Chapter 44 #2
My heart roared in my ears. I knew where I was.
I’d been here before, trapped inside Mordaine’s darkness dome, the same suffocating prison she’d used when I escaped the capital.
But this wasn’t just black. Purple magic swirled through the void, slashing across the space in violent arcs.
The eerie glow illuminated Alaric’s form in flashes, making him look monstrous, threatening.
It was the same magic that swallowed light, sound, and hope.
Where were the others? Had I made a mistake again, not jumping where I was supposed to and scattering everyone? No, that wasn’t it.
“Gregory!” I yelled again, louder this time, my voice cracking.
Alaric stood over me with an unreadable expression in the dim haze. He didn’t move, didn’t reach for me. He stared down and clenched his teeth behind his sealed lips.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “But this was the only way I could save you.”
My blood went cold. “What?” The word came out strangled. “What did you…”
I scrambled to my feet, boots slipping on the uneven ground. I had to move. Had to jump. I didn’t know where I’d land, but if I thought of Gregory, if I focused on him and the bond humming beneath my skin, I’d find him. I’d get back.
I pressed my palm to my chest, reaching for the magic.
Metal clicked shut around my neck.
The magic died. Snuffed out like a candle in a windstorm. Metal bit into my skin, and I gasped, my fingers flying up to claw at the collar now locked around my throat.
No.
No.
I spun around, rage burning through the shock. “You fucker. What did you do?”
I tore at the restraint. My nails scraped against deep grooves carved into the metal surface. The rough edges of the symbols chipped my fingernails, and pain shot through my fingertips. The collar wouldn’t budge. Panic surged, hot and acrid in my throat.
I knew. God, I had known. Even when I convinced myself I was misreading Alaric or being paranoid, a part of me never trusted him. His presence had always been like a death knell.
“Gregory!” I screamed, hoping and praying he’d hear me through whatever wall separated us.
I tried to run, to summon the magic for a jump. My foot lifted and came down hard.
Nothing.
The magic was there, tingling under my skin, buzzing with that same overflow from before. But the collar had severed the connection, trapping the power inside me with nowhere to go.
My legs gave out, and I collapsed, knees hitting the dirt.
Alaric moved toward me, extending an arm as if to help me up.
“Don’t touch me!” I thrashed, kicking out at him. My boot connected with his shin, but he barely flinched.
He lunged for my arms, and I wrenched away, throwing an elbow that glanced off his ribs. But Alaric was twice my size, all muscle and bulk. I was outmatched before I even started.
He overpowered me in seconds. His grip locked around my arms from behind, pinning them to my sides. He lifted me off the ground at the waist, but I kept thrashing, my feet kicking uselessly at the void.
Then I smelled it.
Scorching sandalwood.
Gregory.
A spark of flame ignited somewhere to my left. The darkness started to burn, a perfect circle spreading outward, eating through the shadow walls like paper. War cries filtered through the opening, distant but growing louder.
“Gregory!” I screamed, throwing my weight against Alaric’s hold.
The hole widened, flames licking at the edges, and through the smoke and ash, he emerged.
Behind Gregory, everything was burning. Figures clashed in watercolor streaks of motion.
Swords met shields, bodies collided. Neon bursts of magic exploded in the chaos, blues and golds and violent reds painting the battlefield in frantic brushstrokes.
The fire was so intense it illuminated everything through the opening, framing Gregory in searing white light like the god of destruction I’d seen in my nightmares.
His body was encased in black obsidian armor that seemed to ripple and pulse as if it was alive. His eyes burned crimson, so dark they were almost black, and the sight sent a shiver down my spine. Relief crashed through me. He was here. He’d found me. My alpha. My hope.
“Alaric.” The name rumbled from Gregory’s mouth in a tone I didn’t recognize. Demonic, guttural.
He took a stride forward.
I lunged, trying to break free and reach him. “Gregory…”
A maniacal laugh echoed through the dome, high and sharp.
Mordaine materialized behind Gregory, rising on tendrils of shadow that lifted her off the ground.
Her purple eyes glowed, bright and inhuman, and the fire seemed to bend toward her, absorbed into the darkness.
She hovered there, her chin resting on top of Gregory’s head, arms draped over his shoulders from behind in a grotesque embrace.
Something glinted in her grasp. A small metallic dart, no bigger than my thumb.
“Gregory, behind you!” I screamed.
She drove it into the base of his skull.
Gregory went still. His fingers twitched toward his head, slow and disjointed, like his body wasn’t his own anymore.
His knees buckled.
As he collapsed to the ground, Mordaine descended with him, and her arms wrapped tighter around his chest, holding him upright even as he crumpled. Her chin slid from the top of his head to rest against the side of his neck, her glowing purple eyes fixed on me.
The world tilted sideways. Air turned to glass in my lungs, jagged and cutting with every attempt to draw breath. The image of Gregory on his knees consumed everything.
“The pact is complete, sister,” Alaric said from behind me. “You have the Dragon Lord. Now honor your promise.”
Sister? He couldn’t have said—
“Two heads for the price of one,” Mordaine intoned, her glowing eyes moving from Gregory to look past me at Alaric. Her words dripped with satisfaction. “Thank you, baby brother. I couldn’t have done this without you.”
The words slammed into me like a fist to the gut.
Baby brother.
Cold dread sank through my bones. Mordaine was the older sister.
Alaric’s older sister. She was looking for him, and he was looking for her.
The memory of the burning capital. The one Adam had talked about.
The one the Empire took all those years ago, the one he couldn’t find. The one they’d thought was dead.
Gregory’s crimson eyes found mine across the distance. The look in them was pure sorrow, broken and helpless.
Something tore inside my chest. I’d never seen that look on his face—never thought I would. He was supposed to be unbreakable.
“No!” I screamed, my voice cracking. Tears blurred my vision. “Alpha, no…”
Alaric’s mouth was close to my ear now, his grip tightening. “You made everything easier, Evan.” He crushed the crystal in his fist, and a portal ripped open.
“No!” I thrashed harder, but it didn’t matter. Alaric stepped backward, dragging me with him, and the world tilted as we fell through.