Chapter 46
Evan
Alaric loosened his hold, and I slipped from his grasp like dead weight. Air left my lungs in a crushing exhalation as I resisted the portal’s drag. My knees slammed into hard ground. Dirt and grass. The impact rattled through my bones as I doubled over, heaving and gasping.
Heat still clung to my face. Gregory’s fire. But also the endless tears streaking down my cheeks, hot and unceasing, blurring everything into a watery mess.
My alpha.
Gregory.
He couldn’t be dead.
But Mordaine had done something to him. That dart. The way he’d crumpled to his knees, paralyzed, while she cradled him like a broken doll.
Invisible bands crushed my ribs. The air turned thick and syrupy, refusing to fill my lungs no matter how hard I tried to drag it in.
My heart slammed against my sternum in a frantic, broken cadence.
The forest lurched, and I pressed my palms flat against the damp earth beneath me, trying to anchor myself, but the ground still heaved.
This is my fault.
The thought crashed through me with the force of a wrecking ball.
I was the one who brought them there. It was my idea to jump. My plan. My magic. And now Gregory had crumbled in front of me, an echo of Mom’s fall. Collapsed on that wet stone while my world disintegrated.
Air wouldn’t come. My lungs seized, strangling every thought before they could form. The edges of my vision went dark and spotty.
Focus.
I squeezed my eyelids shut, then snapped them open. Tall pines boxed us in. The clearing emerged from the shadows. Gray light bled through the branches as night surrendered to the bruised purple of dawn. This place… I knew this place.
The stop on the way to Oakgon. The first rest.
“Are you hurt?”
Alaric spoke from behind me, too close, and I scrambled backward. My boots scraped through wet leaves as I put distance between us, my back hitting nothing but empty air.
“You fucking traitor,” I choked out. “What did she do to Gregory?”
Alaric’s expression hardened, and the false concern evaporated, replaced by something colder. He stepped forward, looming over me. “What needed to be done five years ago!” he exploded. “Adam never should have taken him to Mossfen. Never should have let that blasphemy continue to poison the world!”
I grasped at my chest, struggling with the leather armor that compressed my ribs like a vice. The straps cut into my shoulders, and the buckles pressed against my skin, making it hard to breathe. My fingers trembled as I fumbled with the fastenings, stuttering as I tried to undo the clasps.
I ripped the armor away. It landed in the grass beside me as I gulped down air.
“He’s not dead,” I managed, the words broken and uneven. “I know he’s not dead.”
The bond hummed. A thread stretched between us, frayed and trembling, but still there, secured somewhere deep inside where nothing else could reach it.
My alpha was still alive.
I lifted my gaze to Alaric, tears still streaming, and forced the question past the knot in my throat. “Why did you do it? Why did you give everyone away? Even Lyra. Lyra is out there. She might be hurt. She might be dead.”
The thought sent a wave of nausea crashing through me. Lyra. Adam. Harren. William. Even Nicolai. All of them, left behind on that battlefield while Alaric dragged me through the portal. They could be dying right now, and I’d be alone again.
I’d accepted this world. Given in to it. I’d stayed because, for the first time in more than two decades, I wasn’t alone. I had a home. I had people. I had Gregory.
And this obsessed fucker acted like he’d done me some kind of divine favor.
Alaric crouched down in front of me, bringing himself to eye level.
His jaw was tight, his knuckles clenched on his knees.
“Gregory destroys everything he touches,” Alaric said bitterly.
“When I was a boy, the Lord of my village hid Gregory and his family in his manor. Three days later, the Empire came. They wiped out the entire village searching for him.” He choked.
“I lost my mother. My father. My parents escaped the North Lands for a peaceful life, and the Empire butchered them. And they took Mordaine. My sister. They made her a plaything. Because of him.”
He dragged his hand violently through his hair. “Adam saved me when he retired from the Empire’s knight order. He took me as his ward. His personal guard. It gave me freedom from the Empire’s control, and I finally found Mordaine six months ago after so many years.”
Alaric pressed his hands against his face, his shoulders shaking.
When he dropped them, his eyes were red-rimmed and wild.
“Then I lost you,” he said. “The Mother Goddess chose that abomination for Evan, then he killed him. I know you’re not him.
That’s why you should run with me. I can give you a life without suffering.
But first, he needs to be purged. And we need to erase that blasphemy mark on your neck. ”
My pulse stalled. Ice flooded my veins. I clapped one hand over the bond mark at my nape and dropped the other to my belly, shielding both.
“I thought Gregory was delusional,” I managed, my breath hitching. “But you’re fucking nuts.”
I moved to stand, but Alaric snatched my ankle. He yanked with brutal force, trying to drag me back to him.
I kicked, and my boot connected with his face. His head snapped back, blood spurting from his nose, and his grip loosened just enough. I wrenched my ankle free and scrambled to my feet, turning to run.
The path. I needed to remember the path. Gregory and I had traveled this route. There was a small lake. If I could find it, I’d know where to go.
My feet pounded against the forest floor, branches whipping past my face.
“Evan!”
I stopped cold. Twenty-three years. I hadn’t heard that voice in twenty-three years, but it might as well have been yesterday. Like no time had passed at all.
My legs gave out, and I hit the dirt, fingers digging into the mud. I squeezed my eyes shut, refusing to lift my head. If this was a hallucination, if my mind had finally snapped…
“Evan!”
Footsteps thundered toward me. Arms wrapped around me from behind, a tight embrace that squeezed the air from my lungs.
“Baby, look at me. Are you hurt? Mother Goddess.”
I turned in her arms and pulled her close, crushing her against me. “It’s you,” I choked out. “Mom. It’s really you.”
“Who else would it be, baby?” Her hands came up to cup my face. “Let me get a good look at you.”
Exhaustion carved shadows beneath her eyes, but the familiar dusting of freckles spread across her nose. Her red hair, the exact shade of mine, framed her face in a messy tangle. Yet her eyes held that same motherly warmth, and when her lips curled into a smile, it stole the breath from my lungs.
My gaze dropped to her neck, and my blood went cold. A thick gold collar clamped around her throat. Sun symbols and magical circles were carved deep into the metal surface, the same restraint of magic I was locked into.
She hugged me again, her fingers stroking my hair. “I’m okay. I found you. I promised I’d find you.”
She eased back to arm’s length, her hands sliding down to clasp mine. My heart was bursting. The promise. I’d kept the promise to Evan. I’ve found his mom, our mom, and now I needed to save her.
But Gregory.
I stiffened, tightening my grip on hers. “Mama, we need to go. My mate is in danger.”
Her brow furrowed, and she glanced past me, gesturing toward Alaric.
“But your mate is here. That young man. He helped me escape from the Empire camp. He told me how to get here and said I’d find you.
We need to get you out before the Unholy Alpha finds you.
He said the Unholy Alpha forced you to bond with him… ”
“Mama, no.” I cut her off, my stomach churning. “That man is not my mate. My mate is the Unholy Alpha. Gregory Dax. The Dragon Lord. Alaric lied to you. He’s Mordaine’s brother. The one the Empire took.”
Horror colored her face. She spun around and planted herself before me in a defensive stance, her body a shield between Alaric and me.
“What do you want?” she demanded viciously.
Alaric straightened, wiping blood from his nose with the back of his knuckles.
“The only thing I’ve ever wanted. To save Evan.
For him to be safe and happy. Mordaine even agreed to let him go as long as he stays with me and opens a gateway to the twin world for Emperor Cassian.
It’s her coin to be free from the Empire.
We’ll be happy together. The only thing she needs to do is cut the Unholy Alpha’s head off, and everything will be okay. ”
I stood, my blood roaring in my ears. “What did you say?”
I stalked past Mom, and her grip reached for my arm, trying to haul me back.
“Mom, let me do this. There’s so much I need to tell you.”
She hesitated, then gave a small nod of trust. She stayed where she was.
I walked toward Alaric, closing the distance between us. “I asked you a question. What did you say?”
His eyes flared gold, and he took a step back.
“I’m going to ask one more time.” My words came out low and dangerous. Alaric’s long hair whipped around his face in the growing wind, strands plastering against his sweaty brow. “What did you say, fucker?”
“Mordaine is going to end the old bloodlines for good,” Alaric said, his chin held high. “Gift the Emperor the Unholy Alpha’s head.”
Heat scorched my skin. My magic tingled beneath the surface, forcing its way out, demanding release.
“Then you need to know something,” I said.
“I came from a world where alphas, omegas, and betas don’t exist. There’s no magic.
No crystals. No Empire hunting people to death.
And the ones who mate for life are birds. ”
The magic burned hotter. It pulsed through my veins, begging to break free.