast deflected off my palm, shooting back at him. He ducked, and it hit Olivia lying on the floor.
Her gaze met mine, but only for a second. A bang, and she disintegrated into dust.
The centaurs and octopi continued to battle, but when Trion cried out and fell, it was clear the shifters would soon defeat the rest of Richard’s army.
As if I stood within a protective bubble, I knew nothing and no one could ever harm me. With a flick of my finger, I could destroy the world. That I’d never do, which was probably why I’d been chosen.
However, I liked the idea of destroying Richard.
When darkness falls,
and the veil is broken,
She shall unleash the spell unspoken.
I pulled power into me, from the ground, the walls around me and the vegetation outside this room. From the air, just as my brother had taught me.
The dragon realm added fire, and I sucked more in from the very stars and moon overhead. Alimar once said no one could control this magic, but I sensed it ached to be with me, to help me right this great wrong in our worlds.
I closed my eyes, and I sent the power outward, calling to…them. They knew I needed them and in this one moment, they would obey. I felt them rushing toward us.
The walls collapsed, and the roof overhead crumbled.
Someone bellowed, but I didn’t care. I was a conduit to everything good in the human, fae world. If I wished, I could even command the minions of demons.
Power flowed through me, shooting outward, burning everything that would destroy the goodness and kindness we all so desperately needed.
Richard… I wasn’t exactly sure what was happening to him.
When I opened my eyes, his glare turned to panic. Numerous severmores rushed into the room and leaped on him. He screamed and writhed, his arms lifting. A poof, and he turned to mist floating down to the floor. It didn’t coalesce, and it didn’t restore him to his prior form. If we were wise, we’d gather it up and place it in a steel vault somewhere far away, then set guards on it.
Chloe and Kia rushed toward me. My sister was herself once more, no longer cursed by Richard to remain in octopi form.
Alimar cried her name and rushed around me, racing toward her. When they met up, he lifted her and spun her around. They kissed, and somewhere deep inside me where I wasn’t a magical being with a crown on her head but plain old Everly, I smiled.
As the last of the power flowed out of me, making everything right again in both our worlds, I staggered.
“I’ve got you,” Asher said in my ear. His arms tightened around me, and he kissed the top of my head. “I’ll always be here for you, Ev.”
The bond between us solidified once again, smoothing out as if it had never been damaged.
And I knew right then that it would never be broken.
50
EPILOGUE
EVERLY
After blasting everything around me, I ripped off the crown.
I started to hand it to Alimar, because in no way did I want to wear something that would give me limitless power, it disappeared.
“Whoa,” Asher said. “Where did it go?”
“Back to the dragons?” I said. “I imagine they’ve either put it back in the swamp or hidden it in a new location. They’ll keep it safe until it’s needed again in the future.”
Chloe came over to join us, holding Alimer’s hand. “Thank you,” she mouthed to me.
I dipped my head forward. I wasn’t sure where their relationship was headed, but I had a feeling we might someday hear about her new role as consort to the king of the fae.
King of the fae?
As I grinned at Alimar, I still couldn’t get over the idea that he was now the king. But with Richard gone, Alimar could rise to the position he’d been born into, though he’d never thought he’d take the throne.
I assumed a period of mourning would be observed for the king and Ryvin, and then Alimar would officially be sworn in.
I hoped he and Chloe had lots of babies, because then I would no longer be in line for the throne.
All I wanted was to be with Asher. To finish my college degree.
And now I would.
“Ah, there you are,” Chancellor Kragen said from behind me as I walked down the path toward the beach at Ravenmire after my last class of the day.
I turned, and the Chancellor grinned, totally negating her formal appearance. Today, she wore a dark blue pantsuit, and she looked amazing.
A couple of students passed us, heading up the path, their glances flicking between us. Since we’d come back from the fae kingdom, rumors had circulated about our relationship.
