“Am I pregnant with puppies?” Icelyn asked, and I paused mid-step, staring at her as my mind raced to figure out if that was an actual option here. I mean, we were in Faery and Danu was fucked up about the rules of her races, and I needed to know the answer before I left here.
“No,” Sinjinn said as he shook his head.
My heart slowed as I watched the love in his eyes, which almost wiped out the disappointment of her not carrying puppies. I almost laughed, almost, but the look of sheer terror on Icelyn’s delicate features made me pause.
“They’ll be normal, Icelyn,” he continued, assuring her.
“Fire and ice, and nothing nice,” I snickered as they turned to stare at me. “I’m leaving; he comes. Congrats on those babies though, they’re going to fuck some shit up when they get older.”
“Who comes?” Icelyn asked.
“Callaghan; he is relentless. That Templar needs to find his God again because I tire of being hunted. And if he had his way, we’d be having puppies together, you and I. I’d make a horrible mother, but you…you’ll be great. Maybe after I blow him up, we can do some girl time, yeah?”
“Um, okay?” Icelyn replied, staring at me as if I was insane.
“It’s a date, in a non-sexual, I’m-not-going-to-lick-your-face sorta way.”
“Erie, be careful,” Synthia warned, her eyes filling with sadness. “They are running out of time. He won’t be able to prevent the others from hunting you any longer. You’ve reached the ten-month mark for the extinction of two races. They will be working together to capture you.”
“They’ll try,” I agreed. There was sadness in my tone, which I knew settled into my eyes, something I couldn’t hide as I turned to leave the few friends I’d actually made who hadn’t been in my freezer, which would have been cool, admittedly, but I didn’t think they would hurt me. “If I don’t come back, thank you for allowing me to be here,” I said thickly before I laughed and chewed my bottom lip while I considered what a normal person would say. “It’s been fun.”
“You could stay here with us.”
I stared at her as I shook my head sadly. “And bring yet another fight to your gates? You have enough going on, and this is my fight. This fight is one only I can wage against them. No; if it happens, it happens. Know that I went out smiling, and they just went out with a bang.”
“We’d fight for you, Erie. You’re one of us now.”
“Synthia, that’s sweet, but this is war. Don’t go ruining my glory with this mushy shit. I’ve lived by the sword, and I will die by his sword. I’ve always known my fate and never feared meeting it head-on. I’ll go out on my terms.” Synthia moved closer, hugging me awkwardly as everyone watched us, including Zahruk, who I glared at as he smirked. “What the fuck are you doing? We don’t hug; hugging isn’t badass. Eww, that was just awkward.”
“Come back, Erie, come back to us alive,” Synthia said, undeterred by the way I shrugged it off.
“Not if you plan to hug me again. That’s a hard limit for me.” I didn’t know why these assholes kept hugging me, but I hated it. It was too…normal. Like they’d decided I was family, and they shouldn’t. I wasn’t family, I was born alone, and I would always be alone. Even among them, I felt utterly alone. Like a part of me was so broken that it would never be set back into place correctly. Waving over my shoulder, I headed down the long, winding hallway towards Eliran’s medical unit.
On the lower level, I paused, staring at Olivia, who was being examined as Ristan held her hand, kissing it as they laughed over the sound of static thumping. She was massively pregnant, and any day now, she’d give birth to her child. I frowned as I watched the love they shared, visible to anyone with eyes as it shined from both of them.
I craved what they shared, but I knew I’d never have it. I felt it deep inside of me as if I was cursed to be alone until the day I died, which wouldn’t be ever. Eliran lifted his gaze to me and smiled until he noted the look on my face.
“I’ll be right back, Ristan,” he muttered as he poured disinfectant on his hands and moved to where I stood. He stared at me, his knowing look both bothering and unsettling me.
“So look, I need a few things. I also need to know that you won’t tell anyone what they are,” I said as I crossed my arms over my chest, staring pointedly at him as I dropped my gaze to the counter, which was lined with specimens and other things.
“You want something kept secret from Ryder and Synthia?” he asked, lifting a dark brow in question.
“I don’t want it; I need it. They are not a part of this, and whatever comes from it, that’s on me. I don’t want them to think they can protect me from what has been foretold if it is true,” I admitted as I swallowed hard and then whispered into his ear as he exhaled. “Can you do that for me?” I asked.
“I can, but you’re not alone,” he uttered as he pushed his fingers through his messy hair. He shook his head. “I have what you need, how many do you want?” he asked.
“All of them,” I replied, barely above a whispered sigh.
Callaghan
The Horde stronghold was spread out over forty city blocks wide, like an actual city of its own. It was exactly as I remembered it from when I’d come here the last time before Ryder was even knee-high to Alazander, and the beast within his father had just begun to catch the madness. My gaze drifted to the army of Fae that stood between us and it, along with the King himself that was walking in the shadows of the fortress with his second in command close to his side.
“So what now, we just walk up and knock on the gate?” Rhett asked as he took in the impressive size and structure of their stronghold. It was impenetrable, but there were ways around that too.
“They’re aware that we’re here,” I muttered as I watched the shadows moving. “Look beyond what your human eyes see, and sense.”
“Jesus,” he uttered as the armor the Fae wore changed, making them visible.
“Impressive, aren’t they?” Uther snorted. “Didn’t expect the King to be the one to greet us,” he muttered, impressed by the balls of their newly crowned King.
I wasn’t; I’d watched him grow into his own as he became a law unto himself through strength and patience. I’d known who he would become, and when his father fell, I’d been one of the assholes cheering on the sheer size of his balls. “Ryder doesn’t fear anything. He’s like we are, a caged beast that only wears a mask so that people and creatures don’t fear him,” I replied.
He stopped mere feet from the army of Knights that stood shoulder to shoulder with me. We’d brought force to show them we could, so they knew I wasn’t leaving without her. I didn’t want to cause problems, not when I respected the shit out of him, and them—not to mention what they were doing—but too much rode on Erie carrying a child. The entire world would die if we fell, and that was something we hadn’t made known to them yet.
“I sure hope you thought this through, Callaghan. You don’t march an army to the gates of my home unless you damn sure plan to use it.” He shook his head, angered that we were here, but if it were his world on fire, he’d have done the same.
“I don’t do anything that I don’t intend to follow through with, Ryder. I will use whatever force I have to get her back. There are things playing out that you and your kind have no knowledge of. You are interfering where you have no right, not to mention, where the Gods themselves have no right,” I argued, watching his men as they closed rank around him.
“She isn’t here,” Synthia said. “She left to face you.”
“She is here; I can feel her. More than that, Goddess, that which crawls inside of me, smells its mate. Just as your beast can track you by scent, mine can track his wife.”
“Wife?” she asked as she tilted her head, studying me as she sent her power out, sensing our strengths and weaknesses, and no doubt finding nothing but dead air where we stood.
/> “Erie is mated to the creature I hold. She knows it, just as it knows her. She’s mine by right of the cauldron and the Gods; you meddle where it isn’t your concern. Just as you did when you thought to freeze me and let her escape me—you can’t freeze other Gods, for the record, Synthia.” I smirked as her eyes narrowed, but more than that, I felt her distress call reaching from this world into the others. “They won’t help you either, because they know what happens when you fuck with fate. You think Destiny is a fickle bitch, try Fate for a change, and you’ll know true pain.”
“We’ll see,” she said as she waited.
I nodded, folding my hands slowly, letting the beast take in the situation as my eyes glowed and studied Ryder’s. His was the same size as mine, cut from the same ancient cloth. Golden eyes watched me, noting the beast within me as we sized one another up. I saw the moment recognition lit in his gaze. The moment he sensed the likeness, the same cloth we’d been cut from. He should have noticed it sooner, but then Danu masked most of her creations beneath the guise of civility, and she had enjoyed her secrets.
“You fought my father,” Ryder growled as his hands fisted at his sides and his head lowered as if he would strike against me.
“A few times, yes.”
“Yet you couldn’t kill him,” he hissed as a smile lit across his face.
“It wasn’t that I couldn’t kill him,” I assured him evenly, knowing he was young, younger than me, and that his beast was itching for a fight. “It wasn’t his time to die yet. Fate is fickle like that, and had we murdered the King when you were so young; you’d never have become King. You weren’t ready. So while I could have killed your father and ended his reign of terror, what would have replaced him would have been worse. You had to be ready to face him because you had to be able to hold that thing inside of you. So we waited, and when you were ready, you didn’t need us to fight that battle for you.”
“I was ready to be King the moment I crawled from my mother and drew breath into my lungs.”
“To be King, yes,” I replied. “To hold the beast, no. No, you weren’t. It would have chosen another because you were too young. Everything happens for a reason, everything. I was here when you were a child; many of us were. I slaughtered countless creatures of the Horde to save one woman from that madman. You watched me from the walls of this very stronghold as I fought your father and took her back.”
“So, what now? We fight for another woman?”
“I don’t want to fight you,” I admitted carefully, showing no fear to the beast that craved the fight beneath his veneer of calmness. “Erie is too important to walk away from. If my people fall, so too will your world.”
“I’m going to assume you can prove that,” he challenged as he stood straight, staring right at me.
“Lucian can verify it,” I said as I turned my gaze to the creature who had answered Synthia’s call, along with his men. Lucian smirked at Synthia before he paused, taking in the tense scene before his midnight gaze held mine, and his smile vanished.
“Well, isn’t this a fucking shit show,” he grumbled, studying me before his gaze swung to Synthia and Ryder and then slowly moved back as the tick in his jaw hammered. “Nothing good can come of this.”
Synthia studied Lucian and his men before she swung her pretty violet eyes back to me. “It doesn’t matter; you’re not taking her from us. She is so fucking broken that one more crack and that sliver of hope she holds is gone. She will shatter, Callaghan, and if she does, it’s game over for her. Her mind is so broken that it radiates from her. You did that to her, you and your people. You think I’m going to just fucking hand her over and betray her?”
“Synthia,” Lucian hissed as the air grew thicker and more Goddesses popped into their line. Lucian rolled his eyes as he crossed his arms over his chest, unhappy that she’d called back-up for her back-up.
“I’m not handing her over to him to be a fucking slave. She deserves better. None of you understand how fucked up it is to have your entire life planned out, right down to the use of your womb. She is broken because of what you allowed to happen to her. You may not have partaken in it, but you sure as shit didn’t save her from it either,” she said sternly and then smiled as the air thickened again with who she had summoned.
Mórrígan appeared, and I almost rolled my eyes. And then Destiny was there, staring between us before she hit the ground, right beside Mórrígan, or more to the point, the one who pretended to be the Mórrígan. I studied their prone position as they bowed at my feet much to Synthia’s dismay.
“Get the hell up, what are you doing?” she hissed as she stared at them in horror and then lifted her eyes to hold mine.
“They can’t get up unless Callaghan allows them to,” Lucian said as he watched me; his smirk was pure evil as he sized me up. It would be a good fight, of that I was certain. He wouldn’t kill me though, no more than I would end his life, so a fight was pointless, and we both knew it. We all had parts to play that entire worlds depended on. “Why are you here?” he asked without spilling what I was, only because he knew I’d return the favor.
“I’m collecting my wife,” I said.
His eyes swung to Synthia and then landed on Ryder. “You have Erie here? Are you fucking insane?” he snapped as his men stood silently behind him, ready to do whatever he ordered.
“Who the fuck is he,” Ryder asked, his beast stirring within him.
“Don’t ask questions that you’re not ready for, Ryder,” Lucian grumbled as his midnight blue eyes locked with mine. “You know she hates you, right?”
“As much as your woman hates you, Lucian,” I growled. “Luckily, you solved your issue, which landed us in the middle of an apocalypse, but your mess, it started my mess earlier than planned. Now the clock is ticking, and I have two months to secure a child before the Templars begin to fall to the plague that was promised. You know what happens when they fall.”
“I do,” he said. His eyes held mine before he lowered them and turned them on Synthia and Ryder. “I’m going to say this once, and I need you to fucking hear me. If Erie doesn’t go with him, you won’t have an earth to go back to, none of us will. It won’t be there. If the Templars fall, so does mankind.” He shrugged. “Lena and I will have somewhere else to go, but I’m guessing your unnatural attachment to that world, and your bleeding fucking hearts will want to do what is right.”
“Fuck that,” Zahruk snapped, stepping from the shadows. “You fucking broke her. You let them rip that girl apart until she thinks she is unable to be fixed. You let them destroy her, and now you want her to save you? Fucking earn it.”
“You like my wife,” I hissed through a cold smile as I studied his determination to protect her. “I get it; you’re like her, broken by a father who enjoyed watching you hurt things,” I uttered. “Ryder, to give you an idea of who I am, I was here when you were a child. My beast is the only beast that fought your father and didn’t lose to his. Yours is young, way younger than mine is. I have more, an army of beasts that heed my call to arms. I will fight to save my people so that the monsters that wait just outside the veil do not enter that world. I am the protector of men and those who cannot fight against the evil of that world. You have your own world, and I have mine. I won’t harm her, but I can’t stop this from happening, and neither can any of you.”
“She isn’t leaving here,” Synthia snapped as the air grew thick with power.
I watched them prepare to fight as Lucian’s words fell on deaf ears. “So be it,” I uttered as we allowed our power to escape the tight confines we held on it. “I will fight to have her, but I don’t want this. I won’t watch the world die, not again.”
Erie
I hefted the bag onto my shoulder as I thanked Eliran, who looked at me as if I was insane. Maybe I was because this was just another part of a bigger plan. I exited the stronghold and stopped in the garden as I waved
my hand to drop the wards I’d placed before they could attack me. Power pulsed over my flesh, and I gazed around, peering at the garden to pinpoint the source of the disturbance. The hair on my neck rose as I slipped past the unguarded exit and then frowned.
What the hell were they thinking to leave it unguarded? I straightened as more power pushed through the air, thick enough to slice through it with a knife. I rounded the gates and closed them as I started towards the front of the stronghold, worried that the war had come to Faery at last.
My eyes took in the situation before me, and I flinched as Synthia stood beside her beast with Zahruk at her other side, swords drawn as she stared at Callaghan, who remained calm as if the sight of the Horde preparing to fight didn’t even faze him. Lucian was beside them, and women bowed before Callaghan as I slowly got closer. It was the most awkward thing I’d witnessed in a very long time, as if neither side actually wanted to attack the other one, but was going to do it anyway. Then it hit me, who they were fighting over. I watched them preparing to fight each other as I uttered a cry of horror and rushed towards them. I screamed as they lunged to engage. My hands pulled at my hair as I let out a resounding pulse of magic and denial at what was unfolding.
“No!” I screamed as I watched them pausing to look at me where my hair pulsed, floating with the magic that pushed from me and filled the air as thunder exploded and lightning crashed around me. “No, no, this doesn’t happen!” Tears slid down my cheeks as I moved to stand between them.
“Doesn’t look like she got very far,” Callaghan growled as Zahruk stepped in front of me, protecting me. I placed my hand against his chest and shook my head.
“This is not where you die,” I uttered thickly. “I’m not worth this. I’ll go,” I said as I turned to look at Callaghan. “You don’t touch them. You hear me? They don’t know who or what I am. You don’t touch them.”
“I told you, and I warned you that there was no place I wouldn’t follow you.”
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