*Ella*My world spins, then settles. I suck in a breath and open my eyes, blinking into midmorning sunlight streaming through massive, cathedral style stained glass windows of the brightest purples, silvers, and blues. The mosaic floor beneath my feet shimmers in the flecks of multicolored light dancing over the tiles and the toes of my boots. I feel like I’m on a boat, like the floor is shifting side to side, but then my body catches up with my mind. I suck in a breath in surprise as my vision fully clears, and the room I’m now standing in comes into sharp clarity. The domed stained glass ceiling seems impossible high. The spires and columns of pure obsidian seem like they’ve been pulled here from a place lost to time. This place is… incredible. Like nothing I’ve ever seen before. I slowly turn my head and realize Amanda is standing beside me, looking just as shocked as I am. Her golden eyes are locked on the ceiling, her lips slightly parted as she blinks into the sunlight. But t
*Granger*Commander Castiel Westfall enters Ryatt’s office without a sound, but his presence is felt by the entire room. Ryatt looks up from the map laid out on his ebony wood desk as the commander comes to a halt and stands near one of the massive windows overlooking the city of Veiled Valley. Westfall’s black hair is cut short and peppered with silver along his temples, and his arms are crossed over his broad chest as the sunlight dances over his black leather armor. Glacier blue eyes meet mine as he gives me a short nod of hello. I’ve known him for years now, and he’s still as unsettling as the first moment I saw him. He’s handsome and fit for a man in his mid-fifties, but his brow is perpetually pinched by a scowl that seems to be his most relaxed expression.Shadows dance around him, severed into pieces by the sunlight. Shadowsygner. One of the last. He’s the second most powerful man in the room beside Ryatt. Maybe even the entire kingdom.I roll my lower lip between my teeth an
*Ella*Once I get over the initial shock of seeing Commander Westfall for the first time, I find I liked him quite a bit. Stern, brooding, but with a softer edge than most men in his position, he reminds me of the commanders in my father's life during my childhood. It’s hard to get over the startling resemblance he shares with my mate, however. Even as he explains that no, he isn’t King Kane, and he isn’t in my room to murder me in cold blood, or worse, I see nothing but my mate in the sharp lines of his face. In the shadows that dance in the unforgiving sunlight. In the way his smile ticks into the smirk I find so familiar. Only then, after sensing my shock and fear, does he explain who he is. A commander, and the man who trained my mate to wield the powers they share.Now I’m walking beside him along a bridge, following behind Granger and Amanda as we explore the city I now rule, apparently. Commander Westfall doesn’t speak unless spoken to directly. He prefers a yes or no questi
*Ella*Ryatt keeps a firm grip on my wrist as he leads me through his maze of a castle. Dressed in a form fitting black shirt and black pants and free of his leather armor, I can see every solid line of his body from his ripped chest to his muscular thighs. He moves like a predator honing in on its prey when we reach his bedroom–our bedroom–and shuts the door firmly behind him. The sun is beginning to set. The curtains whisper in the cool mountain breeze as golden light floods the room through the open doors leading to the balcony. A dinner service has been laid out on a round table near one of the ceiling-height windows–steak, vegetables, salad, and bread–as well as a few plates of fruit and dessert. Ryatt says nothing as I walk to the center of the room and look around, still in awe that this is where I live now, where I call home. It’s grander than anything I’ve ever seen in my life. “You need to eat something,” he says from the walk-in closet. I hear clothes hitting the floor,
*Ryatt*I don’t normally stay in the dining hall this long after breakfast. It’s nearly 9:00, and the sky outside hasn’t even begun to lighten. Rain bursts over the balcony in sheets of silver as I pour myself a third cup of coffee and rest my legs on the opposite chair, crossing my ankles. The obsidian walls in the cavernous room glimmer in the light radiating from the hearth. It’s quiet, peaceful. The two-story high wooden doors burst open, slamming into the walls on either side. The impact echoes through the room, followed by brisk footsteps. “What in the actual fuck, Ryatt?!” Ella comes to a stop a few feet away from the table with a sneer. Her face is bright red and peppered with soft bruises and welts. Her hair is tightly braided but loose strands fall around her face, and her eyes? Goddess, there she is. Finally, that girl I fell in love with at the ball has returned to me. “Good morning,” I smile as I casually bring my coffee mug to my lips. Ella’s eyes blaze like sapphi
*Ryatt*“She tells me how much she hates you everyday during training,” Westfalls says as we walk along one of the bridges at night, ten days after I tore Ella’s heart in half in the dining hall. I’ve just arrived in Veiled Valley after a week-long journey to the Roguelands to check on my commanders and generals and to make sure Alpha Magnus of Granite Rise didn’t string Granger up by his neck in a tree for what he did to Princess Amanda. “Everything she does is in spite of you,” he continues when I don’t reply. “I can’t say I don’t deserve whatever she’s saying.”“She has a rather colorful vocabulary.” He stops to look out over the city. From our vantage point, the tinkling lights send sprays of silver dancing over the levels of bridges, all the way down to the river. I sigh heavily and go to stuff my hands in the pockets of my jacket before I remember I’m wearing a cloak and not my leather jacket, which I’d dropped off at a seamstress to be mended shortly after I arrived back in
*Ella*I haven’t had the nerve to paint. It’s been months, honestly. Even after the war, I locked myself in my studio in Crescent Falls and just stared at all of my paintings, several of them unfinished, unable to pick up a paint brush. But something changed this week. I threw everything into training with Westfall. He helped me hone my powers to a fine edge until I could ignite a single candle with a flick of my fingertip. It sounds silly, doesn’t it? But a week ago I tried it for the first time and ignited the entire room, nearly killing us both. It’s incredible progress, and with the physical training included, I’m beginning to feel more like myself again. I brush my fingertips over my jeans, smearing paint. I don’t care. I don’t care that I have paint on my face or the cuffs of my sweatshirt, either. I’m painting, and that’s the greatest progress that’s been made at all. I had to find some way to pass the time and stop my mind from spinning over my last conversation with Ryatt.
*Ella*Ryatt is on me in a second, crushing me to the far wall. I choke on a sob as his arms come around my waist, his face buried in my hair. I know he’s trying as hard as he can to stop this from happening, from giving into his feelings and our bond, and the thought kills me.I can admit I understand his reluctance. He lost his mother. She died trying to protect him, her love for him the catalyst for her ultimate sacrifice. He sees sending me home in the same light, even if he can’t say it out loud.I can feel it, though, in the power of his touch. I can feel it in the desperation, fury, and despair flowing off him as his mouth meets mine in the most passionate of kisses.“I missed you,” I sob, unable to hold the tears back. “I hated that you left me here.”“Ella—”I take his face between my hands and force him to look at me. “I’m not going anywhere. You’re done carrying this on your shoulders, alone. I was destined to be here fighting beside you, Ryatt. I’ve never believed your pre
MistyI flip a page in my journal, squinting at the terrible handwriting I’d scribbled down last night when I’d woken from my latest dream. I can’t comprehend what I’d been trying to say. Dark? Hurt? Silver? Those words look somewhat clear. I can’t even remember writing them down. I close the journal with a sigh and slip it back in my purse, hanging the bag over the back of my chair in the common room of my dormitory. It’s a massive building with a pitched roof, several towers, and spooky, darkened alcoves, but it’s home, and right now, I’m sure I’d be able to hear Georgia singing her heart out in the shower if the nagging, incessant voice in my head would shut up for a single, blissful second. I’ve come to the conclusion after two years of hearing what I can only describe as white noise and the occasional static screech, like I have a radio fixed inside my skull, that the voice isn’t my internal dialogue. No, that’s a separate entity in itself, and I’m constantly at odds with the u
MistyTwo white wolves in a clearing.Their bodies made of mist and aether, standing side by side.Mates. A marvel of second chances and extraordinary fate.Two white wolves turn toward the sunrise knowing what they must leave behind; what he sacrificed for those he loved and her refusal to let him go into death alone.Two white wolves stand over their earthly bodies. He, battered and still.She, going into death with eyes open, cupping her mate's face between her graceful hands, her eyes locked on his at the moment of her dying breath.Their last words had been simple. I love you.They always had.They’d promised this instance in stolen moments, in private corners, when there was nothing but the stars to light their way.I will not stay here without you.I will not leave you behind.And so, it was.Two
AvivaThe first flakes of snow fall from the sky as I watch Ryan trying to herd everyone in position. Bundled against the cold in a wool coat Freya and I worked tirelessly on for the last three weeks, I step to the side, finding myself in the center of the crowd standing in the middle of the village of Silverhide. I watch my mate and his Beta, James, nudge families together and run back and forth toward a tripod where Ryan’s camera rests, facing us, to gauge whether all one-hundred and fifty people are in view of the lens.Ryan stands behind the camera with his hands up, his hair dusted with snow. “Okay. Nobody move!”A few excited giggles whisper through the front of the crowd where the numerous children are arranged. I glance around, watching as James joins Dahlia’s side, their baby on her hip. The baby girl finally has a name. Cosette, named after a friend of Dahlia, but they call her Cossie for short. Other babies
Two months later…RyanThe Harvest Festival has been held at the festival grounds between Endova, Teshka, and Navvan for centuries. When we arrived two days ago, leaving only a few people behind in Silverhide to make sure the animals are tended to in our absence, the wide, open space had been nothing but rolling plains.Now, it’s a city of canvas tents and twinkling lights, the air spiced with smoke and the smells of meals being cooked at each fire. Songs mingle as I walk through the festival with Aviva on my arm. I’m wearing a normal outfit. Well, not normal, actually. Mom forced me into a suit and tie with the Crescent Falls royal banner and all of my metals from my years as a warrior draped over my shoulders. Aviva is wearing that white, fur-lined dress again and a pair of new sheep-skin boots Freya and Mercy made for her, but instead of freshwater clam shells and pearls decorating her hair, her curls are w
RyanAn hour earlier…I can’t scrub the image of Aviva dead in my arms out of my head. It’s been several days since the battle, since the moment I put her in my uncle's arms and turned back to the ravaged scene, not knowing whether or not she survived the journey all the way to Maatua.Three days. It was three entire days before Sydney arrived in Silverhide with news about my mate. I’d just arrived back at my territory, exhausted and in tatters, when he clapped a hand on my shoulder and used his powers to spirit us to Moonrise, then to Veiled Valley, then to Maatua. He’s not as strong as Ryatt. Jumping took a toll on us both, and when we finally arrived at my grandparents’ beach house, I collapsed before I even made it up their driveway.Everything since the battle is a blur. Navvan is just… gone. The few survivors were mostly women and children who’d left the villag
AvivaI wake with a start to bright, warm sunshine and the smell of salty air. I grope white sheets, blinking several times to clear my vision as an unfamiliar bedroom fades to life around me. Warm white walls. Pale wood finishes and sleek furniture in soft browns and creams. White curtains drift in a salty breeze coming through several open windows, and a glass door opens to a deck with a view of… a view of the ocean.I’ve never seen the ocean before. From where I lie, I can hear the waves crashing on a white sand beach. Music I don’t recognize drifts toward me, carrying two voices with it, one male, and one female.“Your parents worry about you endlessly, Misty.”“They have nothing to worry about. It’s not like I’m ten anymore, Grandpa. I can make my own way in the world now. Plus, where was their worry when they shipped me here four years ago, huh?”“You
RyanI’ve been dreaming about tying Aviva to my bed, but I’m going to make it a reality for entirely different reasons. Now, I’ll be tying her to keep her there, forever. No more hunting. No more fighting. No more killing rogues barefoot in the woods.No more putting herself in situations like this. I will do her dirty work. I will gladly do it. I roll with Hardan in his… hellhound form? Whatever the fuck he is now. I wish, Goddess, I wish I could have faced him man to man instead of beast to beast. I would have loved to see the look on his face when I ripped out his heart for even thinking for a second he had some kind of claim to my mate, even before I found her. We roll down a decline. I sink my talons into his belly, ripping hard, but I already know hellhounds aren’t that easy to kill. We crash into an oak tree. Leaves shower over us as he tries to claw free of my grasp. He’s calling out, bellowing strange, high-pitched howls. The forest floor rumbles as I sink my claws into hi
AvivaI’m having the time of my life.I zigzag through the woods in my wolf form after three rogues who’ve decided they want nothing to do with me. In fact, the rogues have stopped hunting me over the past several hours and instead are trying to get as far away from me as possible. Their prey has become their biggest predator.I did my best to lead the horde away from Endova. That was my goal–the reason I made the snap decision to leave my mate behind and race into the jaws of death itself. Now, I have the horde moving away from the tribal packlands all together, herding them back into the open plains like a shepherd, and they’re my sheep–if a shepherd killed their sheep, that is.I’ve lost count of how many there are. My red fur is completely black with their blood. I catch my reflection in another small, burbling creek as I leap, seeing only my eyes shining like polished amber against a
Ryan“She’s not here, Ryan,” Mercy hisses as I run through the village. She’s hot on my heels, grabbing my fur to try to pull me to a stop but I’m not in my right mind.It’s been five hours since I last saw Aviva. Andrew and I have been scouring the forest and plains for any sign of her, but I lost her scent, and my desperate attempts to mind-link with her have come up empty and silent.I shift into my human form the second I cross into the pack house and immediately crash into one of the tables, tripping over the bench and landing on my side with a crunch. I’ve been in my wolf form since last night. Exhaustion sings through my bones as my vision spins. I hear Andrew similarly falling to the ground with a choked groan before hurried footsteps reach the pack house. Someone throws a blanket over me with a scoff, followed by Mercy’s sharp, soprano voice ripping through the air as she starts s