Chapter Eleven
Annika
“I wish there were more I could do,” Rowena murmured, a rare note of regret in her voice. “But this… this is only the beginning.”
Lucas nodded. “That’s what I was afraid of.”
Kael gave a half-hearted smirk. “Well, at least we’re not bored.”
Rowena didn’t smile. She looked at Lucas instead, her gaze heavy with something I couldn’t quite name. “Be careful, vampire prince.”
He was no longer the vampire prince and Rowena knew it well. But I had come to realize that it was a sort of an endearing name for him, that was how she was showing her affection for him.
I stepped forward, offering her a small, grateful smile. “Thank you. For everything.”
She tilted her head slightly, her expression softening. “Take care of each other.”
I squeezed her hand briefly before turning toward the darkness with the others.
The night was colder now, the air thick with the scent of damp earth and woodsmoke. The moon was only a sliver above us, barely enough to light our way.
Lucas walked ahead, his pace steady but his mind clearly elsewhere. I could feel it in the way he carried himself, in the tightness of his jaw, the way his hands flexed at his sides.
He was still thinking about her. The Shadow Bride.
I hated the way it made me feel.
Not because I doubted him. Not because I thought, even for a second, that he wanted her. But because she had chosen him. Because something dark and ancient had reached for him, knowing exactly how to strike.
And that terrified me.
Kael nudged me lightly with his elbow as we walked. “You’re quiet.”
I forced a small smile. “Just thinking.”
He hummed. “Bad habit.”
Before I could say anything to that, the wind shifted suddenly. The trees around us stilled, as if the entire forest was holding its breath. Then, without warning, the leaves at our feet twisted into a whirlwind, spiraling upward in a silent storm of red and gold.
I stopped walking. My breath caught. And then, she stepped through the storm.
She didn’t materialize in the way Rowena’s magic did, nor did she arrive with the heavy presence of something solid. No, she unfolded from the darkness, her form shifting in and out of focus, like smoke barely held together in the shape of a woman.
Dark hair cascaded in soft waves down her back, flowing like ink through water. Her skin was smooth and pale, like untouched porcelain. She should have been beautiful. She was beautiful, in that impossible, haunting way that only belonged to things not meant for this world.
But it was her eyes that made my stomach twist. Deep, endless, like staring into a void that knew your name. There was a hunger there, patient and certain. A quiet, insidious kind of possession.
She smiled, although just barely. Not in greeting, not in warmth, but in the way a predator might before striking.
Lucas went rigid beside me. I could feel his fury crackling in the air.
The Shadow Bride stood before us, her form shifting like candlelight, dark hair swaying though the air had stilled. Then, she spoke.
“Lucas…”
Her voice was like running water… soft, flowing, but with an undertow strong enough to drag you under. It was melodic, beautiful even, but there was something else beneath it. Something deadly.
She only said his name, yet it rippled through the air like a spell, curling around him like unseen fingers. A lover’s whisper, a siren’s call.
Lucas stiffened. I saw his hands flex, his jaw tighten. But he didn’t answer.
She tilted her head, ignoring the rest of us as if we didn’t exist. As if I didn’t exist.
Anger burned in my chest. “Who are you?” I demanded, voice sharp.
Nothing. Not even a flicker of acknowledgment.
Kael took a step forward, his usual smirk absent. “You’re not very polite, are you?”
Still, she didn’t so much as glance at him. But when Lucas exhaled sharply, a sound more breath than voice, her lips curved slightly, as if he had said something to her and not just in defiance of her.
“You resist,” she murmured, and the sound of it sent a chill down my spine. “That is… charming.”
Lucas growled low in his throat. “I told you I’m done with you. What do you want now?”
Her dark eyes gleamed. “Only what was promised.”
I clenched my fists. “Nothing was promised.”
She didn’t so much as blink in my direction. I might as well have been a ghost. Rage bubbled beneath my skin, a cold, sharp thing. I wanted to claw at her, force her to look at me, to acknowledge me. But she only had eyes for Lucas. And that terrified me more than anything else.
“I demand you look at me!” The words tore out of my chest without me even being aware of them.
And finally, she turned to me. Slowly. Deliberately. And I wished that she hadn’t.
Because when her gaze met mine, it was like staring into something endless. Not darkness, not death, but something worse. A hunger that had no shape, no mercy. A void with a will of its own.
“Nothing was promised,” I repeated slowly, accentuating every word, hoping that she couldn’t see the fear eating at my very soul.
“You are wrong,” she said, her voice still carrying that quiet, deadly melody. “All things are promised. Some with words. Some with longing. Some with blood.”
The air in my lungs turned to ice.
Lucas took a step forward, the movement sharp, instinctive. Protective. “I never asked for you.” His voice was a snarl, his fangs flashing in protective anger. “I never wanted you.”
That devilish smile of hers deepened, slow and knowing.
“Want is a fickle thing,” she murmured, reaching out as if to touch his face. Her fingers, long and elegant, pale as bone, stopped just short of his cheek. And then she let her hand fall. “It is need that binds.”
My stomach twisted.
Kael scoffed, refusing to remain on the sidelines. “So that’s it? You show up and claim some cosmic debt no one agreed to? Sounds desperate.”
She didn’t even spare him a glance.
Lucas’s breath was harsh and measured. “What do you want from me?”
Her expression turned almost gentle.
“Your heart,” she whispered. “Your love. Freely given.”
A sharp, bitter laugh escaped me before I could stop it. “Then you came for the wrong man.”
She finally looked at me again. Really looked and smiled.
“We shall see.”
Now, the wind was screaming around us, twisting leaves into frenzied spirals. The Shadow Bride stood before Lucas, her form flickering like a dying flame, something not quite real yet unbearably present.
“I will return your son, unharmed,” she finally said, her voice liquid silk, “if you leave her and bind yourself to me instead.”
Lucas didn’t flinch. Neither did he hesitate. “No.” His refusal was sharp and absolute.
The Shadow Bride stilled.
“No?” she echoed, as if the word was foreign and she didn’t understand what it meant.
Lucas stepped forward, rage crackling in every line of his body. “You think I’d trade my mate? That I’d abandon her for you?” His voice was low and dangerous. “I’d burn this world to ash before I let that happen.”
Something in the air shifted. It darkened. Her expression, once so calm and so patient, cracked now. The air around her vibrated, the ground beneath us trembling as if the earth itself recoiled from her fury.
“You would deny me?”
Her voice wasn’t soft now. It wasn’t melodic. It was raw and jagged like chards of broken glass. It was a sound that didn’t belong in this world. The trees around us groaned, their branches snapping under an unseen force. The wind lashed at my skin, biting like ice.
I grabbed Lucas’s arm, instinct screaming at me to run, but he didn’t move.
She took a step forward, and the ground shuddered.
“You do not understand, Lucas,” she hissed, her beautiful face twisting into something monstrous writhing beneath her skin. “I do not offer. I claim!”
Lucas bared his fangs, his eyes dark with fury. “Then try.”
The world exploded. The wind roared, the trees bent, and the night itself seemed to tear open as her rage filled the space around us. That was the moment I realized that she wasn’t just furious… she was desperate.
I could feel the air around us crackling, charged with raw power as the Shadow Bride’s fury twisted and writhed. It felt like the world was about to snap in two. Her voice had turned into a growl, guttural and violent, every word laced with hatred. The ground beneath us trembled, the trees around us groaning in protest.
And then, through the chaos, I heard Kael’s voice.
“Step back!”
Lucas didn’t question it, stepping back with me, putting distance between us and the roaring storm of the Shadow Bride’s rage.
Kael raised his hands, his palms facing outward, and his voice low and commanding, rang through the air. “By the blood of the fallen, I command you, spirit of the void, return to the darkness from which you came!”
The words were ancient, an incantation I could barely comprehend. The wind around us seemed to bow to his power, swirling in tight, controlled spirals, and the Shadow Bride staggered. Her maddened eyes, those black pits of endless voids, snapped toward Kael, and her face contorted with fury and confusion.
“You think you can banish me?” she hissed, her voice still melodic but with an edge of desperation, as if she hadn’t considered this, as if she hadn’t been expecting to fight a Nephilim.
Kael’s lips curled into something that was almost a smile, but there was nothing friendly about it. “You aren’t the first spirit I’ve put in its place.” His voice cut her. “And you won’t be the last.”
The magic of his ancient spell swirled around us, gathering in force. The Shadow Bride staggered back, her form starting to shimmer like a mirage, and we knew that the power of Kael’s words was tearing at her very essence.
For a moment, it was as though the entire world held its breath. And then, she screamed. The sound was deafening, a wail of anguish and rage that shook the very earth beneath us. But it wasn’t enough to stop Kael’s magic.
With a final, violent twist of air, she dissolved. The wind stopped. The night fell silent.
I couldn’t move. I couldn’t speak. But I slowly realized that she was gone… at least, for now.
Lucas’s shoulders sagged slightly, the tension in his frame easing, but his eyes never left the spot where the Shadow Bride had stood. He didn’t say anything. He didn’t need to.
Kael inhaled deeply, allowing relief to wash over him. He seemed drained of power. After all, he had just banished an evil spirit. How else would he seem?
“She’s not gone for good,” he warned us. “She’ll find another way to come back for you, Lucas.”
I felt a shiver run down my spine. I didn’t want to think about that. Not right now.
But Kael was right. There was no way she would let this go.
The walk back to town was silent, but we all felt as if the world was holding its breath, waiting for something… for our next move.
I stayed close to Lucas, my hand brushing his as we walked, just to feel the warmth of him, just to know he was still here, still beside me. I didn’t ask if he was alright. I knew better than to question him when his thoughts were so far away.
Kael walked a few paces ahead of us, his long stride taking him easily through the darkness. There was something in his shoulders, something tight in the way he moved, but it wasn’t fear. It was something else.
I caught a glance of him, his eyes shadowed but steady. He was deep in thought, too, probably running through all the ways the Shadow Bride might return, all the things we hadn’t prepared for.
It was all too much.
When we reached the edge of the town, I finally broke the silence. “We need to rest.”
Lucas didn’t respond immediately, but I felt him nod. His voice came low and exhausted. “We’ll rest, and then we’ll figure out what to do.”
I had no intention of asking him how he planned on doing that. I didn’t want to hear the uncertainty in his voice. I didn’t want to face the truth that we didn’t have any answers.
But we couldn’t keep moving forward like this, driven by nothing but fear and anger. We all needed time to process, to think.
We needed sleep.