Chapter Fifty
Daxton Aegaeon
“Daxton!” a familiar voice shouted.
I spun to a mess of brown hair slicked with sweat and blood, bright green eyes locked on me.
“Magnus!” I grabbed him under the arms as his legs buckled. Gods, he was wounded. “I need a healer!” I called out. “Magnus, let me call Skylar, and—”
“Don’t… Don’t you dare.” He shoved my hands away with more strength than he should’ve had. He raised his gaze to mine and said, “Do you still swear to protect her?”
My eyes widened as my lips parted in a silent gasp. Remembering the vow I made to protect Skylar in the hunters’ lair before the war, the trials, and our bond. Before everything.
“Yes. With everything that I am.”
He nodded. “Good. Now, I’m here to help you.”
I stared at him, brows raised. “What are you talking about?”
I didn’t have time for this. The Labyrinth’s children were launching a full assault on the battlefield. My brother was out there—Gunnar, Zola, all of them, fighting for their lives. I needed to get back into this fight. My people needed me.
Magnus raised a trembling hand and motioned past my shoulder. “Him.”
I exhaled sharply, realizing who he was pointing at. “He is not—”
“Seamus?” a female’s voice called out.
“Neera!”
Gods-a-fucking-bove. Not now.
Seamus leaped out from behind the Labyrinth’s shadow, a doppelganger of his form, as Neera came into view. Gravel scattered under Seamus’s boots as he raced toward her.
For one heartbeat, Neera stilled, eyes darting between the two, before running to meet the real Seamus with open arms. It was like she was pulled by something that had caught hold of her and refused to let go.
They closed the distance fast, too fast to think or breathe as his name tore from her lips with a sigh of relief.
“Neera,” Seamus whispered as they collided, holding her close like she might vanish. Burying his face in her unbound midnight hair.
Unable to look away, I watched their embrace, my chest tightening. The bond didn’t need to be sealed to be felt.
“Wait… what?” Magnus stammered, still pointing at the figure he thought was Seamus.
“It will take too long to explain, Magnus,” I said. “Just trust that we have a plan.”
“I can always change it up if you’d like, shifter,” the Labyrinth said, grinning in a way that made the hair on the back of my neck stand at attention. “Would you prefer this?” He shifted into Alistar. “Or perhaps this?” He changed again, taking on Neera’s form.
“Monster,” Magnus muttered, stepping back.
He had no idea.
“Stop!” I said.
The Labyrinth laughed, slipping easily back into Seamus’s shape. “Come on… live a little, my high king. I was only having some fun before the end.”
I marched toward him, fists clenched. “This is not a game,” I said, voice low and filled with rage. “Do your part. Go.”
The Labyrinth smiled, cocking its head at an unnatural angle, before melting back into the shadows.
I shoved the Labyrinth out of my mind and refocused. “Seamus,” I said, turning toward the trees. “Stay with Neera. Hide until it’s time. Do not, under any circumstances, draw attention to yourself. Do you understand?”
Seamus’s jaw tightened, and he gave a firm nod. Without another word, he swept Neera up and disappeared into the trees, leaving me with Magnus.
Magnus’s eyes glinted, and then his body shivered and expanded, fur erupting across his skin as he shifted into his bear form. The ground churned beneath his massive paws.
“Ready?” I asked.
He roared in answer, and together, we charged into the battle.
The children of the Labyrinth were moving fast, hunting survivors, dragging the enemy into shadows, followed by painful screams of death.
With Valencia drawn at my side, I charged into the field, blade spinning in deathly blows.
Magnus swiped at my side with teeth bared, tearing through any soldiers that slipped past the monsters at our front.
“I’m here,” Skylar said as she shifted beside me in the valley.
Utilizing the magic in our bond, she called upon her bow and quiver of arrows from my pocket realm, eyes blazing as she drew and released them in a deadly display.
Arrows flew from her bow with uncanny speed, each finding its target with ease and precision.
And I couldn’t hide the pride that swelled in my chest at the sight.
The three of us moved forward through the death and decay at our feet, but the Labyrinth’s children weren’t the only ones out here.
A stray shadow detached itself from the others along the towers, a shape darker than the rest, and impossibly fast. One moment it was in front of Skylar, the next it flickered to Magnus’s side, then back behind me.
And then, a voice whispered, “Daxton… you’ve returned Seamus to me. I can sense he’s nearby. You know he’s always been my favorite toy to play with.”
The battlefield froze for a long, slow heartbeat.
Even Skylar paused mid-draw, the arrow pulled tight across her bow string, fixed in place as she recognized the voice whispering to me. “The bitch has finally chosen to show herself.”
I loved my mate even more, if it were possible.
The whispering shadows recoiled as a new presence appeared on the battlefield, twisting the reality around her as she materialized.
“Enough!” Minaeve’s voice rang out, cutting through the screams and clash of steel.
The false queen stepped forward. Her dark dress wafted in a phantom breeze, the tail of her skirt falling behind her as the ground beneath her feet trembled.
Her eyes glowed with a cold, ancient power as the Heart of Valdor now laid along her neck, locked like a jewel in a pendant. “Let’s even out this fight, shall we?”
To my horror, the soil and shattered rocks scattered around us began to rise and take shape.
Monsters rose from the earth, made of jagged stone and shadow, forming towering, terrifying figures that loomed over the battlefield.
They released a roar across the grounds as they stomped through the masses, their fists smashing anything in their path.
Minaeve’s monsters surged forward, colliding with the children of the Labyrinth in a cacophony of brutality and violence.
It was as if the gods themselves were colliding on the battlefield. With our forces trying to avoid death, following in their wake.
The battlefield erupted into chaos as two monstrous armies clashed, stone and shadow against twisted flesh and darkness.
“Minaeve!” the Labyrinth, posing as Seamus, called out, appearing beside us.
We were laying a dangerous trap. With Istar gone, she was weak, lost perhaps without her twin for the first time in centuries. We would play to that grief and seize the opportunity Gilen granted us with Istar’s death.
“Come to me,” Minaeve called, voice sharp as steel and impossible to ignore. “Now!”
The Labyrinth stiffened in Seamus’s form, straining against the pull as if invisible chains tugged at him.
“Now, Neera. Bring him,” I called out to Skylar’s cousin, praying this plan would work.
“My queen,” the Labyrinth said, creating a distraction as I ducked behind large boulders at the base of the mountain with Magnus at my side.
Minaeve’s hand lifted higher as shadows swirled around the Labyrinth. “Kneel. And offer your magic.”
The Labyrinth writhed, his body quivering with the effort to resist the queen’s magic. But still, he managed to take a slow, deliberate step forward, kneeling just as she asked.
He was the perfect distraction.
“Now, Spitfire.”
Skylar crept into position, her bow at the ready with an iron-tipped arrow in place. If the Labyrinth fell under Minaeve’s control before she took her shot, the battle would tilt in the false queen’s favor.
Magnus growled beside me, drawing my attention, his shoulders convulsing as he shifted. His breath came in uneven gasps as the wound along his side was now gushing blood. The spark of life faded in his eyes.
Gods, no.
My stomach twisted in knots at the sight of his injuries. There was nothing I could do.
A heavy wave of panic and sorrow sank into my chest, emotions that were not mine, but my mate’s. I tilted my head, watching Skylar’s gaze dart to her uncle. A spark of fear ignited in her heart at the sight of him in this state, and a touch of self-loathing for not having noticed it sooner.
Magnus looked at his daughter and shook his head, mouthing "No."
Skylar swallowed heavily, tears threatening to fall as she bravely nodded and continued her path toward a higher position along the base of the mountain.
My heart broke for my wife. But I could see the pain Magnus had been carrying. He returned to help his daughters, but his heart still lay with his mate. And if death was calling for him, he would answer.
Thankfully, Minaeve’s focus centered on the false Seamus and powering her shadow giants. These mere minutes were all we had, and we needed to take advantage of each one.
“I’m almost there, Daxton!” the true High Prince of Aelius said into my mind as he raced toward the front.
“Hurry, Seamus.”
Around us, the shadow rock giants moved with deadly purpose, scattering what was left of our army, crushing anything in their path, and forcing the Labyrinth’s children to regroup and focus their attacks on Minaeve’s creations.
But this was exactly what we wanted.