by Sara Snow
“Are you okay?”
I nodded, and he walked over to me and wrapped the end of my braid around his finger. "I'm okay. I’m just starving."
“Dinner’s ready,” he said.
He released my hair and pulled me in for a hug. He said nothing, and neither did I as we embraced each other. When we pulled apart, he kissed my forehead and stepped back. His hair was damp and combed back in a slick ponytail.
"You look nice," I told him, and the corner of his mouth arched.
"Good enough to eat, I know. So are you, by the way."
I shook my head and walked around him, but he held me from behind and pressed a kiss to my neck.
"Are you nervous about training?" he asked.
"I am," I told him. "But I have to do this. Are you anxious about facing your mother?"
He didn't answer right away, but he kept his hands around me. "I am, but this has to be done."
“And I’ve been thinking about afterwards—after we stop your mother. I don’t think becoming a bounty hunter is right for me anymore. After all, I can heal people, Will. I can play a different role, an important role, in the world. And I can travel just as I’ve always wanted to while doing so.”
He turned me to face him. “Then after this is all over, we’ll go to the Dragon Territory like I promised. We can start there.”
“Are you worried about being hunted by vampires?”
He shook his head. “I’m not.”
“Have you ever considered taking the throne after the Queen is gone and changing how things are with the vampire race?”
He frowned. "I haven't, actually. Because I know once it's common knowledge that I betrayed the Queen—no matter how powerful I am—they’d never accept me as their King. No one would obey me."
"Guys, I really need to eat, and the sisters won't start unless everyone is there." Skye waved us forward with both hands as she walked backward. "Come on, move it. Move it!"
My stomach chose that moment to growl, and Skye gave me a look that said, ‘See, we need food.’
Will and I followed her into a grand dining room. Platters of food covered the table, which was long enough to seat fifteen people comfortably.
"Finally," Darian grumbled as Will pulled a chair out for me, and we sat down.
"Let's not waste any more time. We can talk after we're full." Ariel eyed a plate with baked chicken, and Skye rubbed her hands together. “Let’s eat!”
16
Elinor
My entire body vibrated as I slammed to the ground. I gasped, the wind knocked out of me, and I laid there for a few seconds before getting onto my knees.
My blurry vision began to clear.
I dived to the side as Ariel’s sword came down hard where I had been, breaking the earth. I rose to my feet and began shifting, my bones breaking and rearranging as a lightning storm bombarded the ground, keeping her at bay until I finished shifting.
In my final form, I was as tall as her, with electricity dancing across my fingertips. She stabbed her sword into the earth and charged at me, and we fought hand to hand. And even though I was twice her size in body mass, she held her own against me.
She was strong and agile, her movements swift and calculating. During the first day, I hadn't been able to dodge any of her blows, leaving me bruised and bloody at the end of our first session. Hell, she left me bruised and bloody every day for two weeks straight.
After a month, I figured out how to counter her attacks, and now, after three months, our fights no longer ended only seconds after they had begun.
I tried not to think about the fact that, although month after month had passed by for us inside this alternate reality, not even a day had passed in the real world. We were in the middle of a meadow with a cabin atop a small mountain where we slept and ate. We trained day and night, and as Tien had predicted, I had suffered a few broken bones in the process. Still, I absorbed everything Ariel taught me and used it all while fighting her.
"Your left is open, Elinor!” Her fist connected with my ribs as I lifted my left arm to punch her. She then swiped her leg under my feet, and I fell to the ground. She held her hand up, and her sword flew to her. She swung it hard, and I froze as the sharp tip stopped just before my left eye. “You're getting better, but you need to be mindful of leaving yourself open.”
She took a deep breath and stepped away as I sat up and began shifting back into my human form.
“Take a minute,” she called over her shoulder. “Then we’ll begin again.”
She waved her hand, and a table appeared with food and water. After having something to eat, I sat down beneath a tree and stared up at the sky, its twin suns not as hot as I would have expected.
“I know Levi asked Tien to do horrible things, like help him with his experiments,” I said.
Ariel’s stiffened, her back still turned to me. “She told you?”
I bit into a piece of bread. “Yes. He won’t get away with what he’s done, I swear it.”
“It won’t be easy to take Levi down. He holds a high rank among your people.”
That won’t stop me.
"I've refrained from asking, but I'm curious. If you and your sisters are so powerful, why, after all this time, haven’t you guys broken free?"
Ariel, who was now sitting at the table, poured herself a second glass of water.
“There is so much the three of you could do,” I continued. “One of you alone could take out the Queen. And if the three of you worked together, this war would have ended long ago.”
"Unfortunately, we can't leave, though not from a lack of trying." She took a sip of her water. "We've attempted to break through the barrier trapping us here many times, but it was created using power from many angels, both high and low-ranking. It would take a Seraph, a God, or Goddess to break the spell. Though, if we brought in a fourth person with considerable power, maybe we’d be able to break the seal holding us here. We’ve come close on our own, but never quite managed it.”
She got up from the table, waved her hand, and it vanished. Then she sat down in the grass, her hands flat on the ground behind her. Holding her head back, she took a deep breath before closing her eyes.
“Someone like me, you mean? Do you think I could be the fourth person?” I asked.
She cracked an eye open and smiled sadly, then shook her head and closed her eyes again.
"What? I have divinity, and once this mess with the Queen is all over, I can come back."
“Thank you for offering, Elinor. But attempting the spell that would release us is strenuous on us. For you, it could be lethal."
I made a face. I understood that if it was a complex spell for them, I wouldn't be strong enough to make a difference. But it broke my heart that they’d been confined like this, all because they wanted to take their own paths.
“What would be the first thing you’d do if you were ever released?”
Ariel opened her eyes, a broad smile growing on her lips. Before us, the world began to change, with some of the meadow turning into an ocean. A seagull soared on the wind over our heads, and a breeze blew our hair backward. The only thing missing was the smell of the saltwater.
"I'd go to the sea. I can remember the way it looked, but I've forgotten the smell. This is just a fabricated reality where time is slower. Some things—like food, water, the weapons we use to fight, our house and bed—are real, but for other things, like the sea, my sisters and I have to rely on our imagination."
The ocean faded away along with her smile, and the meadow returned.
“We were all born on different ends of the earth. I was born by the sea, Tien in the desert, and Angelisa in the forest. We all have homes we miss, but the people we knew back then died a long time ago, and those alive now don't even know of us."
Though I had only left my home a short while ago, I missed it so much already. I missed the cliff by the sea, the town, the market. I missed watching the different species interact and go about their busin
ess. I missed staying at home during a full moon, and I could only imagine how much worse that feeling was for the sisters. Even if they could go home, it wouldn’t be the same.
Speaking of the full moon, I realized how lucky we’d been so far that none of the attacks had occurred during one. These assaults were bad enough, but to go through one while powerless? I didn’t want to think about it. There would be a full moon tomorrow in the real world, but we were all safe here. My pack and so many other packs would have to prepare themselves because no doubt the Queen knew of our only weakness and would try to take advantage of the fact that wolves couldn’t shift during that time.
"You guys will get out of here, visit your homes, and make new friends and memories," I said, watching as a cloud floated by. "That's what I believe."
Ariel didn't answer, and when I looked down, she was watching me closely. "Maybe you're right." Her bright smile returned, and she jumped to her feet. "Come on, up, rest time is over." She held her hand out, and her sword flew into her hand. "Now, let's see if you can go for an hour straight."
I got to my feet as well. “I think I can handle that.”
“Good. ” She swung her sword in an X pattern, cutting through the air. Suddenly, a second sword appeared in her other hand. “Are you ready?”
Skye
I took my eyes off Cyrus for just a second to look at the portal across the garden, and he knocked me to the ground.
“You need to focus, Skye!”
I groaned as a sharp pain rolled up my back, and I sat up stiffly before getting to my feet. “How do you think she’s doing? Any idea how much time has passed?”
Cyrus looked at the swirling white portal and shrugged. "Months, maybe years, even if it's only been four hours for us."
“It’s amazing that the sisters can do that," I murmured, and his eyes slid to me as they changed from gray to black.
“You need to focus," he said with displeasure. “Elinor is training, and she's fine. But you need to take your training seriously, as well. You asked me to teach you.”
“Yeah, yeah,” I mumbled. I hoped Elinor was doing better than I was. Then again, Elinor didn’t have the same distraction I had—a nearly-naked Cyrus, whose heavily tattooed body was on full display for my viewing pleasure. Still, I had asked for this, so I raised my hands the way he had taught me for the first hour and continued practicing blocking attacks in both my human form and wolf form.
Because he was a demon and not a werewolf, he couldn’t offer any pointers about fighting while in my wolf form. Darian would be an excellent teacher in that department, but he was nowhere to be found, and I wasn’t going to hunt him down.
He sulked so much it was unbearable. Will was also missing. I just hoped they weren’t off somewhere trying to kill each other.
After four hours of training with Cyrus, my body was already aching. That had a lot to do with how out of shape I was because even though I had told Cyrus not to take it easy on me, I knew he did. I wasn't completely incompetent—I was a werewolf, after all, with a gift for fighting. But even among werewolves, some got their asses kicked faster than others.
I was one of those wolves.
While Elinor’s dream had been to become a warrior, mine was to be a healer. But even though I had a gift for shifting into my wolf form quickly—something many Guards wished they had—I knew being a warrior wasn’t for me. Of course, that didn’t mean I shouldn’t know how to defend myself.
“Focus!”
“I’m focusing!” I yelled as I blocked a jab to my ribs and swiped my claws across Cyrus’s chest.
He staggered backward, his shirt ripped open. Blood began to appear in the claw marks I made on his chest.
My hands flew to my mouth. “Shit, I’m sorry.”
He, however, smiled, and the wound began to heal. "Don't be; that was good. Keep blocking and attacking just like that. Don’t worry about hurting me.”
"You can spar with me next." Darian joined us, standing off to the side with his arms crossed over his chest. His face looked slightly flushed, and I couldn't stop my eyes from widening when Angelisa appeared from the forest seconds later.
She looked as neat and beautiful as ever, but her face was even redder than his.
There seemed to be something between Darian and Angelisa.
“Sure,” I answered and returned my attention to Cyrus.
Well, Darian was unmated and single. He could mess around with whomever he pleased. Whatever he did with Angelisa wouldn’t affect the way he felt about Elinor. And I was sure he felt something for her, whether or not he’d admit it.
If we hadn't all been thrown together like this, I never would’ve noticed. But he wasn't just concerned about Elinor getting friendly with Will. He was jealous.
I lifted my right leg as Cyrus tried to trip me, but when I moved to the left, he released a ball of fire from his hand, forcing me to fall to the ground and roll to avoid it. I jumped to my feet while holding onto my left arm, which was still warm from how close the ball of fire had been to me when it went past.
When I growled at Cyrus to let him know how I felt about that, another ball of fire appeared in his hand, hovering above his palm.
“When fighting those who have power, you have to be mindful of the different ways they can use their powers to attack you.”
I heard a threatening growl behind me, and when I turned around, I stepped back just in time to avoid Darian’s claws, which missed my face by an inch.
“Darian! What the hell are you doing? You could have taken my head off!"
"Remember, just because you’re fighting an opponent, that doesn’t mean they’re the only opponent."
I glowered at him, my eyes turning to black. “I already know that.”
His mouth curved with a grin, and he pulled his locs into a bun. “Good. Let's see what else you know.”
Darian kicked my ass for two hours, but each time I got knocked down, I got back up. My arms and legs were killing me, but he didn’t allow me to rest for even a second. My wolf howled in my head, the part of me that was born to fight had awoken and was enjoying every moment.
“Good! Good!” Darian yelled as he bared down on me, throwing punches from all angles. His hazel eyes changed to black, and he knocked me to the ground when his fists made contact with my lower arms where I’d used them to block my face.
Cyrus stepped forward, but I rose to my feet quickly, shaking my hands by my side to rid myself of the pain.
“I’m fine,” I told him, and he took a step back to stand beside Angelisa. "I'm not that great in hand-to-hand combat, but I'm good with knives. I want to practice with those tomorrow."
"In that case, I have something for you," Angelisa said, speaking for the first time since she’d arrived. She approached me, her white dress dragging behind her.
She held her hands out, and I watched as two light-blue three-pronged swords appeared in both of her hands. The center blade was three times the length of the other shorter blades. They looked like tridents . . . but they weren’t.
I held my breath as she held them out to me. “These are mine?” Angelisa nodded, and I took the swords from her, swinging them around and testing their weight. I fell in love with them immediately. “Angelisa, I don’t know what to say. They’re beautiful. Thank you.”
She smiled wide, and the blue gem, which was the same color as the sword's blades, gleamed. "You're welcome. I imbued them with my power. Whenever danger is close by, they'll glow. And they’ll cut through anything, which should prove useful in the upcoming fight.”
“Do we all get gifts?" Darian inquired, and Angelisa shook her head, blushing again.
“No, the rest of you have all you need already. I see Skye’s potential and her willingness to fight. But three days won’t be enough for her to learn what she needs to survive the battle with the rest of you. She needs a weapon.”
I didn’t know what to say, so I said nothing and just admired my new weapons, moving them around with
ease. It was as if they’d been made for me . . . which, of course, they had been.
"Special treatment," Cyrus grumbled, and I pointed a sword at him.
"Enough of that. I'm ready to go again." I took a defensive stance, and a sword made from black smoke appeared in his hand.
Darian and Angelisa backed away to give us some space, and I remained where I was, waiting for Cyrus to make the first move. He winked at me, his eyes turning to black, and my stomach clenched as the tattoos on his arms moved.
"I won't be holding back." His voice was low and oh-so-sexy, and I called on my wolf to strengthen my muscles . . . and my resolve.
“Good. I won’t, either.”
17
Elinor
Tien’s staff flew across the meadow, making a whistling sound as it pierced the air. I was pinned to the ground with her above me, her hands holding mine above my head, but I wasn't bothered in the least.
I smiled, and she narrowed her glowing eyes at me.
“Should you be smiling right now?”
“Should you be touching me right now?” I countered.
I twisted my hands and moved to grab hers. She realized too late what my intentions were, as I allowed a lightning bolt I had absorbed earlier to flow from my body to hers. She screamed as her body shook violently and toppled off of me. Her staff fell to the ground, and I got to my feet.
I’d learned how to retain the power of raw lightning I absorbed from the sky, storing them inside me for several hours without being burned from the inside out.
Tien sat up and patted her hair that had been ruffled from the electricity. “Not bad.”
I smiled as I released the rest of the lightning bolt into the sky and healed a wound on my right thigh. Our fight was over, and so was the second half of my training. I couldn't believe I'd been training for two years, first with Ariel and now with Tien. I missed my friends so much it was almost unbearable—even Darian and his grumpy attitude.