by Alexia Purdy
Ephrem
I barely heard the shot. I felt it more than anything, but I wasn’t the one injured. It came as an odd, disjointed sensation followed by Lily’s collapse to the ground. I was stunned, and pain had me hunching over as I lost breath. Lily’s body morphed back to human a moment later, and her naked body lay eerily still while a blooming puddle of blood poured from her chest.
I rushed toward Elise, who was now turning back into a human, grasping at her neck as blood sprayed out in time with her pulse. She gasped for air and flopped about the floor in confusion.
My anger surged against that woman for hurting my Lily, and I could feel my wolf surface as I fought the morph, growling at the maniacal woman. I would’ve torn her to pieces with my claws right that second if I hadn’t spotted my brother standing in the doorway with a gun raised toward me.
“Ephrem!” Etan shouted. He’d caught me off guard, but I continued to approach Elise, hungering to finish what Lily had started. My face was partially transformed, and I gave Etan a show of fangs as I unexpectedly pounced toward him and knocked the gun from his hands.
“Thieves!” Elise gurgled. “They’re trespassing in my apartment! They’re nothing but thieving traitors! Kill them now!” The outburst did nothing to help her condition, and she fell back onto her knees, struggling to breathe while still clutching her bleeding neck. She was paling by the second but didn’t seem to notice how much blood she was losing.
“Elise….” Etan’s voice was filled with panicked concern for his mate.
She slumped to the floor, tears streaming down her face.
“Elise!” Etan jumped toward her, but I was already there and gave him a shove backward.
“You shot Lily!” I hollered and gave my brother a sucker punch to his face. Blood oozed from his lip, and he touched his swelling cheek before bum-rushing me, slamming into my chest and sending us both toppling across the room, smashing furniture as we went.
We kept at it, punching and kicking, shoving and pulling each other until the room was shattered and there was nothing left unbroken. Exhausted, we both crawled to our knees, huffing for breath and spitting blood to the floor.
I waited, crouched and ready to pounce if needed. My snarls were now a low vibrating hum in the back of my throat as I eyed Etan, keeping his every movement in my periphery. At least my brother hadn’t also shot me before I disarmed him. He very well could have. I hoped he knew what was going on here. If not, he was in for a rude awakening.
Movement in the hallway caught my attention, and Etan backed away from me as his guards rushed into the room. Realization passed across his face as he finally took a moment to consider what was happening.
He pointed at Elise. “Guards, strip her of any weapons or artifacts and bring them to me. Then take her away and have her wounds treated, but do not let her out of your sight.”
As more guards surrounded me, I held my hands up and morphed completely back to my human form, blood dripping from my nose. I didn’t care. It bothered me little to be beaten and bruised. Etan looked worse for wear. I was more concerned for Lily, who was unconscious on the floor and still bleeding.
Etan called his guards off, and I knelt down to scoop her up, pushing her long hair aside to examine the wound. The bullet was most likely still embedded in her flesh, and the entry wound was dribbling blood. I felt for a pulse. It was weak, but it was there. I had to do something or she’d die in my arms.
“Ephrem, are you okay?” Etan asked. His breathing was hard, but he wasn’t seriously hurt. His face was already swollen on one side where his eye was completely shut. Blood drizzled from his nose and mouth, and I’d knocked out one of his bottom teeth.
I nodded. “I don’t think Lilliana is, though.”
“What?” His eyes widened as he stared down at Lily. “As in Princess Lilliana?”
“Yes.”
“Holy shit, what’s she doing here? I heard what Elise said about the talismans. I thought she was being attacked…I—I really liked her. I was going to marry her, you know.” He turned and looked at the guards who were picking Elise up off the ground. One of them met his eye and shook his head. As they set her back down on the floor, I saw that she was perfectly still and deathly pale.
Etan walked over to her and knelt down. “She’s dead.” His voice was low and hollow.
“But Lily’s not! Do you have any healers nearby?” I desperately looked around. I grabbed a thin blanket from one of the destroyed sofas and pressed it down on Lily’s gushing wound.
“I’ll send for one.” Etan stumbled to his feet, still stark white from shock and ran right into one of his guards. The guard pointed behind him, and Queen Rafaela stepped in followed by her lieutenant Alec and a couple of ArcKnight guards.
“What’s going on here?” Rafaela asked as she rushed into the room. She dropped onto the floor next to Lily and checked her injuries. “What happened to my sister? Lily!” She shook her, tears already staining her face. She was dressed in the dark clothes of a guard. In disguise. I wondered who’d let her in, but the more pressing issue shoved that thought out of my mind.
Rafaela jerked her eyes toward me, hatred and fear mixed in a violent cocktail within them.
“Do something!”
I bent down near her, feeling her weakened pulse as a mess of blood bloomed around her. She paled before my eyes, and I felt a heavy weight hit me in my chest. We were still betrothed, and it meant a lot more than just a promise. Magic was involved, and unless something was done, this wouldn’t end well for either of us. If she died, it could kill me too. I peered up toward Etan, who had sent a guard for the healer and was again kneeling near Elise. He looked stunned as it dawned on him that the ArcKnight queen was in his palace and his love was dead. Lily’s talisman, along with the others that had been stolen, dangled from his fingers. They must have fallen off during the struggle.
“Etan! Give me the pendants. Now!” I waved him over, and it took a moment for it to register, but he finally made his way over toward me.
“They’re not Elise’s. I don’t know who they belong to.” He held them out, still looking shocked and confused.
“I know. One of them is Lily’s, which was mine since we exchanged them at our betrothal years ago. I fear the owners of the other two are already long dead.”
“But they still hum with magic. How?” Etan flicked his eyes between Lily and me. He truly had been clueless about Elise. The shock of it was still preventing him from thinking straight. In spite of what he’d done to Lily, I felt sorry for him.
Elise was dead. She’d hidden her treachery from him, but he had loved her. I could see that. I shook off my pity. I’d make him accountable for hurting Lily, but right now I had work to do. There was still one hope. A talisman began to lose its magic after its wearer’s death, but this was a long, slow process unless it was intentionally drained in the process of killing the wearer. If the talismans of the dead ArcKnight and MarkTier wolves still held fragments of magic, it meant that Elise had never used them against their owners and they had died of natural causes. This gave me a chance to save Lily. One talisman alone wouldn’t be enough, but four? That might work.
But one of the talismans was mine. I could die trying to use it to save her life, but it was a risk I was more than willing to take.
Inhaling deeply, I swallowed down the fear blossoming in my stomach. “I can save her.”
I laid the first two of the three of the talismans around her neck, lifting her head with gentle control and avoiding the area Rafaela was pressing down on to slow the bleeding. She threw me a concerned look but didn’t stop what she was doing. I tried to reassure her with a curt nod, but I could tell her patience was wearing thin.
“Okay. You’ll have to let go for me to do this, Your Highness. It could be… damaging.”
Rafaela nodded, her tears still sliding down her cheeks as she backed away and stood. Her delicate hands were stained with Lily’s blood. Etan also retreated to the door of the a
partment. He looked less pale, donning an unreadable expression as he pulled Rafaela away to give us room.
At least he had finally regained his wits.
I slipped the last of the three talismans―my own, hers, and one from a dead ArcKnight―around her neck and held onto her shoulders. Closing my eyes, I tried to remember what my grandmother had told me about Ardent talismans and how they worked. She’d taught me the lesson so long ago, on the day of mine and Lily’s betrothal, actually. My grandmother Julia had visited me the morning before I made the trip to the ArcKnight stronghold when I was thirteen. She’d been so proud of my accomplishments and my hard work. Even though I was so young at the time, she treated me like an adult, with respect and love.
Her warm words of encouragement were a stark contrast to my mother’s less affectionate demeanor and gave me the drive to do better than anyone else. Even my brother Etan. I was a second-born, so Etan got all the attention, but she believed I’d become a high commander of the MarkTier army with proper direction.
My parents hadn’t been so optimistic, but they’d never told my grandmother otherwise. She’d been a woman to fear. I was glad she’d had the foresight to tell me what I’d need to do to save my equal, my future bride, when the time came to marry and bind both packs together forever. Without her intuitive lesson, I wouldn’t have known what to do.
Her words echoed in my head now, clear as a bell, while I caressed Lily’s soft hair.
“Remember, Ephrem, if a time ever comes when you have to heal your mate, you have to offer your power freely to her. Place your talisman around her neck and whisper these words. They are full of ancient power, passed down through our packs across centuries: Curáre spiritus meus anima. Say it like that while touching your mate, and you both will heal. Don’t forget. It could save both your lives.”
I closed my eyes and whispered the words aloud. A roaring buzz rose up from the talismans, growing louder with each passing second. It vibrated through my fingers as the power made its way through Lily and then up my arms and into my chest. My head began to spin as the magic flowed through me and then back into Lily. Her body began to glow softly under my hands, and she started to tremble. Light shined from the gunshot wound as the silver bullet melted and dripped out of the wound and onto the floor where it solidified into a tiny ball, clinking as it hit the floor and rolled harmlessly away.
I groaned in agony with the worst pain I’d ever felt in my entire life. It had me fighting to stay conscious as it siphoned my energy and traded it with Lily’s injured life-force. The mixing of energies was excruciating. I couldn’t breathe, and the world felt like it was collapsing in on me.
The wound hissed as it stitched itself closed, and the light seeping through her skin began to fade. I could feel every little pull and tug of skin and muscle as her injuries closed up. I felt the magic return to the talismans, calming the stinging buzz that had filled me moments before. The moment the light died, my hands fell away and I collapsed to the ground next to Lily.
Fighting to stay awake, I peered into Lily’s eyes as they fluttered and opened. Beautiful brown irises connected with mine, and I tried to smile, but my muscles refused to move. All I felt was an overwhelming urge to sleep. My magic was depleted, and I hoped that when I woke up again, it would be those same beautiful eyes staring back at me.
Lily….
Chapter Sixteen