Chapter 44
Evan
Ipassed out the crystals one by one—Adam first, then William, Harren, Nicolai, Lyra, Alaric, and finally Gregory. They were smooth and warm against my palm, like river stones left in the sun. Everyone accepted theirs with a nod or a murmured thanks.
The deepest part of the night had arrived, but this darkness was different.
Heavier. The moon hung as a thin slice in the sky, nearly gone, offering only the weakest wash of silver over the square.
The usual sounds of the center of the village were gone.
No distant laughter from the people, no children’s voices echoing between cottages, and no music drifting through the air.
Only silence, weighing on my shoulders until I wanted to shrug it off like a wet coat.
A shiver raced down my spine despite the leather armor trapping heat against my skin. I reached back, grazing the pattern of Gregory’s mark at my nape. The contact gave me a moment of clarity before I exhaled and squared my shoulders.
Get it together.
I inhaled stiffly, breaking the hush. “To activate the crystal, you crush it,” I told everyone, keeping my tone level. “But you have to be thinking about where you want to land. The magic reads your intent and takes you there. It’s a one-way trip. Once it’s used, that’s it. No do-overs.”
I paused, waiting for questions, nods, anything.
Seven faces stared in the torch-glow, but no one spoke. They stared at the glowing green stones in their palms, and the silence stretched until it felt brittle.
My stomach churned. It had been years since I led a briefing, but in a heartbeat, I was twenty-two again, a terrified intern with zero experience trying to explain a merger to a boardroom of sharks who smelled blood. These people seemed lost. And if they were lost, I was leading them off a cliff.
Gregory’s palm pressed against my lower back, the heat seeping through the leather armor. The weight jolted me out of my spiral. I met his gaze, managing a nervous smile that probably resembled a grimace.
He leaned down, his breath warming my ear. “You did good.”
The knot in my chest loosened a fraction.
Gregory straightened, breaking the contact as he addressed the group.
His presence filled the space, commanding without effort.
“Once we’re on the ground, the priority is locating Evan’s mother.
” His focus swept over each person, lingering on Nicolai.
“The wolf will use his cloaking magic to hide our approach. His shadows will scout ahead and pinpoint her exact location.”
He paused, and the air between him and Nicolai crackled.
Nicolai’s head cocked to the side. “I never said yes to this plan. I don’t have alliances.”
Gregory’s jaw tightened. A muscle jumped beneath the stubble. He raked his fingers through his hair, and sulfur rose off his skin.
Harren’s elbow connected with Nicolai’s ribs hard enough to make the wolf grunt. He leaned in close, whispering something urgent, the warning clear in his expression.
Nicolai went rigid. Then his lips peeled back to reveal a grin devoid of humor. It was all threat, a predator sizing up another predator across a kill.
“The moment you ignite your fire, my shadows become useless,” Nicolai said, each word hissed through bared teeth. “I will not be held responsible when the cloak falls because you cannot leash your nature.”
Gregory’s nostrils flared. For a second, violence poured off him. His fists clenched at his sides, and I swore smoke curled from his knuckles. He exhaled slowly through his nose and turned away from Nicolai, like the wolf wasn’t worth the breath.
“Once we have Stella’s location, Evan jumps with her, Lyra, and Harren back to Mossfen,” Gregory continued. “The rest of us stay behind and deal with Mordaine.”
Nausea wrung my stomach. We’d rehearsed this scenario until the strategy was branded into my brain.
Even after Nicolai had questioned the plan and Harren had spoken with conviction to offer his mate’s help, the ending never changed: me jumping back with Mom while everyone else stayed behind to face Mordaine and whatever army she’d brought with her.
I didn’t know what state my mother would be in.
The thought wrapped around my ribs like a vice, squeezing until air refused to enter my lungs.
What if she was injured? What if the Empire had broken her the way they broke so many others?
What if I got there and she was already gone?
What if Evan traded everything for nothing? This second chance, this life, Gregory.
What if my purpose in this world was just another empty promise I couldn’t keep?
My heart kicked into overdrive, pounding a roar that drowned out everything else.
The world narrowed to that sound, that relentless thudding that wouldn’t stop, wouldn’t slow down.
I clawed at my chest, but the bulky leather armor blocked me.
My fingers scraped against the surface, and suddenly the air wouldn’t come.
My lungs squeezed tight, and the edges of my vision blurred.
Everything became muted, distanced, like I was underwater.
Then Gregory’s voice cut through the fog. “Evan!”
I blinked, and the world snapped back into focus. The square, the torches, the faces watching me.
Something shuttered behind Gregory’s eyes.
He closed the distance between us and hauled me into his arms. The embrace was an anchor, and I let out a shaking breath as his scent washed over me.
His pheromones rolled off him in waves, wrapping around me like a blanket, and the panic loosened its grip on my throat.
He drew back enough to meet my gaze, his eyes searching mine. The unspoken statement hung between us: We don’t have to do this.
I took a fortifying breath, then gave him a sharp nod.
Gregory dug his fingers into my arms once before he released me.
“We should get in position,” I said, my voice steadier than I felt.
Gregory moved to the center, and the others fell into formation around him.
Lyra stepped to his left with Adam beside her.
William took his right, Harren next to him, then Nicolai at the end.
Each person placed a grip on the shoulder of the one beside them, creating a chain that would let the portal magic flow through all of them at once.
Lyra shifted her weight, catching my eye from Gregory’s left. “You can do this,” she whispered. Her eyes crinkled at the corners, a soft smile pulling at her lips with pride written all over her face. Something lifted in my chest, light and warm. My new family. They were here.
I stood in front of Gregory, our fingers intertwined. Alaric crept behind me, close enough that the proximity made my skin crawl, but I forced myself to ignore it.
This was how it had to work. Alaric knew the exact location of the eastern ridge, the high ground of the grassland valley where we’d land. For the jump to succeed, I had to channel the magic through him first, let his memory guide the destination, then push it outward through the rest of the group.
Gregory’s eyes went over my head to Alaric. A low rumble built in his chest, almost a growl.
“Alpha. Please,” I said quietly.
Gregory’s jaw worked, but after a moment, he relented. The growl died.
Alaric’s weight came down on my shoulder, his grip firm.
Under my skin, my magic tingled with the overflow.
Too much power coiled too tight, ready to explode.
Lyra had given me a healing boost in the war room that was supposed to keep me from passing out the second we landed, a failsafe against the drain of jumping seven people at once.
Though the excess magic buzzed beneath my skin, mixing with the nerves that had my stomach in knots.
“Everyone ready?” I asked.
Seven heads nodded in unison.
“On three,” I said. I sucked in a breath, trying to calm the frantic beat of my heart. I thought of Mom. Her face, her humming, the way she used to work. I had to find her. That thought fueled me, driving the magic higher.
Beneath it, something else stirred. Rage.
Hot and corrosive, spiraling in my gut. A sudden gust turned my stomach, carrying a coppery odor that assaulted my senses.
Murderous intent? My brows drew together.
Where had that come from? It didn’t belong to me—it was like it bled through Alaric’s grip on my shoulder.
I shook it off. I had to focus.
I lifted my boot, and the magic surged through me, racing from my core into Alaric’s hold on me. I felt the exact moment it latched onto his memory of the grassland valley. The image crystallized in my mind, sharp and clear.
Then the power exploded outward, flowing through Gregory’s grasp into the rest of the group.
The world lurched.
Instead of the familiar flashes—the doors opening and closing, glimpses of places I’d been—there was only darkness. Thick, rolling smoke infected everything, turning the passage black. It swallowed the world whole, suffocating every fragment of memory, every image that should have appeared.
My breath caught. This wasn’t right. Ice flooded my veins.
I gasped, tried to yell Gregory’s name to warn him that something was wrong.
Nicolai’s words sliced through the roar, barely a whisper lost in the chaos. “I told you, failed Dragon Lord. They were waiting for something or someone.”
The passage collapsed, and my boot hit solid ground.
I was alone.
No Gregory. No Lyra. No Adam or William or Harren or Nicolai.
Just me and Alaric, his grip still locked against my skin.
I scrambled backward, my boots skidding on loose dirt. I hit the ground hard, my tailbone slamming into stone. “Gregory!” The name tore out of my throat, raw and desperate.
Silence answered, strained like a rubber band stretched too tight.