We held each other in the luxurious bed, the fire in the mantel long since gone out. I was tracing my fingers along Noah’s perfect face when I noticed something huge.
His eyes weren’t the same brown they’d always been.
“Your eyes,” I said, unable to believe it.
“What about my eyes?” he asked, amused. “You love them too?”
He was referencing a time slightly earlier that night, when I’d told him how much I loved every single part of him—and shown him, too. He’d then done the same, before we’d again shown how much we loved each other, as we had many times during the night.
“Of course I do.” I smiled. “Always. But they’ve changed. They have a ring of gold around them. Like mine.”
Surprise, followed by happiness, spread across his face. He stood and walked across the room to the mirror on the wall, examining his reflection. “So,” he said, turning and rushing back to join me in the bed. “Looks like I’m Nephilim now.”
“Looks like it,” I said.
We were both being so casual about it, but I could feel the mutual excitement bursting through both of our veins.
After witnessing what had happened to Mara and Flint, we’d suspected this might be a possibility. But we couldn’t know for sure, since shifters originated from demons, whereas shifters and Nephilim were completely different entities.
“Can you feel a wolf inside you?” he asked.
“I feel wildness inside me.” I smirked, tossing my hair behind my back. “Is that the same?”
Before he could answer, I covered his mouth with mine, and went in for round… well, I’d lost track by that point.
Once we were both holding each other again, he cocked his head to the side, amused. “That wildness you mentioned could be your wolf,” he said. “Hold out your hand.” He traced his fingers from the top of my arm, to my elbows, until finally reaching my hand. “See if you can shift your fingers into claws.”
I held my hand out and stared at it. “What do I do?” I asked. “Just… imagine my fingers turning into claws?”
“Call on your wolf within you,” he said. “And yes, picture your fingers turning into claws.”
I did as he said, searching inward to find my wolf. The flames burning from my stomach were hotter than ever, as if the animal side of me was bursting to break free.
I studied my hand intensely and pictured it turning into claws, like I’d seen Noah and Sage’s hands do when they’d shifted in front of me.
Within a second, my fingers extended outward into claws.
Within a few more seconds, my entire point of view shifted. I was standing on all fours as I gazed down at Noah, my senses heightened even more than they were since turning Nephilim. I could see everything, hear everything… I could even taste the distinct, woodsy taste of Noah in the air. It was incredible.
“Raven,” Noah said, his golden eyes wide in amazement. “You’re beautiful.”
I hopped over to the full-length mirror, beyond curious about what I’d see.
As expected, the face staring back at me wasn’t mine. It was a wolf. A majestic wolf with Nephilim yellow eyes and red fur that matched my hair.
I was a dyad. Noah, too. Nephilim-wolf shifter dyads. No one like us had ever existed in the history of the world.
The Earth Angel was going to be thrilled about what our new species would bring to the war with the demons.
But tonight wasn’t about war. Tonight was about love. Specifically, the love between Noah and me.
I thought of myself as human, and in a few seconds, I was back to human form.
“That’s amazing,” Noah said. “It usually takes newbies a few times to master the shift.”
“Maybe I’m a natural because I’m Nephilim.” I sauntered over to him on the bed, swaying my hips more than normal to tease him.
“You’re certainly a natural at many things,” he said with a devilish grin, his eyes wandering along every inch of my body.
“I love you,” I said.
“And I love you.” He pulled me back to the bed with him, our faces close as we gazed into each other’s eyes with the kind of pure love that I was convinced could only exist between mates. “Forever.”
39
Annika
Two Months Later
Ever since Raven became Nephilim, five humans had passed the Angel Trials and drank her blood from the Holy Grail. They all survived the transition.
It turned out the Trials accurately predicted who was strong enough to drink from the Grail and survive, after all. We just needed them to drink Nephilim blood instead of my pure angel blood.
It was a good thing that Raven was strong and stubborn enough to survive drinking my blood from the Grail. Without her, an army of Nephilim wouldn’t have been possible.
Sure, we didn’t have an army of Nephilim yet.
But we’d get there.
And once we did, the demons would get what was coming to them.
In the meantime, I had something more important to focus on. Because after a lot of soul healing, and a long engagement to Jacen—who was incredibly understanding as he waited for me to accept that the deaths of the humans before Raven weren’t my fault—the big day was finally here.
Our wedding.
The ceremony and reception were held at a lake in a valley surrounded by majestic green mountains. We wanted our wedding to show our connection to the island, while being different from Raven and Noah’s and Sage and Thomas’s double wedding in the castle.
Iris did an incredible job planning it. There was no better way to show our connection to the island than to marry each other surrounded by its breathtaking nature. The ceremony was timed with sunset, cocktail hour happened at twilight, and night descended when the reception began. My dress was even adorned with large white feathers, making me look every bit an angel.
Jacen and I had just finished our first dance, and others were getting up to join us on the dance floor, when someone screamed from one of the tables.
Camelia.
She stood with one hand on the table, and the other on her pregnant stomach. There was a puddle of water around her feet.
Her water had broken. The baby was coming.
Camelia wasn’t due for another month. But it looked like that baby girl of hers couldn’t handle the thought of all of us partying without her.
Violet and Dahlia teleported to Camelia’s side in an instant.
“We’ll take Camelia to her chambers and help welcome her baby girl into the world.” Dahlia smiled, sounding as chipper as ever. “What an incredible night! Two joyous milestones at once.”
With that, she and Violet disappeared with Camelia. All that was left where they’d been standing was the puddle of water that had been at Camelia’s feet.
I stood in there in a strange state of shock. Because that was the last thing I’d expected to happen at my wedding. A demon attack, sure. But the first birth on Avalon? I hadn’t been ready for that.
Hopefully everything would go well with the delivery of the baby. I trusted that Camelia was in excellent hands with the mages. But still, I worried.
Iris was up on the stage at once. “Why so quiet?” she asked with a chuckle, putting everyone at ease. “We have the rest of the night to continue celebrating the union of our founders, the Earth Angel Annika and Prince Jacen. Tomorrow, we’ll celebrate Camelia’s baby girl. So…” She turned to look at Eric, a human from the Academy who was manning the DJ table. “Let the party continue!”
I tried to enjoy the rest of my wedding reception. I really, truly did.
But I couldn’t get rid of the feeling that something wasn’t right. Jacen tried distracting me, although the feeling remained. I think I did a good job at hiding it from everyone else. But the truth was, I was still worried for Camelia.
I shouldn’t have been worried for her, since she’d been an evil witch to me during my time in the Vale. But something bad was happening. I knew it deep in my soul.
And as an angel, my intuition was rarely wrong.
After the last dance—and yes, we opted to have the song “Last Dance” play for our last dance—a fire message appeared in Iris’s hands. She opened the paper and read the message, her forehead wrinkling in concern.
She closed it and walked over to where Jacen and I stood in the center of the dance floor. “My sisters need you and Prince Jacen in Camelia’s chambers at once,” she said, low enough to make it clear that she was saying this only for us. At a party with mostly supernaturals, others were bound to overhear, but etiquette demanded they pretended they didn’t. “It’s an emergency.”
“I understand,” I said, since Dahlia and Violet wouldn’t have called us away from our own wedding for anything else. “Take care of seeing everyone out. I’ll see you soon.”
Iris bowed her head in acknowledgement of my order.
Then I reached for Jacen’s hand, and teleported the two of us to Camelia’s chambers.
40
Annika
Camelia held a beautiful baby girl in her arms. The child’s hair was so blonde it was nearly white.
She gazed down at her baby adoringly, and the baby looked up at her in wonder, like she was amazed at the existence of the world.
It would have been a perfect scene, if not for the massive amounts of blood that drenched Camelia’s sheets. There was so much blood that the sheets looked red instead of white. And Camelia’s complexion was pale—too pale.
Violet hurried over to me, and Dahlia remained by Camelia’s side.
If Camelia noticed that Jacen and I had just arrived in her chambers, she didn’t show it. She was too focused on the beautiful newborn baby girl in her arms.
And the baby girl herself… she had a scent I wasn’t familiar with. The flowery smell of witch was obvious. But there was something else. A rich, creamy smell. Like vanilla.
I’d never encountered such a smell from any supernatural I’d met yet.
That had to be what the fae smelled like. I’d never met a fae—neither had most other supernaturals, since the fae kept to themselves in the Otherworld. But I knew the father of Camelia’s child was a fae. That was why I’d permitted Camelia to live on Avalon in the first place.
Back when we were all living at the Vale, Camelia had made a deal with the fae. The deal had resulted in her getting pregnant with a half-fae child and promising that child—this beautiful baby girl she was cradling—to the fae.
As a half-blood fae in the Otherworld, this child would always be treated like a second-class citizen there. She would be denied full rights simply because of the circumstance of her birth. Avalon was the only place where Camelia and the child would be safe, as the blessing on the island prevented anyone—even the fae—from locating it. And even if they did locate it, as Kara had done, King Arthur’s simulation kept them from entering.
Therefore, I’d overcome my grudges against Camelia and had allowed her to come to the island. Her child deserved a life in a place where she’d have every opportunity to grow and shine to her full potential. She also deserved her mother, no matter how evil and conniving her mother had acted in the past.
But looking at Camelia now, I wasn’t sure how much time she had left.
“She’s lost so much blood,” I said to Violet, dread mounting in my stomach at the sight of the blood stained sheets. I didn’t want to stare at the blood, but I couldn’t turn away.
“Dahlia and I did everything we could,” Violet said softly, turning her gaze down to the floor. “But the blood loss is too extreme for healing potion to fix.”
I nodded and swallowed down a lump in my throat. Because I, like all other supernaturals, knew how healing potion worked. It only healed non-fatal injuries. And while vampire blood could be used to heal fatal injuries in humans—a fact that vampires kept hidden, since they didn’t want to be hunted for their blood—it had no effect on other supernaturals.
If healing potion wasn’t working on Camelia, her death was imminent. And judging by how she was now slumped in her pillow, using what appeared to be her last strength to hold her baby, she didn’t have much longer.
After everything Camelia had done to me in the Vale—including having my two closest friends killed—I should have wanted her dead. But seeing the joy on her face as she looked down at her newborn baby girl, my heart was heavy with sadness.
Camelia finally raised her gaze from the child, her glazed eyes meeting mine. “Her name is Selena,” she said, each word sounding like it took great effort to speak. “And I want to give her to you.”
41
Annika
“Are you sure?” I couldn’t believe this. Camelia hated me. Why would she choose Jacen and I, of all people, to raise her child?
Anger flared in Camelia’s eyes. It was the first surge of strength I’d seen from her since entering the room. “You don’t want her?” she asked.
I hurried over to Camelia’s bed, Jacen by my side. One look at him confirmed he was thinking the same thing as me.
We loved the beautiful baby girl in Camelia’s arms as fiercely as if we’d conceived her ourselves.
We’d never be able to conceive our own child, since Jacen was a vampire. We had been considering adopting at some point, but we hadn’t thought of timing beyond that.
It looked like that point was now.
“We want her,” I said, speaking for both of us. “I’m just surprised you’d entrust us with someone so important to you. I thought you hated us.”
“Oh, I do hate you.” Camelia chuckled, although she groaned from pain afterward. She looked from me to Jacen and back again. “I hate both of you. But you’re the best people to raise her. You’re the leaders of the most powerful supernatural island in the world, which means you’re equipped to keep her safe and protected. And most importantly, you’ll love her and give her the life she deserves.”
“We will.” Jacen placed a hand gently on Camelia’s arm, his eyes shining with love for the baby girl she was holding. Our baby girl. “We promise.”
“Yes.” I nodded, more love swelling in my heart for Selena than I’d ever imagined possible. “We promise.”
Selena was so beautiful—I ached to reach out and touch her. But I held back. Because Jacen and I had the rest of our lives with her. Camelia only had these final moments.
“But there’s one condition,” Camelia added.
The edge in her tone made my guard go up.
It was amazing how Camelia could still sound fierce, even while she was dying.
“What’s that?” I asked.
“Everyone in this room must enter into a blood oath to never tell Selena that I bargained her away to the fae,” Camelia said, her eyes dark as she held her baby girl closer to her chest. “No assisting her in finding out the truth on her own, either. You must keep Selena on Avalon—otherwise the fae will snatch her away. But she can’t know why. Don’t even tell her the truth about what she is.”
“I can’t promise that,” I said, since how could I tell such a huge lie to my own daughter? She’d be unable to leave Avalon, yet she’d never know why. It wouldn’t be fair. Plus, she’d have faerie powers. She’d eventually want to know who her biological father was, and why he wasn’t in her life. She might even want to seek him out herself. In which case, she’d need to go in fully prepared with the knowledge of the bargain Camelia made on her behalf.
“I agree with Annika,” Jacen said. “We’ll love Selena, always. And we’ll be the best parents to her that we can. But that means being honest with her about who she is and why she can’t leave Avalon.”
“Then I’m afraid we don’t have a deal.” Camelia held the crown of Selena’s head tightly with one hand. “If you don’t make this promise, I’ll take Selena to the Beyond with me.”
My eyes widened. She couldn’t mean…
“No.” I sat forward, but Camelia’s sharp gaze warned me not to get closer. So I didn’t. But only for Selena’s sake. “You wouldn’t.”<
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“I wouldn’t snap her neck so she can be in the Beyond with me, instead of growing up knowing that her mother bargained her away to a place where she’d be treated like dirt?” Camelia’s eyes narrowed in challenge. “Watch me.”
My heart pounded, terrified as I looked at my innocent baby girl. One quick move of Camelia’s, and I could lose my daughter before ever holding her.
“Stop.” I held my hands out in defeat, unable to take this. “We’ll do it. We’ll make the blood oath. Just… don’t hurt Selena. Please.”
“I thought so.” Camelia smiled, although she kept her hand where it was on Selena’s head. “Everyone, gather around.”
“Hand Selena over first,” Jacen said. “Then we’ll make the blood oath.”
“You think I’d fall for that?” Camelia looked at him like he was dirt.
“No,” Jacen said. “But it was worth a try.”
Camelia watched as Dahlia, Violet, Jacen, and I gathered around her bed. None of us made any sudden movements. Even though we were all quick and Camelia was dying, we couldn’t risk Selena’s life.
“Good,” Camelia said, pleased that we were doing as she asked. “Let’s begin.”
She had Violet slice her palm, keeping her other hand tightly wound around Selena’s head the entire time. Once her palm was sliced, we each sliced our own palms. Then, Camelia repeated the terms from before.
We couldn’t tell Selena she was half fae. We couldn’t tell Selena that Camelia had bargained her away to the fae. We couldn’t tell Selena who her father was. We couldn’t help Selena discover the truth on her own. The requirements continued, the oath airtight.
Reluctantly, we all pressed our bloodied palms to Camelia’s, sealing the deal. I felt the buzz of the magic searing through my veins, binding me to keep my word.
The promise sealed, and with it, the cuts on our palms sealed as well.
The Angel Trials- The Complete Series Page 107