by Sara Snow
The Revolution
Book 3 of the Bloodmoon Wars Series ( A Paranormal Shifter Romance Series)
Sara Snow
Contents
1. Elinor
2. Cyrus
3. Elinor
4. Elinor
5. Elinor
6. Elinor
7. Elinor
8. Cyrus
9. Elinor
10. Elinor
11. Elinor
12. Elinor
13. Elinor
14. Will
15. Cyrus
16. Vampire Queen Amythia
17. Elinor
18. Elinor
19. Will
The Bloodmoon Wars Continues…
Also By Sara Snow
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About the Author
1
Elinor
Fear could be crippling. The fear of failing, responsibility, love, and loss could throw someone entirely off their equilibrium.
A drop of blood fell to the ground from the scalp in Cyrus's hand. My stomach clenched at the sight as my eyes stung with tears. We had come so far to rescue Skye, only to discover just a piece of her instead.
Skye can’t be dead!
The thought of losing Skye forever paralyzed me. My eyes zeroed in on Cyrus and the clump of Skye’s hair. If only I had been able to save her the night the faceless demon abducted her from her bedroom. If only I had been stronger!
No, no! She’s not gone!
I shook my head and clenched my fists as Cyrus’s brother, Theanos, walked forward and took the small patch of scalp from Cyrus. Cyrus surrendered it without a fight, his face pale with dread. Theanos ripped a large strip from his shirt and wrapped the patch neatly, then tucked it under his shirt. I caught another brief whiff of her scent before tears blurred my vision.
She can’t be dead!
Theanos placed his hand on Cyrus's shoulder. "I know how bad this looks, but I can still feel her. That means she’s still alive. And as long as I can feel her, I can track her. But before we leave, we need to look around to see what her kidnappers left behind. It looks like they left in a hurry, and they might have forgotten something important."
I glanced behind me at the cell we had walked by, the stench of the mangled bodies inside it still burning my nostrils. My fangs elongated as my eyes turned black, and my fear morphed into something else.
Rage.
Reports indicated that people—supernaturals and humans alike—were disappearing all across the country. Yet we’d only discovered this one location. So how many other lives had come to the same gruesome end as the people in that cell?
At the sound of a door opening, I turned to see Theanos step into the room where Cyrus had found the piece of Skye’s scalp. Cyrus remained where he was, his eyes on the ground, and my chest tightened. Skye was the love of his life, his other half.
When he looked up at me, his gray eyes had turned red, reflecting the demon that raged inside him. I met his eyes, and he slowly nodded back at the message they conveyed. We understood each other without the need for words. If Skye died as a result of this, neither one of us would rest until everyone involved in her demise suffered a fate worse than death.
It had been just the three of us—Cyrus, myself, and Skye—since we were children, and even though circumstances were about to separate us, death wasn't supposed to have been one of the reasons. Turning, Cyrus and I entered the room together. Theanos’s dragon wings lit up and provided illumination until Cyrus finished lighting the torches on the wall by the door. Only then did I turn around to see what was in the rest of the room.
My brows knitted at the sight before me.
Naked supernaturals hung from the ceiling, suspended from hooks like slabs of beef at the butcher’s shop. There were corpses of men, women, and children—some rotting, all covered in cuts and bruises.
“What the hell were they doing in here?” Theanos muttered to himself as he walked further into the room, careful not to touch any of the bodies.
I stepped over a sizable pool of blood while Cyrus remained at the door. There were corpses piled on top of each other in one corner of the room. Clenching my jaw, I walked over to what looked like a large cutting board. There was blood—fresh and dried—on the surface, with multiple tools coated in blood hanging on the wall behind it.
“They left nothing behind but bodies and blood,” I growled.
“Look at this,” Theanos called from the other end of the room. I made my way through the hanging bodies to find him standing by a long rectangle table. On top was a naked elf, her white hair tangled and dirty.
“What’s on her forehead?” I asked, noticing the symbol branded between her eyes.
The symbol was a perfect circle, and inside it was a semicircle facing upwards like a half moon. At the center of the half moon was a line like a pole. It almost looked like an eye.
“I’ve never seen a symbol like that before,” Theanos said after a moment. He leaned over the elf, causing his long blond hair to fall forward to shield his face. "She doesn't smell, which means her body's fresh. Have you ever seen a mark like this, Cyrus?"
“No, I haven’t. We need to leave. There is nothing left here.” He took a deep breath, as if bracing himself. “Do you think you can do another spell using Skye's hair?"
Theanos stepped back from the elf's body. "I should be able to, yes."
Before we all turned away, I said, “We should burn everything. We can’t leave them like this.”
“I have no theories about what was happening here,” Theanos said, shaking his head. "There are supernaturals and humans—all dead. Whoever did this hung some bodies from the ceiling and piled others up as if they were trash. Then there's whatever’s going on with that elf."
The sound of something shattering echoed through the dark room, and I spun around in fright. The torches by the door went out, plunging the room into darkness. My eyes shifted from green to black as I called on my wolf.
Now I could see just fine, despite the darkness. A body hanging from the ceiling started to swing, then another to the left, and then another, and another.
"Something's in here with us," I whispered, and Cyrus bent down.
“The table,” he replied before slowly standing up. “It’s broken.”
“You mean the table with the elf?” Theanos asked. That was when something wrapped around my ankle and yanked me to the ground.
I screamed, and Cyrus grabbed my arm. I reached down and sliced the vine holding my ankle hostage with my claws. The thick vine retreated as I rose into a fighting stance.
Black claws emerged from Cyrus’s fingertips as he stepped forward and sent balls of fire towards the bodies in the ceiling. As flames engulfed the bodies and they fell from their hooks on the ceiling, their dangling legs no longer obstructed our view of the back of the room.
Theanos and I looked at each other with wide eyes when we saw the empty table where the dead elf with the symbol had been.
“Where is she?” I asked.
Suddenly the elf charged at us from the left, where she’d been hiding behind the bodies still hanging from the ceiling.
The earth beneath our feet trembled, and Theanos was the first to act, his wings flapping forward to create a strong wind that sent the elf flying backward. It also caused more bodies to fall to the ground, allowing us to see better.
Across the room, the naked elf hissed at us.
Her milky-blue eyes moved back and forth between us. The previously dull symbol on her forehead had brightened considerably, and I expected her to charge us again. Instead, she let out a thundering cry, and the ground cracked open as hundreds of roots burst from the earth.
Theanos grabbed me around the waist, and both he and Cyrus leaped into the air before the roots could touch us. The sound of high-pitched shrieking met our ears as Cyrus burned the vines, but the more he burned, the more new ones appeared.
“I’ve never seen an elf with this much power!” Theanos’s hold on me tightened while most of the roots conjoined and then pierced through the ceiling above us.
We flew left and right, trying desperately to avoid any falling debris as we tried to escape. I looked down to find the elf skillfully jumping from one root to the next, gaining on us. We emerged into the house above, but the rapidly growing tree was destroying it. Not that it mattered. I doubted anyone planned to return to claim any of the old abandoned houses in this town or the broken furniture now strewn about. It was what had made this place the perfect spot to hide abducted humans and supernaturals.
A chunk of the roof that was stuck to one of the large branches fell off, crashing into a neighboring house that had its roof intact.
It was common knowledge that elves used earth magic, but like Theanos, I'd never seen an elf with such a powerful command over nature. Once outside, Theanos and I remained on the ground as Cyrus continued to rain fire down onto the tree. However, the branches were now still, and the elf was using the roots to block herself from being burned.
It was a standoff. And because we were in the middle of nowhere, there was no one to help us.
Beside me, Theanos’s body changed, tripling in size—thanks to his wings. Unfortunately for me, shifting into either of my wolf forms wouldn’t help in this situation.
In my second form, I'd be able to rip the vines apart easily, but they'd return seconds later. The roots couldn't remain our target. We had to kill the elf.
My eyes widened as Cyrus made a quick dive towards the elf, but she used the roots to block him once again.
“I have an idea,” I told Theanos.
He looked down at me with black eyes.
I’d seen Cyrus in demon form several times, so I knew the black markings and symbols on his body appeared to move. Since he was half-dragon and half-incubus, Theanos grew a large tail and scales all over his body. I'd never seen him fully transform before, and his changed appearance startled me for a second. But only for a second.
After explaining my plan quickly, I shifted into my second and final form. Whereas my first form—my wolf form—caused my hands to become paws, in my second form, my hands grew bigger and my fingers lengthened. My ears grew pointed and my shoulders hunched forward slightly as my entire body rippled with muscles. My long tail slapped the ground behind me as I stood on two feet instead of on all fours, my white fur flattened to my body.
I climbed onto Theanos’s back. He was large and robust enough to carry me in this form, but not for long. We'd have to act quickly, relying on Cyrus to remain a distraction.
A white fog rolled in around us, covering the town and most of the monstrous tree. The mist was being controlled by Theanos, providing us with cover. It caught the elf's attention, but taking her eyes off Cyrus was a mistake. He advanced on her, black mist in the shape of a sword appearing in his hand, allowing him to slice through the roots quickly.
His fist connected with her jaw and sent her flying backwards into the tree as a root pierced his side. That was when Theanos and I acted. We had been waiting patiently in the fog, watching for the slightest opening. The moment she smacked against the tree, dazed, Theanos shot upwards into the sky.
We rose above her and Cyrus within seconds. I untangled my legs from around him as he stopped and turned toward the elf. When he reached around me to grip me, I readied myself. Cyrus and I had done something like this before. The night he took me flying to cheer me up, we had spotted an old man being chased by wraiths. In order to come to the man’s rescue from where we were in the air, I stood on Cyrus’s back and allowed him to throw me towards the ground.
Theanos did the same thing now, throwing me with all the strength he had and sending me soaring towards the elf. Everything happened so fast, she had no time to escape before we collided, splintering the tree in the process.
My fangs sank into her neck and shoulder. The sound of her bones snapping in my jaws echoed in my ear. I held her close, crushing her body, and a cloud of black smoke caught us inches from the ground.
I clamped down on her neck further and felt her body go limp before Cyrus landed beside us and gradually let us both go. I released the elf, her blood dripping from my mouth. Theanos landed with a thud, and I stood up and shifted back into my human form.
“Uggh! That’s nasty,” I growled as I wiped the blood on my face away. “It’s in my eyes!”
"Here," Cyrus handed me a piece of cloth he’d ripped from his pants, and I hastily took it to wipe my face.
Theanos returned to his usual size with a wide grin on his face. "Damn, that was amazing! I thought your plan was crazy at first, but it worked."
"Step back!" Cyrus shouted, and Theanos and I backed away quickly.
The elf's body below us started to deteriorate from the center of her forehead where the mark was. Within minutes, only her bones remained. We watched in silence, unable to look away. Never had I seen anything like this, and from the looks on Theanos’s and Cyrus's faces, they hadn’t either.
Theanos was the first to speak. “What the hell just happened? When we first saw her on the table, I was certain she was dead.”
Cyrus bent down, his eyes turning red as he looked over the bones on the ground. “Whatever they did in order to make her like this, it involved the use of strong black magic. I can feel the remnants of it, though it’s quickly fading now.”
“So I’m guessing that mark on her forehead had something to do with her being reanimated?” I finished wiping away the blood on my face, but the smell wouldn’t totally disappear without a bath.
In fact, it felt like forever since I’d actually had a proper bath. I’d neglected to take care of myself lately, with all the searching Cyrus and I had done, moving from one place to the next. But that didn't matter right now. Finding Skye was all either of us cared about.
I leaned down to investigate one of the few bones that hadn’t fully disintegrated, trying to make sense of what we’d seen. Whatever the mark on her forehead had done to her, I doubted it was with her consent. Finding that dungeon had left us with more questions than answers.
Were there more supernaturals like her out there?
And more importantly, who was behind it all?
2
Cyrus
I stood up and exhaled heavily. “We can’t worry about the elf and what they did to her. Not right now. Whoever did this clearly left her behind to kill or delay us, so we need to hurry to find Skye. Whoever has her probably hoped the elf would buy them more time.”
Theanos removed the cloth he had stashed away with Skye's hair from under his shirt, and my body grew tense as I nodded towards it.
“Do you think you can do a spell to track her?” I asked him. He nodded as he unraveled the cloth to reveal Skye's black curly hair.
“Yes. Saleem broke the spell blocking her location, and with this amount of hair, I should be able to track her more efficiently now.”
“Do it,” I told him without hesitation.
He walked away with the hair in his hand, and I looked at Elinor. She was just standing up from where she’d been stooping over the body of the dead elf—what was left of it. I'd never seen anyone rot so quickly. Whatever that symbol had been on her forehead, it not only reanimated her, it boosted her power ten times over.
The faint smell of Skye originating from her hair caused my heart to pound. Now more than ever before, it seemed as if we were in a race against time. I had to believe she was alive. I
just had to.
I didn't want to spare even one thought that she might be dead, or I'd lose my mind right here and now. Losing Skye wasn't an option. It just wasn't. She had said she wasn't sure about coming to the Underworld with me, but after this, I'd insist.
I'd be able to protect her there. She'd be safe. Nothing like this would ever happen again, and this would be the last time I’d have to experience the soul-crushing ache that threatened to consume me now.
I looked up at the deep orange sky as the sun began to set. So much time had already passed since we arrived in this place.
“We’ll find her and Ms. Clementine.” Elinor’s words were soft, but her heart was thumping as fast as mine was. “They have to be okay.”
“They are.” I inhaled deeply as Theanos’s chanting met my ears.
An image of Ms. Clementine dressing my wounds the first night I had arrived at the pack house resurfaced in my mind, and my chest tightened. My own mother was a selfish and heartless demon.
Ms. Clementine was . . . is nothing like her.
She’d been grateful to me for saving her only daughter and hadn’t hesitated to offer a demon child safety within her home. I had so much to thank her for. I just hoped she and Skye weren’t separated. In the heat of the moment, I had only taken something belonging to Skye to help track her, assuming they’d be together.
In the end, if we found Skye and not Ms. Clementine, we'd just have to keep looking. No one was going home until both women were safe.
"I've got her location, but it isn’t fixed. They’re taking her somewhere. We need to go now. Prepare yourselves for a fight.” Theanos’s wings spread as he prepared for flight.