by Rachel Jonas
At the door, Evie stood in shock, watching the scene that unfolded before her very eyes. A vision of separating her head from her shoulders filled me with bloodlust. All I needed was one second.
One to end that incessant vibration emanating from within her.
It became clearer to me than it had ever been before. This was the reason I’d been born, my life’s purpose.
I was meant to liberate Evie’s soul from her body.
On this day, suffering a gruesome death at my hand, she would breathe her last breath.
***
Evie
Triggered.
That was the word that came to mind as I stared, frozen in place, watching someone I no longer recognized claw his way toward the gate.
His face was distorted in strange ways, and thick, dark veins became visible through his skin. This was not a transition into the wolf I’d seen manifest in him before. This was something different. The beast I stared at today bore little physical resemblance to the guy I once trusted with my life, and even less resemblance in behavior.
This monster … it was wicked, the embodiment of evil.
When I was first awakened by the sound of my name being yelled, I had no idea this was the scene unfolding outside our front door. But now … I knew what brought him here.
An insatiable hunger to end my life.
My instincts should have been to run, but I couldn’t move. A strange mix of disbelief and sadness warred within me. I struggled to grasp the concept of how someone who’d very recently played a huge part in saving my parents’ lives was now crazed, drenched in sweat and nearly tearing his clothes from his body with rage.
All the while, he kept his deadly gaze trained solely on me.
I had no idea what changed, what made him decide that right here and now was the time to end me. Seemed we’d all been dreading this moment for so long. Even Nick himself.
Commotion behind me barely registered. I sensed my brothers, Elise, Hilda, and Dallas.
But I felt Liam.
A large hand nearly swallowed my arm whole, moving me aside when his massive frame replaced mine in the doorway. As his shadow fell on me, it was clear he aimed to stand in as Nick’s target should he manage to break free.
“Don’t act rashly,” Hilda warned as she pushed her way through.
An onslaught of quickly spoken phrases like, “Excuse me” and “Move it,” flew from her mouth as she elbowed her way to the front door.
Liam answered without taking his eyes off Nick, speaking through gritted teeth and a firm jaw.
“I’ve waited long enough to kill him,” he seethed, adding, “Too long.”
I could only imagine what must have been going through his head, recalling a moment similar to this—one he hadn’t been able to prevent in the distant past.
Beyond the gate, a powerful scuffle made my skin crawl. Although Liam had blocked my line of sight, it wasn’t hard to imagine Nick growing more enraged as the seconds passed.
“Permission to shoot?” I heard one of the guards say, his voice followed by the distinct chirp of a walkie talkie. My heart raced with that question, knowing it would only be a matter of seconds before a response came back, giving him the go-ahead to take Nick down.
Or … at least to try. I wasn’t completely convinced there was a way to stop him.
Not if this was his destiny, a fate forged in magic centuries ago.
“We need answers,” Hilda’s voice rang out again, this time louder than before as she moved me further back into the foyer, giving her access to Liam.
He was tense, full of rage as his body somehow appeared larger than usual. Beneath his skin, red trails pulsed through his fists, up his arms, the veins of his neck, dispersing at his rock-solid jaw.
It wasn’t far from my mind that he was different, that we still hadn’t seen all the changes his new transformation brought forth. But as he stood before me now, the difference could definitely be felt.
His new strength called to my dragon stronger than I ever experienced. She seemed to feed off his heightened energy, making me antsy as my heart raced.
“Liam,” Hilda said gently as the soldier asked for permission once more, bringing the situation to an urgent crescendo. “He’s been activated,” she reasoned. “Shouldn’t we find out why?”
Her inquiry went unanswered as Liam’s stare never left Nick.
“I need a moment with him,” Hilda insisted, finally managing to slip past Liam, and out onto the porch.
My lips parted to speak, to stop her, but Elise got the words out first.
“Are you insane? He’ll tear you apart just to get to Evangeline,” she warned.
Managing to peer past the massive arm of my warrior, I watched her—my fearless aunt who saw beyond the chaos of the moment, and saw an opportunity.
My heart raced twice as fast now, praying this didn’t end badly for her.
But then, a strange wind seemed to kick up out of nowhere, knocking bare branches against one another, creating such a ruckus it became difficult to hear. Trees shuttered and almost groaned with the force of it.
Hilda’s steps down the walkway toward the wall were unhurried, unfazed by Nick’s display of power. She showed no signs of concern whatsoever.
That’s when I noticed the change in Nick, how tension left his limbs, his expression. In a way he was suddenly … submissive. As if he’d been lulled into this state.
Magic. She used magic to quiet him long enough to gather whatever information she sought.
“Nicholas,” she called out, raising her voice to be heard over the sudden wind. “I need you to explain what you’re experiencing?”
The guards turned, passing an incredulous look Hilda’s way for having asked such a simple question, but she didn’t falter.
“What are you seeing?” she went on. “Or feeling. Or … hearing?”
Some of the awareness seemed to return to Nick, but the blind rage settled just beneath the surface. He blinked, finally focusing on Hilda more than the bloodlust.
“Is it the sound?” she went on, trying to help him pinpoint what I guessed must have been a myriad of sensations attacking him all at once.
To my surprise, he nodded—the first coherent action I’d seen from him since I opened the door.
“What do you hear?” she asked next.
His eyes closed, shielding their blue centers while he worked to calm himself. It was still clear he didn’t want this, didn’t want to be the monster fate had damned him to become.
“It was … like electricity at first, but now it’s … different.” he explained, his voice still not sounding like his own. It was deep and raw, animalistic.
“Different how?” Hilda shot back.
That otherworldly wind howled now, swallowing Nick’s answer before I could hear. When I touched Liam’s arm, intending to move him, a stern look was cast over his shoulder, landing on me.
“You’re not going out there,” he asserted, making no apologies for not bending to my will.
I peered up, sympathizing with him more in this moment than he’d ever know. My hand slipped down his arm until our fingers were laced.
“Then come with me,” I suggested. “I need to know.” My gaze stayed locked with his when I added more. “We both do.”
While I knew this ran much deeper for him than needing closure, answers, I couldn’t imagine that wouldn’t help, wouldn’t give him peace of mind.
A reluctant look landed on me first, but then, he finally gave in.
I emerged from the house slowly, mostly hidden behind him, of course. It didn’t surprise me when my brothers’ footsteps followed. My intent was never to go all the way to the gate; I just wanted to be close enough to finally know. For so many reasons I wanted … no, needed … to understand.
Liam and I stood there, side-by-side, listening as the mostly one-sided conversation continued.
“I need you to tell me exactly what you hear,” Hilda pressed once more. It felt
like she had an angle, inside information that just needed confirmation, but that was only a guess.
“It’s … her heartbeat, but … different,” Nick struggled to answer.
“Different how?” Hilda shouted above the wind I was now certain she caused. Although, I was also certain the trick would only work for so long.
“Focus, Nicholas! Different how?” she asked again.
This time, drawing out an answer I don’t think any of us expected.
“There are two,” he forced out. “Two heartbeats.”
Hilda fell silent, keeping her back to Liam and I as she processed the last of Nick’s explanation.
“Take him away from here,” she ordered, speaking directly to his brothers. “Get him to the Elder’s chamber and demand that they lock him in a cell, keep him under watch with as many witches as they can spare. I’ll be there as quickly as I can to explain whatever they need to know.”
Richie nodded, showing no signs of protest. He and the others hauled Nick toward the truck while he was still a bit dazed by the spell.
“He was coming to warn you,” Chris called out, prompting Hilda to halt and give her full attention.
“Warn us?”
Chris nodded, still seemingly in shock by the strange turn of events.
“This morning, outside his grandfather’s estate, someone arranged at least a hundred dead bodies across the yard. He seemed to think it was some kind of message,” he concluded.
Hilda stared a moment, and then gave a quick nod. “Thank you. We’ll be on watch.”
With that, Chris and Lucas climbed into a jeep, following the convoy that pulled away from our property.
Hilda approached Liam and I, and there was no missing the grave look on her face. Maybe it was the answer she pulled from Nick, or the information from Chris. Or maybe it was everything, the doom and gloom that seemed to follow us wherever we went.
“This all coincides with what the oracles shared with me yesterday when we convened, the reason I needed to speak with you,” she added, addressing Liam directly. “I didn’t fully understand the breadth of the situation at the time, because I was missing pieces, but … now it’s so clear.”
I felt Liam’s body tense beside mine.
“What’s clear?” he grumbled, his gaze hard and unwavering when it settled on Hilda.
She wrung her hands and I’d never seen her nervous before, but guessed this was what such a thing might look like on her.
“I came up with a theory years ago, one I never shared with anyone. I found myself wondering why the Liberator didn’t simply come for you when you were young, a child like he would have also been at the time. You would have been an easier mark. Certainly easier to kill,” she explained. “So, I found myself asking a strange question: What if it was never about you?”
I frowned, when she finished speaking, unsure if I had a hard time following because my mind was still reeling from basically staring death in the eyes, or if I was just missing something.
“But that doesn’t … make sense,” I stuttered, trying to mask the frustration.
“It does with what Nicholas just shared.” Her response only made me more confused, even when she explained further. “The buzzing … it was energy, new life just beginning. And now, weeks later … he hears two heartbeats. Yours and another.”
My gaze followed Hilda as she came closer, placing her palm flat on my stomach when she reached me. I continued to stare with the words she said next.
“Four weeks from conception … that’s when a heart beats on its own for the first time.”
I staggered back a bit with the realization of what she suggested.
“It was never about you, Evangeline,” she reiterated. “It was always about your heir.”
Both knees weakened as that word rang inside my head—heir.
“We now know that when the original Liberator came for you … it was because you were with child,” she clarified. “Which is, consequently, the reason Nicholas has been activated today.”
Four weeks … I did quick math in my head, realizing what Hilda proposed wasn’t entirely impossible, but …
“Now that we know, there’s no time to delay. If Nicholas is right about what or who is coming … we need to hide you,” she urged, linking her hand with mine before adding, “… Both of you.”
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In the end, it all comes down to love …
The saga continues with the final installment,
FATE OF THE FALLEN
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