"Did it kill me yet?" Ash asks.
My heart still beats furiously, and I can feel my hands shaking. "What the hell is that?"
He glances back at the creature crouching on his chest. "I think it's a leopard cub."
My eyes grow wider when I realize how calm and undeterred, he is. "Why the hell isn't this freaking you out?"
"Because I'm dead inside."
I roll my eyes. "Right," I mutter. "Well do you have an idea as to what it's doing in our bedroom?"
"I just want to know why it won't get off me?" He growls.
The cat gives a little chirp and jumps down onto the floor. A faint trail of smoke seems to follow it when it moves. Its paws are completely silent on the floor as it paces back and forth beside the bed.
"I think it's safe for you to get down now."
I glare at Ash, but he just watches with amusement as I climb down from the bedframe.
"I don't think I've ever seen you move that fast," he chuckles.
"Yeah well I never
"You have to go," I say."No, I don't, they don't need me there. They have my mom and my brother and his mate and plenty more I'm sure.""Kaine they're your family," I remind him."Then they should understand that I can't just leave my mate," he growls.I sigh heavily. "Look I know it hurts you to go back there, but you have to face what happened at some point. If you don't then you'll never be able to accept it and you're never going to be happy again," I try to explain.He growls a little but says nothing. Then he shakes his head. "You're right," he mutters. "Fine I'll go, are you sure you can't come with me?""I have to speak with a few important people, but I can meet you down there if you'll be staying for more than just a day.""Yeah I might as well stay for a while to catch up with everyone," he sighs.I pull him down to give him a soft kiss. "Then get going and I will see you soon.""Please don't be too long, I'm
"I thought I told you to leave those at home?" I ask, narrowing my eyes.She smiles sheepishly. "Sorry I just got so excited," she says.I sigh a little. "Does that mean you like them?""I love them. Thank you," she grins.My gaze flicks down to the short swords in her hands. The blades are black with light gold engravings. The hilts are gleaming silver with a dragon head pommel."There are runes in the blades and when I think you're ready, I'll teach you how to enchant them," I tell her.Her eyes go wide, and she stares at the swords. "Woah, seriously?"I nod. "Yes. And please understand that you may not practice with those unless you are with me. Especially not here.""Why not here? I thought werewolves were better with weapons than dragons?""No not really. They don't really like using weapons, they prefer to fight in wolf form," I explain with a small sigh."Oh okay. When can we practice?" She asks eagerly.
I hear knocking at the door and frown. "I thought Angel and Zella were still at the hospital?""They are," Jaxon says, looking just as confused."Well then who's at the door?" I ask as I stand up from the couch."No idea," he murmurs.I pull open the door and my eyebrows furrow. "Who are you?" I ask."I'm Taylor . . . " she says. "I'm sorry I was looking for the dragon king, I was told he had arrived recently.""Tay Tay get your ass in here!" I hear Jaxon shout obnoxiously.I hold the door open and she throws me a nervous smile before stepping inside. I close the door and walk into the living room, still confused."What the hell happened to you?" she asks, her eyes widening as she looks over Jaxon."I fell," he chuckles. He struggles to his feet before giving her a tight hug. "Where have you been? We got here a couple of days ago.""Sorry I was staying at Shawn's house and had to take care of a few things before I
He's waiting for me to say something, but I don't know where to start. I've been thinking about it for two days and I still have nothing."Do you want me to talk first?" He asks gently.I shake my head. "No." I clench my jaw and unclasp my necklace and drop it into his outstretched palm before moving to sit in front of the fireplace. I pull my knees up my chin and stare into the flames."Syrra what is this?""A soul," I mutter."Whose?"I clench my jaw tighter. "Peter's."He doesn't say anything and when I glance over at him, he is staring at the glowing blue vial in his hand.I swallow the lump in my throat. "I'm sorry. I know I should have talked to you first, but I didn't know what to do," I whisper, my voice cracking. "I didn't expect to find my mate so soon and I wasn't ever planning on having a child and I don't know if I can handle all of this."He looks up at me. But there is no anger in his eyes, only pain. "Wha
"Stop it!" I hiss, pushing him away."I don't think you really mean that," he chuckles and pins my wrists above my head before kissing me hard."We can't do this now, not with your family down the hall," I murmur.He smirks at me then leans forward. "If they don't want to hear they'll go somewhere else," he growls in my ear.His lips brush against my jaw and I close my eyes, letting my mind go blank. His fingers run through my hair and he tilts my head to the side. My breath comes out in low moans as he sucks on my neck.His teeth graze my skin and a pleasant shiver runs down my spine. He shifts his weight and stabbing pain shoots through my thigh."Oh, my gods," I gasp, my eyes flying open.Jax releases my hands and drops his head onto my shoulder, growling curses under his breath. "I'm sorry," he murmurs. "Are you okay?"I nod. "Yeah it's fine," I mumble.He lets out a sharp hiss of pain as he flops onto his back besid
"Damn it," I mutter under my breath, pursing my lips in annoyance."Your mom's going to kill us."Only if the forest continues to burn,Azazel growls.I raise my hand and focus on the fire tearing through the forest, blocking out everything else. I curl my fingers as the flames slowly start to die.I wait until the red glow is completely gone before lowering my hand."That's great, now nothing more will burn. But what about the trees that are already charcoal?" Fara growls.I sigh, my shoulders dropping. "I don't know," I say. Thick plumes of smoke curl into the sky, the acrid smell burns my nose and makes my eyes water. Small gray flecks fall around us, but I can't tell if it's snow or ash."Do you see that?" Ash asks, pointing to the trees.My eyebrows furrow. "What?""The smoke looks like it's moving."He's right. In the most damaged part of the forest, the smoke looks like it's weaving through th
"So, are you going to tell me exactly what has happened over the past few days? Or am I going to have to guess?" Lyza suddenly asks, looking quite irritated.I fold my hands in my lap with a sheepish smile. "Right, okay. So, when Kaine left to come here, I went to visit my cousin. She helped me reverse the fertility spell and put Peter's soul in a vial.""Where is the vial?""Kaine has it.""What else?"My eyebrows shoot up in surprise. I thought she would be upset but she looks happy—no . . .relieved."Uh well my cousin has been exiled for several years now. But before that she cursed me."Lyza frowns. "She cursed you?" She repeats carefully.I nod. "Well we really only call it a curse because it's a particularly harmful and debilitating spell. It diminished my power significantly but unfortunately I exiled the one person that knew how to remove it," I sigh."Yeah karma's a bitch that way," she remark
"Jaxon? You still awake?""Unfortunately.""Do you know what's going on?""No," he sighs. "But I have a feeling these cells were built for us."My gaze snaps to the bars. "It's cold iron, isn't it?""Yeah, the collar is too."I frown. "You're wearing a collar?"He growls. "Yeah. I feel like a fucking dog," he mutters.I scoot closer to the wall, hugging my knees to my chest. The pain and frustration in my mate's voice make my blood run cold. "Who the hell did this?" I ask.He sighs heavily. "I have no idea."***48 hours earlier . . ."Be nice Zahra," I say with a warning growl.She peers at me for a moment before creeping closer, more cautiously this time. She tentatively touches her nose to the baby's cheek, chirping a little.The baby lets out a tiny giggle and waves her arms around making Zahra leap back, her fur standing on end. I shake my head in amusemen
My eyes flutter open and blurry colors and bright lights bombard me. It takes several minutes for my eyes to adjust; the strain of it almost makes me fall back asleep. I frown when I realize there is hardly any light at all aside from the red glow that fills the room.It's been quite a while since I was here, but I still recognize it as the healer's home. I feel pressure on my ribs and jerk a little in shock. I look down and my heart stops.Ash lays curled up beside me, his body warm against mine.I suddenly can't breathe. What the fuck is going on? I growl at Azazel.What do you mean? she murmurs.Don't play dumb! I remember everything that happened clear as day—Jax your memory may not be perfect after your trauma—Don't try to tell me that's not what happened! I snarl. Ash was laying dead in my arms and I can still feel the ice in my chest so don't you dare tell me I don't remember!She is silent for a moment, then growls weakly. I could not endure it a second time, she whimpers.W
They’re still gone. I know exactly where they are and I can see them again but they might as well be gone.“I feel like this is actually worse,” I mumble.“What’s actually worse?”I whip around to see one of the women that brought Jaxon and Ash back. I growl in frustration as I turn back towards the fire burning in front of me. “Since when is this spot a tourist attraction?” I grumble under my breath.“My apologies Fara, I didn’t mean to bother you. My name is Aurelia, I just thought you might want to know what happened to your brothers so Lyza told me where you were.”My eyes widen a little. “They’re not my brothers.”She shrugs. “Perhaps not by blood,” she mutters.I feel my annoyance wane slightly and don’t say another word as she sits down on the rock about a meter away. I continue to sit in silence as the woman tells me what happ
“I don’t understand,” Syrra murmurs.I glance sideways at her. “What are you talking about?”She shrugs and shakes her head. “I just don’t get it. They took your brother and his mate only to return them safe and sound months later? It doesn’t make any sense.”“Safe and sound? You’re kidding right?” I scoff.“Well I mean—”“They’re covered in open torture wounds and new scars, they look like they haven’t had food or water since they were taken, not to mention the fact that neither of them have woken up since they got back.”She sighs, putting her hand over mine. “I’m sorry Kaine, it’s just that after everything Jada said, I was almost expecting them to be dead when we finally found them. The angels are a powerful people and we had no way of even attempting a rescue. I didn’t have a lot of hope so this seeme
“What happened here?” I asked.I heard Sorin sigh. ‘I don’t know,’ he replied.Through my dæmon’s eyes, I could see the barren wasteland over a hundred kilometres away. It used to be dense green forests filled with all kinds of mysterious creatures, but now there was nothing.The trees were gone, all that was left was dirt and small flecks of ash—somehow it had all been burned to the ground without anyone even seeing a flame or trail of smoke. It was just gone.Nothing moved in the vast sea of gray and as far as I could tell, Sorin was the only soul in the sky or on the ground.The air shifted as we came to the edge of the grey. It felt charged with an energy that was far from good; it set my nerves on fire and filled me with dread.Angel territory.“Has it really been right here? All this time it was right here?” I asked, my voice cracking with frustration.My dæmon sighed. ‘It has, you would never have been able to find it Jada, it’s hidden using magic far beyond your own abilities.
The pain is gone, but the cold is so much worse. Even Ash curled up beside me isn’t enough to warm the ice creeping through my veins.My gaze wanders the cell. I can finally see again but the lights are giving me one hell of a headache.“Jaxon?”I look down at my mate. He stares up at me, his cheeks gaunt and his eyes dull. “What is it Ash?” I ask gently, brushing the hair away from his forehead.“I don’t know how much more of this I can take,” he whimpers.“I know baby, we’ll get through this,” I tell him, letting my thumb run along his jaw.A door above creaks open then closed. I frown in confusion.They never close the door that quietly,I murmur.Azazel growls in agreement. I don’t know if she didn’t have anything else to say or if she simply wasn’t strong enough to speak.I shift on the stone floor, wincing at resulting p
The tingling between my shoulder blades is getting worse. I’m not sure how much longer I can handle just sitting in this tiny room.I push my back against the wall and will the irritation to magically vanish. When the pins and needles persist, I let my muscles relax with a heavy sigh.It’s far from the first time I’ve been punished for attacking a superior. At this point, I think it’s fair to call it normal actually. All I can do is hope that there never comes a day where they decide to make my punishment legitimate.It’s extremely uncomfortable, but that’s about it. It doesn’t cause permanent damage—mental or physical—and it’s nothing compared to what I’ve already endured. I’d still rather not deal with this feeling right now though.I throw the ball again and watch it bounce off the floor, then the wall, then catch it when it comes back to me. I move to throw it again, but pause at th
"What's going on?" I ask, my eyes darting between the two. Both look tense but Jada seems absolutely terrified. "The angels have been using magic to hide their territory. It's her mother's magic—that's why we haven't been able to find it," Nix says. I blink. "I still don't understand." Jada rubs her temples roughly and collapses into a crouch. "My mother is an extremely powerful witch. She's like a thousand years old so she has more experience than even our elders. She disappeared a few years ago, just before Syrra's parents vanished," she mumbles—almost incoherently. "Wait—how do you know it's hers? Do you guys have like a signature or something?" She nods. "Powerful ones do. My mother's magic is cerulean—" "What the fuck you canseethe color of the magic?" I interrupt. She flicks her wrist and colorful sparks burst from her palm making me scramble backwards in fright. Her eyes gleam with a dozen different
My eyes flicker open when I feel someone shaking my shoulder. "Wha—what? I'm up," I yawn."What is that?" Nix asks."What's what?" I ask groggily, rubbing my eyes.Then I hear it. The high-pitched wail coming from down the hallway. "Oh, that," I mumble."What is it?"I chew my lip as I listen, trying to decipher the sound. I sit listening for several minutes before Nix nudges my shoulder."Why don't you just ask Sorin?" they ask with a heavy sigh.I grimace. "Because then everyone else is going to bother me and get upset that I broke the rule. The stupid fuckers are so jealous and needy it's ridiculous," I grumble."I'm sure they'll understand this one time, I just really need to know if that sound is just some creature being annoying if we should actually go help somebody and it's too far for Zizi to go—and I have absolutely no idea where it's coming from," they tell me."Fine," I sigh. My eyes roll back and t
I don't think this can get any more uncomfortable. My gaze flicks between Syrra and Jada—both avidly searching through books on opposite sides of the room.I lean towards my mate with a raised eyebrow. "You know the chance of success would increase if you two worked together."She glares at me. "Well no shit. Does it look like she's willing to work with me though?" She snaps.I look past her to the other side of the library where her cousin is sitting on the floor, her mate standing beside her—I pause. Nix isn't just standing next to Jada, they're standingguard."No it doesn't look like she's willing," I sigh, leaning back against the bookshelves. "So exactly how powerful is she?"Syrra purses her lips in annoyance. "Much more powerful than me with about a century more experience," she mutters under her breath."Then, no offense, but why didn't she just take the throne back from you?" I ask quietly."I prefe