Chapter 15
Effie Harlow
My stomach sank as I watched Ryder sacrifice the diamond.
The woman was almost completely pulled under by the organism by now, the black tar right at her chin and her tears dripping onto its surface.
Thunder cracked loudly in the distance as Ryder continued to sink as well.
I didn’t regret our choice, but as I stood there, frozen in time, I wondered if maybe it had been the wrong choice—if maybe we’d been meant to do something else.
A bright flash of silver light shook the earth beneath me, a sonic boom of power blasting me back into Tore. It all happened so fast that I felt dazed and confused, blinded by the intense flash of light—before panic slammed into me.
Ryder.
The woman.
Opening my eyes, I struggled to surge forward, Tore catching me around the waist and easing me up as the space around us cleared from a plume of smoke that seemed to have come out of nowhere.
“Ryder!” I called, running forward and sliding onto my knees, finding my mate face down in the grass…by himself. No woman. No sticky black tar creature. It was like they had never existed, the clearing completely at peace and undisturbed.
“I’m good,” Ryder groaned, rolling over and slowly sitting up, my fingers sliding over his shoulder in concern as the others joined us.
“What the hell is that?” he asked, drawing all of our attention to the far edge of the clearing where a set of bronze gates had appeared.
They stood open, welcoming us into what could only be described as a different realm within the realm—a picturesque garden that was very different from the wild forest around us.
“That’s it,” I murmured as I stood, Ryder doing the same.
I slowly walked towards the gates, feeling an exhilarating surge of energy as hope began to seep back in.
I’d truly thought we’d lost our chance of finding the garden after sacrificing the one element that had safely led us through the illusions.
“I can’t be sure without the diamond, but I don’t think this is an illusion,” I told my mates. “It doesn’t feel the same at all.”
Then again neither had the creature we’d just faced.
“If you want to go through those gates then, we will,” Tore said gently.
I let out a shaky breath and nodded, knowing that it was the right move.
It was instinct guiding me mostly as we walked up to the gates, and I couldn’t help but send a little prayer up to the goddess that we were meant to be here—that this was how we found the key.
Although praying to the goddess had taken on a much different meaning now…
Taking a step through the gates and into what amounted to a secret garden, I couldn’t help the smile that stole over my face, paired with relief when nothing changed.
Everyone was okay, and I had to assume this was the garden the dark god had wanted us to find…
right? I couldn’t believe anything else at this point because this process had already been far more than what we’d signed up for, in my mind.
I knew it was essential, but I was ready to find this key and move on.
The gate shut behind us, hard.
Before I could start to worry about that though, my pendant began to warm against my skin.
I looked around the manicured landscape, searching for what was causing it to react this way.
It didn’t take very much effort, though.
I immediately located a glowing object in the distance, the light emanating from it visible above the hedges around it.
“Hopefully there’s another way out,” Caedmon said. The bond between my mates was relatively relaxed, which went a long way to relax me as well.
“I think I see something ahead.” I clasped my pendant between my hands and began to walk forward. “There’s something glowing right up ahead, and my pendant started to warm the minute we were shut in here.”
My mates kept near, Tore and Dakota flanking me from behind, staying super close in case anything went wrong. Luckily, nothing happened as we passed tree after tree, hedge after hedge, going deeper into the garden to find the source of the glow.
Between two ancient-looking trees decorated with runes similar to the ones on the medieval tower was a circular stone tower that had matching carvings.
The tower’s magic created its own gravitational pull, drawing me towards the tall, skinny structure.
My fingers darted out to touch it, and a surge of magic greeted me.
Darkness swarmed around me. From the darkness grew a glowing silver light in the distance, its beams soaring through me like a merger of darkness and moonlight.
Images of my mom and the dark god laughing and embracing flashed through my mind in quick succession.
I wanted to smile, seeing the intensity of their love for one another—
There was a shift in the light, and new images—darker ones—rushed over me like a deadly tidal wave.
Darkness. Despair. Disappointment. Pain like I hadn’t imagined and heartbreak that had tears streaming from my eyes.
The dark god had been devastated by Mona, and the only light, the only gift that came from any of this was…
Reaper. Their son. I could feel the overwhelming amount of love Alcuin had for him, and I was touched that I’d been trusted to see into this very vulnerable part of the dark god, which was intertwined with his magic to protect the key.
To protect the key from himself.
“Effie,” Julian said softly, his hand running up my back as I blinked my watery eyes open. In front of me, the stone pillar had transformed, a small square at the front opening to reveal…the key. My hand tightened on the pendant as I reached forward with the other to grasp the small object.
Delicate, intricately carved black metal.
It wasn’t very impressive on the surface, but my pendant responded to it immediately, gears turning as it opened to reveal a compartment I hadn’t known existed—one that fit the key perfectly.
I didn’t know if it was my magic creating this or the magic of the garden, or maybe it had always been there…
but I didn’t hesitate to place the key exactly where it belonged.
Before I could say a word, the key locking into place, a bright silver flash collapsed over us. I couldn’t scream or call out to my mates; instead it felt like the ground from underneath me had dropped away completely—
Before reappearing.
“Fuck.” Dakota’s curse was hard as he caught me in his arms, stopping me from nearly faceplanting against the stone floor underneath us.
What just happened?
“We portalled,” Ryder explained.
“To the castle, it seems,” Caedmon agreed.
I blinked, my eyes adjusting to the firelight casting shadows in the throne room. I tightened my hold on the pendant, which had closed once again, and laid it back against my chest, keeping it securely pressed against my heart. After all, this could just be another illusion.
Although I really hoped not. The sudden portal had left me feeling not only sick to my stomach but completely drained, my knees feeling weak.
Suddenly, the doors of the throne room creaked open to reveal Alcuin. The dark god.
“You did it.” He looked exhausted, as if he hadn’t slept since we’d left, but the sad smile playing on his lips hinted at his relief. “You actually did it.”
“No thanks to you,” Dakota bit out. “All of that was completely unnecessary.”
“No,” Alcuin responded firmly. “I don’t disagree that I perhaps took it a little too far for its original purpose, but I think this was needed. Effie has changed through the process; her magic has changed. I know all of you can see that.”
I examined my mates’ faces, finding no disagreement, and I couldn’t find it in me to argue either. He was right—not only had I learned more about my magic and what it was capable of, but I’d learned to trust my magic and myself. I had a confidence in myself that I’d never had before.
“The fates work in odd ways,” Alcuin said, “but maybe this is exactly what Effie was meant to do.”
It sounded exactly like what Mona had said—she’d even said I was prophesied to retrieve the key.
Not allowing my mates to get a word in edgewise—they were not happy with the danger I’d been put in and were ready to explode now that there was no immediate threat—I asked, “Is there any way we can rest for the night—or day—before we leave?”
“And have food sent up,” Tore added.
It took a lot for me to ask this favor of him, but I knew my mates, and they wouldn’t take the time to rest unless I said that I needed to rest—and I really did. I was still resting in Dakota’s arms, my body melted against him.
“Of course. You can return to the same room you were in before, and I’ll send for food,” Alcuin agreed.
“I don’t understand how we got here,” I said softly, thinking back on everything that’d happened. Then something occurred to me. “The horses! We left them tied up by the stream—”
“They have been retrieved,” Alcuin said before I could get too upset.
“I sent a unit of my guards after you in case you ran into any trouble after that storm. When they saw you were gone, they gathered the horses and took them to wait for your return in a town nearby. I’ll send word to them that you’ve come back safely. ”
Letting out a small exhale, I tucked my head against Dakota’s neck, thankful that my mind could now rest easier. As we made our way out the door, Alcuin’s voice suddenly rang out again.
“Effie?”
“Yes?” I asked, barely able to get the word out through my exhaustion.
“Take care of my creations—they don’t deserve what’s happened to them.”
I nodded—I was too tired for anything else—silently promising that I would continue to help in any way I could—no matter what it took.
As we made our way back to the bedroom suite, I fell in and out of sleep, Dakota laying me down on the couch and draping a blanket over me.
I could hear all of them talking around me, but I couldn’t keep my eyes open…
well, until the scent of food filled the room.
A table was brought in and set for us, a feast laid out for our enjoyment.
I silently moved to a chair, mostly zoned out, and ate small bites of everything, unable to fully focus.
I hadn’t realized just how drained I was until that moment, but now it was hitting me hard.
“So, where to next?” Julian asked.
“We’ll most likely portal back into Milwaukee,” Ryder said.
“And then I think we need to go to the gate as soon as possible,”’ I said, taking a sip of water and focusing on each one of them.
“I know it seems like a lot, but the longer we delay, the worse it’s going to get.
I want this to be fixed—I need for this to be fixed.
And I’m already nervous about having been gone for so long. ”
“And that’s assuming there isn’t a time difference between realms,” Ryder agreed.
I bit down on my lip, really hoping that wasn’t the case. “Is that a possibility?”
“Let’s not go down that path until we need to—you’re stressing her out.” Dakota narrowed his eyes at Ryder on the last part, and my kitsune mate rubbed my back in apology.
I didn’t blame him for bringing it up—if that was a possibility, it was an important one to discuss—but Dakota was right too. No need to stress about something that wasn’t a reality yet. Especially when there were plenty of other things to be stressed about.
“The more time that passes, the more time that gives Hastain to come up with a better plan. He already suspects we are up to something, and I don’t want him to try to stop us before we even get to the gate,” I explained.
“We’ll go to the gate,” Julian assured me. “We won’t let him fuck this up.”
“And while my father’s reach is large, I highly doubt he has access to any extra information that would help Hastain,” Caedmon said, putting down his fork as he finished his plate.
It gave me a measure of comfort to see that all my mates had eaten dinner as well—I wasn’t the only one that had expended a lot of energy.
“Plus, the sooner we figure this out, the sooner we can go back to normal life.” Tore squeezed my hand gently.
“And onto our future,” I finished, offering him a small smile. I was determined to have that, to finally be in a state where my mates and I could relax rather than look over our shoulders.
After that, our conversation turned lighter, talking about the location of the gate and if Mona was going to give us further direction.
Once I was done eating, though, I excused myself to take a shower, not really wanting to think about my mom right now.
Plus, it seemed the warm water was exactly what I needed as I scrubbed and soaked my body, letting my mind wander free.
When I did, I realized the connection between my magic and me was much stronger than it’d been before we entered the shadowlands.
Right now she was in wolf form, but instead of having one tail, she had nine. That was sort of cool.
Her voice was clear in my head, surprising me a little. “Thank you for trusting me.”
I couldn’t help but smile at that.
“Always.”