by Rachel Jonas
My first dance.
Nick rescuing me with his umbrella that day everything changed.
The falls with him.
His kiss.
…Liam’s.
My fading heart leapt then… as that recent memory inched its way inside my thoughts—the feel of his hands against my face, his mouth against mine… our kindred souls making their way back to one another.
It leapt again. It was only once and it was weak, but… it beat. And then again. And again. Until the strength in my limbs returned.
‘Get it out of your head that you can outsmart them in some way. It won’t happen. The only thing any of us can do is come at them harder and stronger than they come at us.’
The memory of Liam’s words rung inside my head as I stretched my hand toward the mutt, gripping the side of its terrible face for leverage as I took my thumb to its eye, feeling thick goo at the center when I pressed. I dug in until the thing roared in pain. It was enough to get it to loosen its grip and drop me back to the ground, but he wasn’t finished with me yet. I was sure of it.
Something within me was awake now. Like a switch had been flipped and I was present.
Ready.
I scrambled to my feet before it could pin me down, and we stood face-to-face, me and the disgusting abomination that shouldn’t even rightly exist. More of its fur had caught, but the burn wasn’t enough to slow it down. More than anything, it wanted me dead. Especially since I hurt it.
“Evangeline… just run!” From behind, Liam called out to me again, still struggling with the two beasts that attacked. A heavy blow went to his gut and I glanced over my shoulder at the sound of it. If he hadn’t been distracted by my current dilemma, I was certain he would have beaten both by now. I’d seen firsthand what he could do to four all on his own. These particular mutts were no stronger or faster than the others. The only difference was, I wasn’t here last night to cloud his judgment.
I wandered inside his head and no one knew we were connected but us.
“Stop worrying about me and fight! Focus on them, on what’s right in front of you.”
The story of my mother leading the children in her village after the attack came to mind. If that kind of grit and determination really flowed through my veins… I needed it right now more than ever.
Electricity surged through me and so much power filled my limbs. With it, came confidence and the realization that I was no longer inferior to this thing. My fist swung through the air with precision and the feel of it colliding with the bristly fur was beyond satisfying. The mutt teetered on its feet, but didn’t fall. Judging by the growl it released, I could tell I angered it.
As expected, I was charged at again. Except, I don’t think it realized just how ready I was for its next move. A huge paw swung through the air, only missing me because I ducked in time, but, as I stood again, I pushed upward with everything in me. My fingertips pressed into the chest of the beast, past the coarse fur and dark skin beneath it, penetrating a thick padding of muscle until I felt bone.
And then, inside the beast’s ribcage, I discovered a fleshy bundle of throbbing flesh and I squeezed. Squeezed and pulled.
Black blood, the shade of cooling lava, dripped down my wrist and arm, coating the sleeve of my once pristine, Seaton Falls blazer. My fingers pulsated with the still-beating heart of the mutt that nearly killed me a short time ago. Its large, bleeding eyes were fixed on mine for a moment before going vacant as it collapsed to the ground, void of life.
Air surged in and out of my lungs as I let it sink in that I actually won that fight. Against something so large. Something so deadly. I was still alive.
Suddenly conscious and aware of my surroundings once more, I turned to the battles still raging around Liam’s property—Nick and one of his brothers took on three, the others were down to one assailant, Liam as well. When my eyes shifted to him, I swapped out the word ‘assailant’ for ‘victim’ because, the very next second, his long fingers sank into the neck of the last mutt, ripping its throat out with ease.
He dropped the handful of dripping flesh to the grass with a sickening splat.
My flames seemed to cool and dissipate at the same time Liam’s did and, within seconds, we looked like our human selves again. Nick and his brothers disappeared around the side of the house and returned, zipping their jeans and adjusting their t-shirts.
Apparently, through the fog, I hadn’t noticed it when they shifted, but… they were naked. I was suddenly grateful that shifting, for me, wasn’t quite as inconvenient. Not since learning how to not burn my clothes to ashes.
We were all winded. Each and every one of us. Winded and filthy—covered in sweat, dirt, and black blood.
I took a step toward Nick, wanting to make sure he fared as well as Liam, but a long, thick arm—heavy like a log—jutted out in front of me and I couldn’t press ahead of it.
I eyed Liam when he stepped between Nick and I. Again, acting as a barrier.
“What are you doing?” I whispered.
I shoved Liam’s arm, but it didn’t budge. Instead, his voice boomed a command, but not to me. To Nick, who’d started in my direction.
“Don’t take another step.” It wasn’t Liam’s volume that made it carry into the air, but the depth.
I was still riding high from the mutt I defeated with my own two hands, so I was fearless, in control of my actions whether Liam liked it or not. He couldn’t stop me from going to Nick.
“Did you know?” Liam called out, speaking to Nick once more. The question made me halt despite my internal declaration to push ahead at full steam.
The older Stokes boys moved in closer and it wasn’t lost on me that, despite their fatigue, their shoulders squared and every eye was set on Liam.
“I saw your fur. You’re different. Did you know?” Liam repeated and, this time, Nick’s brow knitted together with confusion.
“Did I know what?” he called back, letting his voice carry across the lawn.
Liam’s fist, the one outstretched before me, tightened and his knuckles cracked as bone shifted over bone. He answered Nick’s question through gritted teeth. “That you’re the Liberator.”
The phrase… it made Nick’s once frustrated expression transition into something else. It became clear he’d heard the term before, which was more than I could say for myself.
“I don’t even… I don’t even know what it means.” Nick’s hands lifted from his sides when he moved toward the porch steps where I stood at the bottom, but a stern look from Liam stopped him.
“When were you born?” The question struck me as strange, but Liam’s expression didn’t waver as he waited for Nick to answer.
Richie stepped forward, pressing a hand to Nick’s chest. “You don’t have to answer to anyone,” he asserted, speaking to his brother, but keeping his eyes fixed on Liam. “Do you even know who this guy is?”
Richie’s inquiry prompted Nick to shake his head, but it was clear to me he was still intrigued by Liam’s question; intrigued by the term he used.
…The Liberator.
Maybe that curiosity was what made him press his brother’s arm down so he could take another step closer. When he did, Liam moved me behind him and I didn’t understand. He was big in every direction—tall and broad—making it difficult to see over his shoulder, around him. I had to stand on the tips of my toes to get a visual on Nick.
“When… were you born?” Liam repeated.
And this time, Nick didn’t hesitate to respond. “September 23rd.”
I didn’t like that that seemed to be the answer Liam expected. “On the night of the super harvest moon.”
Nick froze and his face went slack.
“Multos menses corpore aredebit usque liberate anima nisis.” The words rolled off Liam’s tongue as the bass from his voice ricocheted off the surrounding trees. While he clearly understood what they meant, the rest of us were completely confused. Even when he translated, the collective expression of the g
roup was bewilderment. “Her body shall burn for many moons, until the Liberator sets free her soul.”
I counted each breath as they left my lungs, trying to make heads or tails of what he said.
“What does any of this have to do with what day he was born?” I asked, speaking only loudly enough for Liam to hear.
While waiting for him to answer, I glanced up at Nick, noting that his expression, his stance, didn’t match Liam’s. Where one was on guard and brimming over with anger, the other was genuinely curious. I believed I was right that Nick had heard this term before, the Liberator, and he was nearly desperate to understand it’s meaning. I could only hope that curiosity didn’t turn out to be a nail in his coffin.
An answer to my question finally came, but it didn’t make sense. “You mean ‘what does it have to do with what day you were both born’?”
More confusion. More questions. “I won’t be eighteen until next month,” I explained. “We don’t have the same—”
“If you’re going by whatever your birth certificate says, don’t,” he cut in. “The only possible day there was even remotely enough energy in the atmosphere for whoever brought you back to do so successfully would’ve been on the night of the super harvest moon,” he explained. “September 23rd. Eighteen years ago. When your friend here was born.”
I wanted to believe this was all some elaborate story Liam naively bought into, but my natural inclination was to trust him. No matter how farfetched his theories sometimes were.
“What you are can’t exist without what he is,” he went on. “Nature’s idea of checks and balances for the supernatural world.”
I felt myself panting and it was purely out of frustration. “None of this makes any sense. Why would that even be necessary? I’m just… me,” I insisted. “I can’t even shift without help.”
And it was true. Aside from the mutt I just took out, I felt kind of useless in the big scheme of things. Why on earth would nature need to keep me in check?
My reluctance seemed to annoy Liam, but I wouldn’t let this continue without explanation.
“I meant what I said earlier, about you being powerful,” he muttered quietly, as if he didn’t want anyone else to hear. “And I told you you’re the only remaining descendent of two Original shifters.”
I nodded, moving in closer toward his back as he continued to shield me. “You did, but…”
“Do you have any idea what that means? Evangeline…” he said gravely. “You’re more important than you realize. Technically… you’re queen, ruler by right over your father’s and mother’s fallen kingdoms.”
It felt like my heart leapt into my throat. I didn’t respond. Couldn’t. While, yes, he explained my heritage before, it simply never dawned on me that I possessed such a title. In my thoughts, my royal status had died out with the rest of my family. But…
Liam said more as my mind reeled. “Not only that, but, through you, it’s possible for the royal bloodlines of the Bahir Dar lycans and the Ars-en-Ré dragons to live on. We’re talking future generations of powerful shifters, hybrids, that can’t exist without you.”
There was more silence between us before yet another heavy statement touched my ears. “You’re as much their queen as Sebastian is their Sovereign. They don’t realize it, but… your existence means everything, Evangeline.”
Air surged in and out of my lungs.
“I told you you’re special,” Liam said quietly over his shoulder. “You’ve got gifts none of your brothers ever had. Gifts I promise to explain and help you access one day, but nature couldn’t let you exist… without there also being something on this planet that could, beyond the shadow of a doubt, kill you if nothing else could. Something with the power to… ‘liberate your soul from your body’.”
And, there it was. In a sudden rush of understanding, I got it.
My gaze shifted toward Nick.
“He’s a living, breathing weapon. A weapon with only one purpose. One target,” Liam explained. “…You.”
I didn’t move an inch. Couldn’t.
Liam’s fists clinched again when he called out to Nick. “And I’m guessing you can probably hear her heart racing as we speak. Ever wonder why that is? Why hers and no one else’s?”
Was that… true? Could Nick hear my heart beat?
The question was only a question for the fraction of a second. The look on Nick’s face turned it into a statement.
A fact.
Truth.
“It’s so she’ll always be a beacon.” Liam’s words dripped with acid, hatred for Nick that I didn’t fully understand. “It’s so, when the day inevitably comes that she’ll need to outrun you, when she realizes your more than just a boy… there won’t be anywhere she can go, nowhere she can hide, that you can’t find her.”
My pulse drummed behind my ears and I was more aware of it now than any other time before. Because I knew who else could hear it.
Nick took a step back and his brothers kept him close. He looked… unstable. Like he was spiraling. Like not even he was sure of his next move.
Liam was unaffected by the display as he declared a warning. “I’ve killed for her before. Many, many times. And, trust me, I’d do it again without a second thought. Just give me a reason.”
“Is that a threat?” Richie cut in, stepping out in front of Nick as their other brothers both grabbed his shoulders, pulling him back. You would’ve never guessed that, in the very recent past, the six of us had fought side by side, defeating our common enemy.
Liam’s gaze shifted to the oldest of the Stokes brothers and he didn’t even flinch. “I tell you what, get anywhere near her and we’ll all get to find out.”
Tensions were rising and I emerged from behind Liam when he and Richie took several steps toward one another. If I hadn’t placed my hand on Liam’s chest, I was sure he wouldn’t have stopped.
“Enough!”
My voice echoed into the air and, to my surprise, they listened. I had my own thoughts on all of this and, with them quiet, I was going to share it. I glanced at Liam. After a moment, his gaze met mine and some semblance of peace came over him. As much as could be expected, considering. Nick, too, seemed to be calmer now.
“This… legend,” I began. “That’s all it is. We’re fighting over what happened in the past, but none of us really know if those same rules still apply.” I turned to Liam. “He saved my life once, you know,” I shared, recalling the catastrophe in C-Building when Nick’s bravery kept me from being crushed when the building collapsed.
Liam was silent, lowering his head as I went on.
“There’s no way to say for sure that, because nature says Nick is supposed to fulfil some… prophecy or whatever, he won’t be able to overcome it.”
My eyes were on Nick again and I couldn’t imagine him hurting anyone. Let alone, me. He was a gentle soul, which was one of the things I liked most about him. So, did I believe everything Liam said about him? Yes. But I also believed people could make choices. Which was the same for Liam and I, concerning our past. Regardless of who we were back then, regardless of what aspects of it carried over into the present, we weren’t bound to our history.
And I had to believe the same held true where Nick was concerned.
The possibility of changing things had to exist.
At the sight of Nick’s lips parting to speak, I had hope. Believing that, whatever he had to add would support my theory, but… that backing in favor of not buying into the hype, never came.
“He’s right.”
Those words, the ones I never imagined leaving Nick’s mouth, made the world stop spinning.
Why would he say such a thing? Why would he give up so easily? I just…
“If there’s a chance I can hurt you, Evie… I shouldn’t be around. I should—” He paused to swallow and my heart sank when he took a step back, and then another. “I should keep my distance. I’d never be able to live with myself if I…”
His words trailed o
ff and, when his feet moved again, in the opposite direction, my natural reaction was to chase after him. However, a set of large arms, ones I was sure I couldn’t break free from, scooped me up from the ground until the soles of my shoes were hovering a good six inches above the grass.
I called out for Nick, but he disappeared among the trees, their massive trunks hiding him as he took off. His brothers hopped into Richie’s truck and went after him without another word. It broke me watching him leave this way—hurt, confused… alone.
All because of me. All because he didn’t want anything bad to happen to me on account of him. Even though I didn’t believe he was even capable.
I suppose what mattered was that he believed he might be capable. So, in order to protect me, to keep me safe, he did the one thing he could to prevent it.
He disappeared.
—
Chapter Thirty-One —
Evie
My tights, my uniform, and my hair.
His white t-shirt, his neck, his arms.
We were covered with dark, inhuman blood from head to toe, but there was no time to clean up before the meeting with the Council began. The state of our physical appearance was enough to garner ourselves many, many looks from the lycans in attendance. If I had to guess, they knew the substance slathered in our hair and on our clothes was the blood of mutts. A sign that the problem here in Seaton Falls was on a much larger scale than most realized, and it would likely get worse.
But then again, it could have been the scent of smoke that had the clan stirring as we stood in their midst. With all eyes on us, I clung to his arm as he kept me mostly hidden behind him. It was the only way I felt safe.
There were so many here, familiar faces at every turn. Classmates, saddened by the loss of a friend today—Maddox. My eyes wandered the large, dark room. We’d gone to the basement of the library only to take an endless flight of stairs down many more levels to this place, one that echoed with disembodied footsteps and dripping water.
My fingers tightened around Liam even more.