by Kimber White
Edward and Olen tumbled end over end. He drew his blade up, slashing Edward across the ribs. An angry gash opened up but didn’t seem to slow Edward down. He pounced on Olen, pinning him to the ground. His fangs dripped with saliva as he snapped his jaw and threatened to tear Olen’s neck open.
Hands came around my shoulders, dragging me away from Edward and Olen.
I felt my light building. I tried to tear myself away.
“Stop!” The voice was like Edward’s but not. His brother. Erik. Edward had told me about him. But, seeing him here, in the flesh. They were so alike. Almost identical. Enough that he may have just saved my life.
Erik tried to pull me away.
“No!” I shouted. “You don’t understand!”
Edward’s wolf tore into Olen. A blast of lightning shot from Olen’s fingertips, driving Edward back. He was bleeding. Badly. I felt his primal rage as thunder through my whole body.
The medallion swung freely from Edward’s neck. It was covered in his blood. The medallion around Olen’s neck strained against the chain. If they were joined while Olen wore his…
“No!” I shouted. I drew from Edward’s strength. A blast of light came out of me, knocking Erik back.
I felt Edward’s blood as my blood. I crawled forward and threw myself between Edward and Olen.
Olen’s light cut through me, crushing my ribs.
I got my fingers around the medallion. With every ounce of strength I had left, I ripped it free.
Edward’s wolf got to his feet. As he leaped for me, I grabbed the medallion around his neck. Power flowed through me.
Something happened. I felt a release. The air crackled and popped. The chain around Edward’s neck disintegrated. Edward’s blood was my blood. The spell binding the medallion transferred to me.
I held the two pieces of the medallion in each of my hands. Their power came into me, lifting me off my feet, throwing Olen, Edward, and Erik a few yards back.
A storm raged in a circle around us. Purple light illuminated the sky. I rose off the ground.
“No!” Olen shouted. “Zendra! No!”
Edward shifted. His flesh was bruised and torn where Olen had scorched him. Blood trickled from Olen’s mouth.
“Stop!” Olen cried out.
My hair flew straight up. I felt them. My mother. My father. My brothers. They were there, just out of reach. Only now I had the power to bring them back.
Olen got to his feet. He pointed at me with one shaking finger.
“If you do this,” he shouted. “There’s no going back. You will no longer be Fae. Not even I can save you.”
I felt as if I would come apart. My heart. My head. My soul. My family. My people. My love.
Terror lit Edward’s eyes. I felt his pain as my own.
“You’ll be hunted for the rest of your short life,” Olen shouted. “You’ll find no quarter, no safe harbor!”
I looked at the glowing medallion in my right hand, then the one in my left. The sky split above me. I threw my head back and screamed.
Then...I made my choice.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Edward
Stars swirled around Zendra. Her hair stood straight up in the maelstrom. The force of the wind tried to push her backward. She held her ground.
I pinned Olen to the ground, my claws digging into his chest. He was bleeding badly from a gash I’d torn in his neck. I could finish him off. Bloodlust coursed through me.
Olen’s laughter stoked my primal rage. I wanted to taste him dying.
“Edward!” Erik got to me. He put a hand on my shoulder. Somehow, he reached me through the clamor in my head.
I shifted. Rising on two legs, I turned to Zendra.
She held the broken halves of the medallion in each of her hands. Her eyes shone like amethysts with lightning at the center of each pupil.
“Zendra!” I yelled. It got hard to breathe. The power she channeled seemed to suck up all the air around us.
“We need him alive!” Erik shouted.
I no longer had a thought for Olen. It was Zendra who called to me. And she was fading. I felt her being pulled between two worlds.
Something was wrong. There was chaos on the other side. She was about to step right into it.
“Zendra!”
Instinct fueled me. I knew in my heart that if Zendra reopened the portal and stepped through it, I would lose her forever.
I looked down. Erik had a hold of Olen. He dragged him to his feet. Olen could barely stand. Blood gushed from his wounds, but his eyes stayed trained on Zendra.
“Go,” he whispered.
I ran to her. Zendra raised a hand. A wall of lightning shot from her fingertips, knocking me back. I landed hard on my ass.
Olen began to laugh again.
“No!” I shouted. “Zendra, it’s a trap!”
She was there but not there. I was afraid the power in the broken medallion would rip her arms right off. She dropped to her knees.
“Stop her!” I turned to Olen.
He smiled. “She’s made her choice.”
I turned back. My heart raced. This was wrong. All wrong.
“Edward, let her go!” my brother shouted. More voices came from further down the hill. Roy and the other men from Wolfguard had caught back up with us. They charged up the hill, shifting as they went.
Olen’s eyes widened as he saw Roy’s tiger up close. Erik held him back from finishing what I’d started and ripping Olen apart.
Thunder cracked, making the ground vibrate. But, it was coming from Zendra and the power coursing through her.
“Edward!”
I turned to my brother. Olen rose off the ground. He twisted and fought against whatever force had him in its grip.
Zendra. The power was Zendra. She pulled Olen away from my brother. Olen’s eyes filled with terror as she brought him to her.
“No!” Erik shouted. “We need him!”
Zendra dropped the two halves of the medallion to the ground. They glowed and sizzled at her feet.
Olen wore a medallion of his own. Zendra ripped it off his neck as he screamed.
She spoke in a language I couldn’t understand. An incantation. Beside her, A bolt of purple lightning crackled and the air split.
The portal.
“No!” I shouted. But Roy and Erik held me back.
Zendra grabbed Olen’s medallion. It blazed with blue light. As Olen screamed for her mercy, Zendra lifted the thing high above her head and pitched it into the portal.
Olen fell to the ground in a heap. Something exploded at the mouth of the portal, throwing Zendra backward. She landed on her back.
The air left my lungs. I dropped to the ground. My brother and Roy writhed beside me. We couldn’t breathe. Purple veins popped out on Erik’s neck and I knew he saw the same in me.
Then...everything stopped.
A whoosh of air went up and out, dissipating into the clouds. The portal closed. The light around Zendra faded then disappeared. It left her gasping on the ground, her hair stuck to her forehead from sweat.
“Zendra,” I croaked.
Olen lay face down in front of her. I thought he was dead at first, but then he moaned and rolled sideways. His eyes were filled with blood.
Roy and Erik recovered and dove for him. I went for Zendra.
My whole body shaking, I gathered her in my arms. “Are you all right?”
For a moment, her eyes didn’t focus. Then, they glinted as she came back to me.
Coughing and sputtering, I got her upright.
“What the hell just happened?” I asked her.
A tear fell from Zendra’s eye. “It’s over,” she said. “Olen can never go back. And neither can I.”
“What?”
Olen kept moaning the word no over and over. I touched her face. “Zendra what is it?”
“Olen can’t get back to the Fae realm now. I didn’t know what else to do.”
“We do,” Erik said. He’s r
egained his strength. Along with Roy and seven other men from Wolfguard, they chained Olen in Dragonsteel.
“Will that hold him?” I asked Zendra.
“It will now,” she said. “I can help Nadia work a binding spell for when he gets stronger.”
Erik shot me a look. I gave him a nod. He and the others dragged an unconscious Olen back down the hill, leaving me alone with Zendra.
I watched them leave. Then, something shiny caught my eye in the grass. Zendra’s broken medallion. I reached down and picked up one half. When I turned, I saw Zendra had retrieved the other.
“What have you done?” I asked her.
She smiled. “I made my choice,” she said. “I know you must hate me. I’m so sorry for not telling you everything. I didn’t know how. Olen was right. I can never go back. I know what that means.”
She lifted her wrists. It took a second, then it dawned on me what she was doing. She was turning herself in to me.
My heart shattered in a thousand pieces then reknit as I saw the fear in Zendra’s eyes.
“Zendra,” I said. I had so many questions. For now, I could only think to ask one. “What did you choose?”
Her tears flowed freely. “You,” she said. “Edward, I chose you.”
For the second time that night, the world fell away. I didn’t care about any lies she might have told. I didn’t care what she was. I only cared that she was here, with me. I smoothed the hair out of her eyes and found her lips.
My heart had been torn in half just like the medallion. Now, I felt it beat with Zendra’s as one.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Edward
She trembled beside me but stayed strong as we made our way to the basement. Here, deep in the bowels of Wolfguard’s world headquarters in Louisville, we held a secret. Perhaps the most valuable asset in the world.
Payne waited for us. Beside him stood my brother Erik, our cousins Milo and Leo, and our Uncle Valentin. Along with me, these were the men who led Wolfguard. We held the line between whatever dangers threatened shifters, the covens and even humans from the Ring. The war had started. What happened here today could turn the tide forever.
“He’s ready to talk. But he’s asking for you, Zendra,” Payne said. Zendra’s jaw twitched. I squeezed her hand.
“He can’t hurt you,” I said. “That’s six-inch, spell-bound glass.”
Olen sat on a cot in a cell specially built for him. His eyes glowed as Zendra approached.
Olen sat straighter. His skin was still pale as he recovered from the wounds I’d inflicted. It seemed Fae didn’t heal as quickly as shifters did. Perhaps the loss of his medallion and access to his home world kept him weaker as well.
“They’ll never stop coming,” Olen said to Zendra.
“And I’ll never stop doing what I think is right,” she said. “It’s over for you, Olen. You promised to deliver Edward and my father to Daedra. It’s you she’ll seek to punish now. Face it, Wolfguard is the safest place you can be right now.”
Olen hissed and let out a stream of words I couldn’t understand, but recognized as obscenities.
“Enough!” I said. “If you have something to offer, do it now. Payne’s more patient and more merciful than I would be. Zendra’s right. You owe Wolfguard your life. Time for you to pay up.”
“Is she the Ring?” Payne asked. “This Daedra.”
Olen focused only on Zendra. I kept a hand at the small of her back, transmitting my strength to her in the only way I knew how at the moment.
Her brow furrowed as she listened to Olen. He spat out his words and gestured wildly. Zendra took it all in. She interjected a few times with a sharp, one-syllable word or two. At one point, she sank to the bench in front of the glass and buried her head in her hands.
Then, Olen fell silent. Zendra’s face had gone white. We gave her a moment. Whatever Olen said, he was done. He’d retreated to the corner and drew his knees up to his chest.
“Come on,” Payne said. “We’ll talk out of his earshot.”
We filed into a large outer office on the opposite end of the floor. Zendra took a seat on the couch. I paced beside her as my family members and Payne settled in.
“Daedra is the head of Ring,” she finally said. “Your guess was right. She’s calling the shots.”
“Fae,” Payne said. “You’re telling me Fae have been behind the Ring this whole time.”
Zendra looked pained. I felt her guilt pouring through her.
“You have to understand,” she said. “Things have become desperate in our home world. It was falling apart around our ears. Soon, the world will collapse entirely. Olen says that’s what drove Daedra and some of the other Fae here, to your world.”
“They want to take it over,” I said. “That’s the endgame?”
“Yes,” she said.
“There’s room for everyone,” Payne said.
“I agree. As did my father, Liall. At one time, he was Olen’s father’s right-hand man. His most trusted advisor. Until this. It’s what caused the fracture between mine and Olen’s families. I swear to you, we had no idea how far Olen’s family was willing to go. My family wasn’t alone. There were many who don’t condone what’s happening. Olen said King Olen sent Daedra here to ensure this world would suit Fae needs. Daedra told him it would, but only after all other magic users were eradicated.”
Payne shook his head. His color drained as he sank into a chair opposite Zendra. “So this Daedra formed the Ring to eradicate shifters and witches?”
“Yes,” Zendra said. “But they’re playing a long game. Fae wouldn’t win an outright war for dominion against shifters and witches. They’ve tried it before and lost. But, if the shifters and witches fight the battle for them...if they turn on each other…”
“Then the Fae swoop in when shifters and witches are at their weakest and don’t see it coming,” I said, my stomach turning. “That’s why the Ring is trying to prop up Tyrannous Alpha shifters. They’re making shifters do the dirty work for them.”
“Yes,” Zendra said, though the answer seemed to make her as sick as it was making me.
“So the Ring was sent here or formed to make this world ready so that the rest of the Fae under King Olen’s control would face no opposition.”
“Yes,” Zendra said. “And my father tried to counsel against it. I swear to you, we had no idea how far King Olen was willing to take this. We didn’t know about the Ring. My father tried to make peace with King Olen.”
“That’s why he married you off to him,” I said. Bile rose in my throat.
Zendra put a hand on my arm. “I’m sorry. Edward, I should have told you. But yes. My marriage to Olen the Younger was part of a peace accord. I agreed to it because I knew what was at stake. My father would have never brokered it if he’d known what King Olen was really planning. But it was all a lie. On our wedding night, Olen and his father tried to slaughter my family while they slept. I caught wind of the plot. And I took action. The Clavia was supposed to be my key to this world and Olen and I were being sent here as ambassadors to report back on the progress the Ring was making. I didn’t know about that last part until Olen told me just now. You have to believe me. I had no idea who or what the Ring was until I got here. And I didn’t know Fae were behind it.”
“But you used the Clavia to save your family,” I said. My heart broke at the agony her choice caused her and the desperate courage she’d summoned to make it.
“I tried,” she said, her voice breaking. “There wasn’t enough time. I opened the portal and sent them all through. But, Olen caught up with me before I could follow or even be sure where they ended up. I kept them away from the fate Olen had planned for them. But I may have sent them to an even worse one.”
“He was going to kill you too,” I said. My wolf raged inside of me.
“No,” she said. “For me, it was worse. He was going to make me be his wife. I had to seal the portal I sent my family through so Olen couldn’t go after them.
It meant I couldn’t follow. But I couldn’t stay in the Fae realm either. I would not be with Olen. Edward, I married him under false pretenses. It was never consummated. I found out what he was really planning before any of that happened.”
“I don’t blame you for it,” I said. “God. You can’t think I do. You were trying to survive. I would have done nothing different.”
“The only thing I could do was come here and hope Olen wouldn’t be able to follow. That’s why I broke the Clavia and hid the pieces. I miscalculated. I didn’t know that Olen had a Clavia of his own. He told me his father almost killed him after he found out I’d gotten my family out. He claims he came here for the same reason I did. To survive. He managed to find the piece of the Clavia I threw into Kilauea right away. He brought it to Daedra as a way to try and prove his loyalty. They used it to find the piece at the bottom of the lake. They were using it to give some of their agents a magic advantage when they encountered Wolfguard. That’s how yours ended up in your path. Olen was told to find me and bring me to Daedra. The rest you know.”
“But why do some of the Fae hate shifters so much?” Payne asked.
Zendra cast her eyes downward. “Because many of them think you’re lesser beings. Fae existed long before there were shifters. Before humans. Before witches. We’re the reason you exist.”
“What?” The rest of us spoke the word together. Olen had said something similar to me.
“Fae magic is the source of your magic,” she said. “Tens of thousands of years ago, it was a Fae who wanted to capture the essence of a wolf. Wolf shifters were born from that. The same with dragons, bears, every other shifter. Witches came to be when a Fae first mated with a human. We were the first magic. And it’s why men like Olen believe they can just take this world from you.”
Her words struck like thunder. And yet, as soon as they settled over me, I believed them.
Erik stood behind Payne with his arms crossed, his expression grave. I moved closer to Zendra, and a low growl that only he could hear emanated from deep inside of me.