Uther’s dagger hand shook.
Serena’s hand shot out, angled for Brenna.
“No!” Uther released his clasp long enough to push Brenna away with a mental shove and knocked the remote from Serena’s palm.
Ludan spun, ripping free and racing to cover Brenna.
Shouts rang out, warriors jetting toward the dais and bracing and dodging electrical strikes emanating from behind him.
He toppled Brenna to the ground, covering her body with his own. “The torque! Get it off!”
Fire and lightning strikes blazed behind them. Too much for only Serena and Uther to generate.
With a sharp tug and an ugly grunt, Brenna yanked the torque free and toppled back to the grass.
Ludan’s powers surged to life. He twisted, snapping the ropes that bound his wrists with a blast of fire and crouching in front of Brenna.
Rogue Spiritu filled the dais. At least twenty in number and generating three times the manpower of the warriors they engaged. They surrounded Serena, her eyes wide and her skin deathly pale. Uther lay crumpled at her feet.
Brenna scrambled out from behind Ludan. “The key!”
One rogue wrestled Serena, his hand twisted in the thick chain.
“No!” Brenna’s hand shot out, and her mirroring powers ripped through Ludan.
The chain around Serena’s neck snapped, and the key shot to Brenna’s outstretched hand.
Light exploded, a deafening shockwave with an unforgiving pulse that billowed out in all directions and slammed him to the ground.
The world fell away and darkness consumed him. Whether it was a dream or some other world he couldn’t tell, but it wasn’t reality. Whatever it was, he needed out. To get to Brenna and keep her safe. He tried to move but found no purchase. No physical substance connected to his spirit.
“You don’t need to struggle. I’ll help you.” A misty gray light broke through the blackness, and a woman shimmered into view. Not just any woman. His Spiritu, her voice the same as the one who’d led his thoughts. And she was a warrior. Her armor glinted off an unseen light source, and her black hair whipped in a nonexistent breeze. “Focus on me and I will show you to the light.”
What. The. Fuck. He didn’t want light. He wanted Brenna. “Who are you? Where am I? Where’s Brenna?”
She smiled, as unrepentant and proud as any victorious fighter. “You’ve already accepted who I am, but my name is Morigan. You hit your head with the blast and now drift between reality and imagination. As to your mate, she touches the Great One.”
The Great One. As in the prophecy. His spirit thrashed, clawing in all directions for escape.
“Be at ease, warrior.” Morigan’s glow intensified, full-moon soft but dazzling in its power. Calm descended on him, and his heart slowed to a steady beat. “In the Great One’s arms, she will know no harm. It’s in the days to come she will need you. Are you prepared now to accept her? To give her the future she deserves?”
“I would give her my vow. My life, if she would have it.”
Morigan dipped her head, acknowledging his words with the reverence he’d offered them. “Then go to her. Find your mate.”
A loud whirring noise rushed past his head, and the space around him blurred in a stream of every color. A second later, he stared up at the cloudless Myren sky.
No clouds.
No shouts.
No fighting.
Only silence.
He rolled to his knees, lungs burning and limbs shaking with the sting of adrenaline. The rogues and Serena lay motionless on the dais. Eryx’s warriors fared slightly better, some staggering upright from the blast, others shaking their heads as though stunned. The rest stared mesmerized at the massive opaque column of light in front of him. It reached from the ground into the heavens, thrumming with a powerful force. Spiritu surrounded it. Not the rogues, but a sea of beings dressed in both black and white, all poised as though ready to defend to the death.
And Brenna was locked inside the light.
Quiet. An infinite absence of sound, and yet a presence thrummed through Brenna, filling her head with a steady hum. A pinkish-white stretched as far as she could see, tiny glimmers like fairy dust the only thing that gave the space dimension.
“Hello?”
The void swallowed her voice as soon as she spoke, and an odd, soul-reaching peace settled deep inside her.
“I’m here, child. I always have been.”
Tingles danced along her skin, recognition sparking at the rich, velvet voice. She’d heard that voice countless times. In the dark the night after she’d been captured. As she’d trembled and hugged her knees against her torso the first night Maxis defiled her. In the moment when her feet had slipped from the bluff before she’d fallen into Ludan’s arms.
She tilted her head back and stared into the white. “Are you who I think you are?’
“Why do you ask what you already know?”
The Creator. The Great One.
Her muscles quaked, and sweat dampened the skin at her nape and between her shoulder blades. Should she bow? Kneel? For all the warning she’d had, she’d never once imagined actually being here, or how she should act.
“My greatest joy is when you simply are who I made you to be,” he said.
A comforting touch whispered across her face, soft-spun cotton carried on a sweetly scented breeze. She had no need to fear. No cause to fight or worry. In this moment, she could never be safer. More protected or cherished.
The expression etched on Ludan’s face in the second she’d broken free of his shelter and reached for the key flashed in her mind’s eye. “Ludan. Is he okay?”
“Your mate is well and safe. Frantic that he cannot reach you, but the White Queen will not let him suffer. The two of you have had enough in one lifetime for any soul.”
Hope shook her voice, and the muscles in her torso clenched, braced for disappointment. “My mate?”
“The soul intended for you alone. You know this already, though you’ve hesitated to accept it.”
“But Ludan—”
“Has no such misgivings. His realizations are new, but they are fierce and without question.”
Warmth blossomed in her chest, and her cheeks ached from the size of her smile. “He wants me,” she whispered into the void.
“Of course he does, child. How could he not love someone so brave and genuine as you?”
For long moments, she stood rooted in place, clutching her newfound knowledge. When her breath evened out, she lifted her chin and gazed up at the endless space above her.
“When can I see him?”
“When you’ve completed what you were born to do.” The air around her thickened, and she could have sworn the presence leaned in as though to hear her secrets. “You are the judge. The one chosen to guide the futures of the races I’ve created. You’ve watched them. Suffered at their hands, and lived the lives of both. What choice will you make?”
From the day she’d witnessed Ramsay’s visions and seen her ancestor dead and broken at her mate’s feet, she’d vowed to keep the wall in place. She straightened taller and opened her mouth, the choice poised on the tip of her tongue.
And froze.
Yes, a Myren had taken her. Raped her. But a Myren had also saved her. And another had healed her. One by one, they’d gathered round her, offering their strength and friendship.
The memory of the ellan the day she’d shared her memories flittered through her thoughts. The woman had been a stranger, but she’d wept at what she’d witnessed. Had offered up her most sincere regrets and motioned for Maxis’s sentence.
And Ludan. Her sweet, gentle giant. He’d given up his life for her. Gone against his most sacred vow to bring her happiness, then offered his heart as only a warrior could. Bravely. Unhindered.
“Most people are good,” she said into the nothingness. “Some on the fringes go too far, but most want to grow. To learn and get along.”
“Those are the faithful. Th
e ones unafraid of work and exercising courage,” the Creator said.
Courage.
The simple word rattled through her, recalibrating things she’d thought cemented in place and setting free her deepest, darkest fears. “Take it down.”
She flinched the second the words came out, panic firing hot in her belly, but an equal, almost defiant surety standing battle-strong in her heart. “They can do this. Both races can do this. They’re ready.”
The all-encompassing love and peace of the Creator swirled around her, spring-breeze warm and light. “Your judgment and belief in my children brings me much joy. What gift can I give you in return for the faith you’ve shown them today?”
A gift? He’d already given her the world in confirming Ludan’s place in her life. Peace between the races aside, nothing short of a life with him could make her future better.
Actually, there was one other thing. Something well deserved. “There’s nothing I need. But if you could ease Ludan’s pain, let him be free of the voices he carries from all the memories he’s taken, it would be a beautiful blessing.”
The Creator’s presence pulsed and shimmered, and the hairs along the back of her neck and arms danced as though in the midst of an electrical storm. “You are offered a gift, yet you request on behalf of another.”
Silence stretched for seconds that felt like eons.
“I hope that the races you champion come to appreciate your giving soul.” Colors swirled, slow at first and pale in color. Blues, reds, and yellows, all mingling and deepening with each moment. “Your judgment and your request have been rendered. The weight of your mate’s gift no longer exists. The wall will come down and the powers within it bestowed upon you.”
Brenna snapped to attention. “Me? But I thought…Serena said you’d ask me who to give them to.”
“Information provided to her by those who held no conscience. I love all of my creations, but some cannot move beyond their greed. Serena opted to believe the lies she was told. The powers are yours, a gift granted for the brave path you have chosen.”
Fire and sharp sparks licked her fingertips and toes. The sensation deepened and traversed her limbs, creeping slowly toward her heart. Powerful. Altering something not entirely flesh as it moved.
“Be at peace. Live in joy with your mate. Be fearless in the days ahead, and lead your race with the same wisdom you’ve shown today.”
Bit by bit, the white around her faded. Above her, the rainbow skies stretched clear and free of the black clouds she’d witnessed before the battle. Row after row of Spiritu surrounded her, all eyes locked on her and smiles wide and bright as a noonday sun.
Power pulsed in her palms. Her neck arched as energy surged up through her belly and to her crown. Pain and pleasure rolled into one, encompassing all she was and who she’d yet to become. This was her awakening, the wall’s powers surging through her in one bold rush. She couldn’t fight it. Already her body was shutting down, bracing for the change.
“Brenna!” Ludan’s voice shot across the clearing.
With the last of her strength, she twisted toward his voice. The world spun and her knees buckled, but strong arms caught her before gravity could take over.
Just like the day he’d caught her at the bluff, he cradled her tight against his chest and brushed his lips against her temple. His breath came short and fast against her skin, thick with relief. “It’s over. You’re safe.”
It wasn’t over. Not really. If anything, life had just begun. She smiled at the thought and let the weight pressing her eyelids take over, not the least concerned at the future’s hurdles. Beneath her hand his heart beat strong and steady.
He was right. She was truly safe. With her heart. With her life, and her future. With him, she always would be.
Epilogue
Brenna peeked between the white wood blinds covering her bedroom window. Outside her private villa, near white sand and mesmerizing turquoise waters stretched as far as she could see and only a few Divi trees dotted the landscape. According to the real estate agent Ludan had hired, Aruba’s Eagle Beach was the best in the Caribbean. Considering how isolated and protected the beachside haven was, Brenna had been afraid to ask what the best would cost.
Not that Ludan had given her time to ask. He’d agreed to the purchase before they’d even finished the tour. Now here she was, less than an hour from sunset, enjoying a horizon coated in everything from rich mangos and red on one end, to violet and cobalt blue on the other. Beautiful and not unlike to the sunset she’d watched with her parents all those years ago.
Except that now, Eden shimmered high in the eastern sky.
With no barrier between the two realms, it shone as a translucent arc. The yet to rise moon reflected off it, highlighting a ring of soft pink clouds and swirling silver energy streams.
Eden was real. Everyone accepted it as truth now. Granted, the only way humans could get there for the time being was with the help of a Myren via portal, but it was only a matter of time before humans found a way to bridge the realms on their own. Especially since Eryx had vowed to help make that happen, a promise that had earned him all kinds of backlash from his ellan.
Both sides would have to adjust, the same way she had. In the last six months, her life had gone from one of suffering and obscurity, to lavish and painfully public, but she’d done her part to ease her race’s worries. Shared not only her story, but her faith that both races were destined to live and thrive together.
The bedroom door whooshed opened, letting in the cheerful chatter of the women who’d gathered to help her prepare for her special day. So many years she’d been almost entirely alone, devoid of female companionship save Maxis’s aged slave who’d trained her. Now she had her mother back and four strong women who’d proven they’d stand beside her come hell or high water.
The latch snicked shut, and soft footsteps sounded against the soft gray tile floors.
Brenna glanced over her shoulder, loath to leave her view behind for long.
As always, Lexi was the epitome of casual elegance. Her flirty sundress was a rich, raspberry sorbet and accented her tan skin to perfection, but it was her striking blue-gray eyes that really caught everyone’s attention. “You nervous?”
Shaking her head, Brenna resumed her beachside watch. “Nervous was facing Serena.” Her cheeks strained on a wide smile as Ludan, Eryx, Ramsay, Reese, and Graylin ambled into view, guiding a somewhat nervous and starstruck minister toward the simple white trellis only twenty feet from the shoreline. The soft white tulle Orla and Jillian had wound around the slats and posts wavered on the ocean breeze.
“Really? That’s the nerve-racking experience you’d pick? I’d have thought your one-on-one with the Big Guy would have ranked higher.” She paused right behind Brenna, checking out the men over her shoulder with a pleased sigh. “We are seriously lucky girls.”
Lucky indeed. As she had on an almost daily basis since her mating night two months ago, she skimmed her fingertips over Ludan’s mark on her forearm. She didn’t need to look at it anymore. The unusual yet bold ivory mark was burned forever in her memory. A panther, perched at the edge of a thick tree branch beneath a full moon. One paw rested easy atop the branch and the other dangled downward. A deceptively relaxed pose, but his eyes bespoke an alertness that stole her breath. Watchful. Always waiting to pounce and protect.
Just like her mate.
From his place near the trellis, Ludan threw back his head and laughed so loudly it reached her through the thick glass wall.
The space behind Brenna’s sternum tightened as though her heart had simply run out of room with all the happiness pumping through it.
“Never thought I’d see him do that in a million years,” Lexi muttered. “It looks good on him.”
Boy did it. Between their mating and the lack of voices ransacking his head, a whole different side of Ludan had shown itself. The part of himself he referred to as the beast was still there, ready to attack at a moment’s
notice, particularly if someone got too close or ruffled his mate. For the most part, though, the intense side of him seemed content to bask in the aftermath of their victories.
He sobered and twisted, aiming his penetrating gaze in the direction of their bedroom.
Lexi and Brenna both jerked back, and Brenna yanked the cord on the blinds so they snapped shut.
Two short raps sounded on the door, and Galena poked her head in. “You two ready?”
How she could have flutters over a simple wedding was beyond her, especially after all the mystery and intensity of their mating night, but her stomach did the butterfly thing anyway. She smoothed her hand down her simple white sheath dress and blew out a calming breath. The strapless cut displayed Ludan’s mark beautifully and worked well with the intricate braid Orla had helped her with. If there was one thing Ludan got antsy about in short order these days, it was her going out in public without her hair bound, one of the most honored traditions of a mated man or woman. “Yeah. I’m ready.”
With a quick, reassuring smile, Galena ducked back into the other room and hurried to the beach alongside Trinity and Orla.
Lexi handed Brenna a waterfall bouquet made of delicate white orchids, only a few with tender pink streaks lining the inner petals. “You know, the whole double ceremony thing is pure genius. Two ceremonies means two honeymoons.”
Heat blasted across Brenna’s cheeks, and she ducked her head to hide it. She might have grown a lot more comfortable with her sexuality with Ludan in the last many months, but it was still hard for her to be as open about it with Lexi and the rest of the women. “That wasn’t the reason.”
The real reason was just between her and Ludan, and they’d keep it that way for a little while longer. Besides, a human-style marriage set a good tone for the many people with a keen eye on her every move. A demonstration of how open Myrens were to human ways as well as their own.
“Mmm hmmm.” Lexi’s too-shrewd eyes sharpened, and she pursed her mouth, considering. Just as fast, she shrugged it off and let whatever ideas were traipsing around in her head go. Waggling her eyebrows, she slid open the glass door that led to the patio and the beach beyond. “It’s still genius.” Then she was gone, strutting out to her place of honor as only Lexi could.
Eden's Deliverance (The Eden Series Book 4) Page 31