NadineI coughed as I came out of the water.Aris hadn't let go of my hand for anything in the world; that was a blessing because I felt like I was going to drown. And so bad was my discomfort that I couldn't help but throw up everything in my stomach.“You've swallowed a lot of salt water,” Aris said as he lifted my hair so I wouldn't mess it up with vomit. “We need to get situated so we can find a way back to the others.”“We've fallen into a bloody abyss,” I said with annoyance after wiping my mouth. “If we take a good look at this shitty place and the height we fell from, it's possible the others will find us.”The fear of that reality scared me too much.“You can't be fatalistic, Nadine,” Aris said firmly with a frown.“I'm a realist,” I said with annoyance. “This is partly your fault for agreeing to travel with that captain who didn't hesitate to take off when things got ugly.”Aris jerked back as if I had struck him with my words.“I did the best I could to finish the mission b
Nadine“Let the guys know what happened,” asked Aris. “I'm surprised Connor isn't bugging you at every turn.”I closed my eyes and tried to talk to Connor and Drago, but it was impossible; I felt like something had sealed my mind.“I can't talk to them,” I told Aris fearfully. “I feel a mental block.”Aris tried to do something, but couldn't do it, and then his eyes turned red.“What's wrong?”“I can't read your mind. There is a telepathy canceling seal,” Aris said with a frown. “What you don't understand is how the mental connection between mates was blocked. It's probably something doing interference with our brain capacity.”That scared the hell out of me, so scared that I didn't feel it when I stepped out of my body and appeared in front of Biel. He looked at me in awe.“What's wrong, Nadine?” asked Biel.Ale and Samir returned with coconuts in their hands, and when they saw me, they dropped the coconuts.“Astral projection,” Ale whispered. “You can astral project.”I felt confuse
NadineBiel's automatic response was to freeze the sea serpent.After that, Biel applied pressure on the snake with air magic, and the monster exploded into large pieces that fell on us. That caused the sea monsters around us to shoot bolts of power from their tridents, and Aris sent an explosive slingshot of fire that sent them flying away.Lion started drawing some runes to slow them down.“Why don't they just leave Nadine alone like in Fairy Wasteland?” asked Connor as he created a tunnel of ice using his water power. “The fairies and goblins recognized her as the person capable of manipulating the grimoire.”“Possibly because the curse on the locket must be different,” said Lion.The sea monsters came closer again, so I had the shadows blind them until we could escape through the air bubble.“What do you mean the curse is different? What I think is that they are soldiers from old Crete,” Aris said. “They are described as in the stories; it is certain that they are simply trying to
DragoI was like a madman on the surface while all my linked group was inside the sea. I could not stay calm without an answer from Nadine, or I would wipe out this island. It was her voice, after hours of waiting, that calmed me down; however, when most of the group destined to complete the mission went down to rescue her and didn't come up as quickly as I thought they would, I despaired again.“They're fine,” Rex said. “You have to trust that.”“Nadine isn't saying anything, and I feel what she feels, and I don't like the anguish I'm feeling,” I said in desperation.“It's because of your own desperation,” Samir said. “You're magnifying what you're feeling, so you need to relax if you don't want Nadine to feel your fear. Don't you think she's not in enough trouble already?”Whether I liked to admit it or not, Samir was right, and it was that which made me soar through the air so I could feel useful looking down from above. Whatever was going on had to be related to the divine object
ArisI was upset that the anarchists attacked us.I knew very well that my sister and Alister were behind it all; however, I was annoyed that my sister did not introduce herself to me. Alister didn't have to be very smart to intuit why I was close to Nadine.If they had access to the temple, as I suspected, they knew who we were—Nadine's mates.The fact that they hadn't confronted us directly spoke volumes about what Aria was thinking. My sister was cold, she was calculating, and she was the brains behind much of the anarchist machine. If she and her mate didn't confront us directly, it was because Aria knew the power we had as a bonded group and was sizing us up.The worst was when I felt a trace of her in the minds of the wizards.I had a lot of rage, and it drove them away from my mate.“Accinge fulgura, et percutite Aria (Invoke lightning and strike Aria),” I whispered in the old tongue.Then I heard Aria laugh, as if she had heard my words, and I didn't realize what I was doing u
NadineSeeing Biel in a coma broke my heart.Everything felt terribly wrong, and I didn't know how I could help him, yet I made sure that the thread that bound our ties was always available. The thought of the possibility that my mate might die terrified me.“Biel is going to be fine,” Samir said. “He's got something to hold on to.”“I—”“Don't go finishing a bad sentence, Nadine,” Lion said. "Upon witnessing Biel's swift ascent to the captain's position, I recognized his unwavering determination to pursue his desires." Right now, there's nothing in the world that Biel wants more than you. He's going to fight to be with you, even if he has to beat death itself. Give him a vote of confidence and pray that he gets better so you can bond.”I closed my eyes and held back the tears that wanted to come.I had acted with a cool head when the dark wizards attacked us; I had had to analyze the situation because I didn't want to leave Biel alone. Thinking about it broke my heart.At that moment
Nadine“Nadine!”Rose's shout woke me up, and I shook my head before opening my eyes wide and locating myself in time and space. Connor's grandmother was watching me with concern, so my first action was to check on Biel, and when she saw him asleep and with the monitors in good order, I felt relief.“What's wrong?”“You were dreaming,” Rose said. “The dream seemed to be very intense; you kept repeating the words 'Enchanted Forest' a lot.”I opened my eyes wide and then gasped as I remembered the rose bushes where a divine object was.I hadn't had such a clear vision by taste, so I stood up and kissed Biel's hand.“I'll go with Lion; I need to talk to him. Please stay with Biel for a moment,” I asked Rose.“Go with Lion,” Rose said, and then she sat down where I was sitting.I hurried out of the medical center, and as I was about to walk to the house, Drago appeared with Connor. The wolf had the plant, and I sighed in relief.“What's wrong, Nadine?” asked Drago as he returned to his hu
BielI didn't realize I was inside a dream until I woke up in a strange place.I had never been in that forest before, so I frowned, not understanding what was going on; however, I quickly realized that the pain radiating from my chest was gone. I lifted up the shirt I was wearing and saw that my abdomen was just fine.I sighed and then looked straight ahead when I saw a very tall man with black hair and a divine aura approaching towards me.I stood up at once and became on my guard.“You don't have to be so suspicious,” the man said with a Machiavellian smile. “I'm here to help you; I have a vested interest in you staying alive and being able to finish the mission with Nadine. The prophecy must be fulfilled.”“Who are you?” I asked the stranger in a serious voice.“You will find out in due time, but the right question is what can I do for you,” the man said and approached me carefully. “I would have liked the telepath to have mastered the power I'm about to grant you, but fate made m
NadineAlister tried to get out of the prison, but I had my shadows catch him.“Why do you want to run away quickly?” I asked mockingly.“I have the power to finish you off,” Alister said.“And why don't you do it right now?” I questioned defiantly. “You don't kill me because you can't do it, and just now you feel afraid because I have the power. You are terrified to think what power it is that I hide, and truth be told, you should be terrified of me right now.”Alister stood up straight and looked at me haughtily.“You think you can kill me, but the truth is you can't because you know the Anarkhia Order would retaliate in a violent way, and I can swear to you that my killing you will make you suffer in spades,” the vampire said earnestly.It could be true; however, I would have to deal with that later; just at that moment, my thirst for revenge was much greater.“I don't care what the Sons of Anarchy do after they kill you; right now I just want to make you pay for slitting my mother
NadineOutside the Enchanted Forest, the gloom was the prelude to disaster.There was no other appropriate description for what my eyes saw once we all got off Drago's back. My dragon mate, seeing the chaos, decided to remain in his primal form, and I didn't blame him. The guards and priests guarding the gate that protected the Enchanted Forest were fighting with all their might against the children of anarchy. There were hundreds of anarchist men and women of all kinds invoking dark magic and attacking all the caretakers of the forest.The worst thing about that scene was that there was one person who was enjoying that event very much. He was so much enjoying it that he couldn't help but smile, showing all his teeth.Alister was observing everything from the top of a tree, as if he were the king of the world.“This is bad,” Lion said anxiously, and I identified with his words. “I don't understand how the priests didn't set off the displacement alarm so they could flee, and the templ
NadineMy mother couldn't be serious.It had to be a joke in very bad taste.“Impossible,” I said at once.“The reason the Anarkhia Order has hunted you is to use your powers against the gods,” the chaos god said seriously. “They do not size up the fact that you are a goddess with dormant divine power. They have no idea of the potential you hide, nor of the things you can actually do, things that no god, not even I, can handle. For that very reason you must prevent them from knowing the truth, Nadine; it is imperative that you access your full potential in order to take them down, and the way to do that is to find the sacred cloak. After that, you must channel the four divine objects to form a single catalyst that will help your divinity awaken. I can't tell you more because it's against the rules of destiny, but the key to everything is within yourself, Nadine.”“I don't believe a word you say,” I said, annoyed and afraid.“You are upset and very nervous; it is normal for that to be
NadineWhen I was a little girl of just six years old, my mother told me the story of how the god of chaos came down to the land of Xalaris to explore the world he and his friends and siblings had created.Her sugar-coated version of the truth, one in which the god of chaos was a savior of sorts, did not last long in my mind as I matured.I understood perfectly what had happened when I read my mother's diary and put the pieces of the puzzle together. The truth went beyond the fact that the god wanted to know more about the people who worshipped him and understand things he could not comprehend from his sanctuary. The situation was much cruder than that.The first night that the god of chaos was in Xalaris, he descended to the city of Geraos, in the common area of Geo. There the great fair of the continent was being held. It was a meeting point for all the species of the world, so he would have a more entertaining perspective of all the species.What was his real intention? It was alwa
ArisEvery time I thought it could get better, something got worse.And I was sick of things getting worse.I knew the forest wouldn't be a very welcoming place, but I didn't expect to fall off some kind of cliff in that wild way.I cursed when I heard Nadine complaining about the bruises caused by the fall, and when I got up, I immediately went to help her. She had bruises and scratches on her arms. That's why I swore those damn goblins were going to pay dearly for the attack.The only positive thing about that fall was that somehow, we had all ended up on a huge rose bush, perhaps the rose bush Nadine had seen in her visions. The bad thing was that it had too many thorns and had scratched us.The smell of blood made me hungry.“What the hell is this place?” asked Ale, and Nadine took a deep breath.These are the rose bushes I was being directed to?I clearly heard Nadine ask her shadows about it, and then I saw her serious and in decisive thought. I was still impressed to hear her i
NadineLion and Biel went to talk to the guards and priests guarding the entrance to the Enchanted Forest while we sat waiting to move on. It was then that Jackson began to talk about stories of the place.“They say this place has strange creatures,” the vampire said, and everyone laughed. “Mock all you want about it, but this place scares me more than Fairy Wasteland.”“What if it's just cursed and needs to be freed like the other places?” asked Rex with a frown. “It has logic... History began with the god of chaos leaving divine objects in the world, and other gods followed suit. It is possible that many such places are tenebrous precisely because they are cursed. I believe that, if we give another reading to the prophecy of the anchor, the change in our world may lie precisely in the fact that Nadine is able to break curses.”They all looked at me, and I could only watch Rex with his mouth open.His way of analyzing things had been different and provided a totally opposite picture
NadineAfter the talk with Lion, we went back to the room to organize everything we would take on the trip, and then I felt something new in the mark we shared as mates.A sharp heat began to burn the skin on my wrist, and I groaned.“What's going on?” asked Biel with a frown.Aris appeared in the room after using his hyperdrive, and then Drago and Connor rushed into the room. Somehow, the mate's mark was changing shape.“This isn't common,” Aris said, and Drago swallowed saliva.“The only ways for the mate's mark to change are for the gods to consolidate us as a mates or for a mate to die,” the dragon said, and I frowned.“No one in this room is dead, and if any of you die, I don't know what the heck you will do, but I will follow you to the afterlife, if possible,” I said firmly and went into the bathroom to sigh.Aris came in immediately after me and grabbed my shoulders.“No one is going to separate us; be calm,” the vampire said before giving me a kiss.I felt more relaxed, and w
NadineI woke up with Biel's arm around my waist.I turned to look at him, and he was very peaceful, completely asleep and so peaceful that I smiled.Reclaim him, my she-wolf Becca said with amusement.I won't if he doesn't want me to. Biel wants you more than anything in life, but he has a lot of trauma behind him, and we are at a point where it is better to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission, Becca said with humor.The sentence shook me, and I denied it because I couldn't give in to Becca's impulses.The truth was that I wanted to be attached to Biel; at that moment, I wanted it with my life, but I wasn't going to dictate to her what to do. I had already made my thoughts clear to him about his attitudes. I felt like we were moving forward, but ultimately, he was moving backward, and at this point, I wasn't going to do something that would put him in a situation he didn't want.“You're thinking too loud for so early in the morning,” Biel whispered with his eyes closed.“
BielI didn't realize I was inside a dream until I woke up in a strange place.I had never been in that forest before, so I frowned, not understanding what was going on; however, I quickly realized that the pain radiating from my chest was gone. I lifted up the shirt I was wearing and saw that my abdomen was just fine.I sighed and then looked straight ahead when I saw a very tall man with black hair and a divine aura approaching towards me.I stood up at once and became on my guard.“You don't have to be so suspicious,” the man said with a Machiavellian smile. “I'm here to help you; I have a vested interest in you staying alive and being able to finish the mission with Nadine. The prophecy must be fulfilled.”“Who are you?” I asked the stranger in a serious voice.“You will find out in due time, but the right question is what can I do for you,” the man said and approached me carefully. “I would have liked the telepath to have mastered the power I'm about to grant you, but fate made m