*Lena*
I didn’t have to open my eyes to know who they’d laid in front of on the other side of the bars. An electric pulse echoed through my body, lighting all my senses on fire in a single breath.
I’d been here for a week, at least, based on the number of tis I’d been fed–a week spent praying Xander wouldn’t co here... that he wouldn’t be taken here.
But as I fixed my pale gray eyes on the bloodied form of the man who was facing with his cheek pressed painfully against the stone floor, my heart sank into my stomach just as a warm, shadowed embrace wrapped itself around , guarding –protecting .
All I could see were his eyes, black and flaked with amber as they reflected the dim lantern light. Blood... so much blood–it slid down his forehead in a steady stream.
I heard a hiss as sothing large and heavy was extended backward and then slamd into his back. But he didn’t make a sound. His eyes were fixed on mine, searching my eyes for pain, for evidence I’d been hurt.
‘Xander,’ I begged down the bond as they continued to beat him in front of . He blinked, but his face remained guarded and expressionless.
But I could feel him tugging on that invisible thread he’d wound around my heart. Whatever this was, it was more than a mind-link. Not only could I hear his words flooding my mind, but I could feel him. I could feel every emotion gripping him. And I knew if he hadn’t laid that shadow of his power over , I would be able to feel the pain wrecking his body, too.
‘Use it on yourself,’ I pleaded down the bond, my eyes spilling with tears. ‘Use this power to shield yourself–’
‘You’re pregnant,’ he said, his voice heard by every fiber in my body as it whispered silently across my skin. Another whack, and this ti he winced but then steeled his expression.
A daughter–I sent this between us, and through the pain etched into his face, I noticed the tightness around his mouth as his lips twitched into a smile, a tear rolling off his lashes and sliding across his cheek before dripping to the ground.
How’d we end up here, separated by rusted iron bars? I felt like just yesterday he was standing in front of on that gravel path leading to the greenhouses on campus, the embroidered “Morhan Varsity Wrestling” sweatshirt he was wearing glinting in the sun as he squinted down at , a wry, sowhat devilish smile on his face.
He’d put himself in my path. He’d followed to Crimson Creek. He’d gone through every trial and tribulation I’d faced.
And now? We were mates. I was carrying his child. This was everything I’d ever wanted but had refused to let myself admit.
I reached for him, my fingertips touching his through the bars as another blow landed on his shoulders.
Why us? Why this?
“Don’t do it,” he said out loud, his voice laced with pain. “Don’t do–” His words were cut short by a grunt of frustration as whoever was standing over him ripped his shirt open to expose his bloodied back.
They were torturing him in front of so I’d bend to their will.
“Get her up,” ca Maxwell’s voice through the darkness.
I hadn’t broken my gaze from Xander since I’d first opened my eyes, and I hadn’t yet taken stock of those who were standing in the tight, damp corridor leading to the cell. Xander was dragged out of the way, and the cell door swung up. Within a second, I was hoisted to my feet and held there by two unfamiliar n, their touch cold as ice.
I was filthy, covered in gri, and my clothes were damp and stained. I was still wearing the bloodstained, tattered sweater and sweatpants I’d been wearing the night Cedar Hollow was attacked. I felt the sodden fabric sticking to my skin as they shoved forward through the cell door.
“Lena! Don’t do it–Ah! Fuck you, Slate, you piece of shit, I’ll kill–” Xander hissed and groaned as the toe of Slate’s boot t with his mouth, and I cried out in response to the way Xander curled his body into the fetal position. He was hurt, badly. I bucked against the grip the guards had on as they dragged in front of Maxwell.
“Ready to do this?” he asked casually, as though a man wasn’t being beaten to death only a foot away from us. I spit on him, baring my teeth.
I knew my powers were returning. I could feel the heat and mist coursing through my veins. I could blast them all into oblivion, harnessing that light I’d used to maim Slate in that alleyway.
Maybe my thoughts were showing on my face, or maybe Xander could feel that power through our bond, because he tugged on that thread–hard.
“No,” he growled aloud, spitting blood. “No!”
‘Don’t show them what you’re capable of.’ The words drifted through my mind and over my skin. I let the power drift away, taking a choking breath.
“I won’t do anything if you continue to hurt him,” I snarled at Maxwell, who only smiled in response and snapped his fingers before Slate could land another blow to Xander’s back.
Slate looked disappointed, biting his lip as he glanced down at Xander with pure hatred, and maybe jealousy, burning behind his eyes.
Maxwell looked at the guards and nodded, stepping out of the way as I was taken away, the tips of my toes brushing the floor as the guards held upright and walked through the corridor to a set of stone stairs leading up.
A dungeon–that’s where I was. Was I underneath the manor? Was I even in Crimson Creek? No one had told anything since I’d woken up in that cell.
I called out Xander’s na as they dragged up the stairs. There was no door at the top, nothing but a worn-out wooden hatch that hid the stairs from the world above. I was dropped onto my knees, and fine dust swirled around my legs as I looked up, seeing nothing but endless stars.
I knew where we were now. We were in the hills outside of the Radcliffe Estate. The hills rose up around , sheltering as I knelt in a narrow glen speckled with gnarled, dead trees. I turned my head to look back at where we’d co and watched as Maxwell and Slate dragged Xander out of the hole that led to the cell. Stones encircled the place, the remains of what could have been a temple of so kind, long lost to ti and decay.
“Further,” Maxwell commanded, motioning toward the guards as he struggled to pull Xander up the last of the stairs and into the glen.
The guard yanked upright and dragged several yards away from the ancient temple, centering at the base of the glen where the hills began to give way, and a view of the landscape beyond was visible.
No lights flickered in the hills. If Crimson Creek was in front of , well, it was darkened, empty, not a single sign of life evident among the sea of stars creeping along the horizon.
That shadow of power Xander had embraced with started to tighten around as I was dropped to my knees once again.
‘Don’t do it,’ he pleaded through the bond, and the mark on my chest seared with heat as his words echoed through my body.
“Alright,” Maxwell said over the sound of Xander’s body hitting the ground. I turned to look over my shoulder at him, narrowing my eyes as Maxwell walked toward , his hands tucked neatly behind his back.
Why hadn’t I noticed him before? That odd coloring to his skin in the cloak of night and the way his eyes glowed like sparkling, crimson orbs?
It was a transformation, I realized, a little too late. I knew nothing of his kind. He could hide this side of himself and blend in, pretending to be one of us, luring his prey with kindness, with charm.
I thought of the attic where he’d kept Carly Maddox. I thought of the butler. I thought of the man from my nightmare.
A monster–Maxwell was a monster. And he wanted to unleash the rest of his kind upon my lands.
“We’ll kill him if you don’t comply with the king’s demands,” Maxwell began, sensing my hesitation.
“You’ll kill him anyway! You’re killing him, right now!” I snapped, rounding on him and positioning myself on my hands and knees. He was standing between Xander and , with the guards behind and Slate standing behind Xander.
Xander’s eyes were open, watching, his mouth slightly ajar. I could feel the shadow waning as it started to pull away–no, fade away. I looked at his chest, his shirt hanging in tatters from his skin. His breathing was shallow, uneven.
He was dying.
“Let heal him,” I breathed, my voice catching in my throat as I turned pleading eyes on Maxwell. “Please. I’ll do it. I’ll–”
I’ll open up the portal. I’ll expose my holand to the terrors of a realm of nightmares.
“I’ll do it,” I repeated more firmly, holding Maxwell’s gaze. “Let heal him, and I’ll do it. I’ll go to the king. I’ll be his breeder.”
I’d rip him to shreds before he could send his forces through the portal. I’d tear his realm inside out. I’d kill everyone and everything.
I’d do it. I could do it.
Because I was the Moon Goddess, and this realm was mine.
Maxwell didn’t stop as I crawled toward Xander. I didn’t look up at him as I passed. I felt weak, my body aching with every movent that I made.
Was I strong enough for this? Was I risking the child I was carrying by using the whole force of the powers I didn’t yet know how to control?
Xander didn’t move when I reached his side. He was staring forward, unseeing. His obsidian eyes reflected the stars over our heads as I placed my hand on his cheek. I breathed his na, tears streaming down my face as I took my hand away. I looked at my palm, bloodstained and torn from my crawl, and I saw the lines Elaine had once tried to read.
I had one true love, according to that line that stretched across my palm. It faded in places, bending and curving like the veins of a great river. I closed my palm, holding it over Xander’s mouth.
A single drop of the healing blood passed down to by my father and grandmother fell onto his lip. It would be enough.
“Let’s get on with it,” Maxwell growled as I looked at him over my shoulder. Slate was moving in on from the side, just visible in my peripheral.
The guards were walking behind Maxwell, the group of monsters encircling as I slowly bent and laid my cheeks against Xander’s shoulder.
Light fluttered from my skin in little streams, dancing and whirling upward in a strange, unnatural dance. Maxwell stopped short of us, then took a step back, motioning for the guards to stop. I watched him, my eyes narrowing on his eyes.
And then, I smiled, and blew them all away in a blast of pure light that sent a shockwave through the dry, dead grasses in the distance.
Screams ripped through the air as I wrapped my arms around Xander.
“We have sothing we need to do,” I whispered against his skin, and I closed my eyes as the world went black.
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