Chapter 45 Vallynn #2
Bechora was right behind him, flames sparking to life in her palms. Dante clapped me on the shoulder before we followed close behind them, both of us scanning the area for hidden threats.
None came. We reached the banner without incident, and Bechora snuffed out the flames in her palms, snatching it free from the pole before stuffing it down her top.
“What?” she asked, as the three of us gawked at her.
“Why—” Lark started.
“It made sense to keep it hidden on the way back, and none of you have boobs.” She cut him off, rolling her eyes. “At least if my upper body looks lumpy, we might get lucky, and they assume it’s just my tits.”
“Fuck’s sake,” I choked out.
Bechora shook her head and started back in the direction we’d come from; none of us moved as we watched her go. She paused after a few steps and looked over her shoulder. “Well, come on1”
We scrambled after her, picking our way back toward our base.
Dante chuckled and took to the sky again, keeping pace above us while scanning ahead for threats.
Lark stayed slightly ahead, the tension in his shoulders betraying his readiness to shift at a moment's notice. Our base came into view sooner than I expected, the narrow passage cutting through the rock like a funnel. Once we’d slipped through the entrance and into the alcove, I let out a breath of relief.
Bechora pulled the banner from her top and bounced on her feet. “We did it!” she squealed.
“Now, we just gotta wait,” Lark grinned. I clenched my teeth against the urge to punch him in the mouth. Now wasn’t the time, and he wasn’t actually doing anything wrong. Still didn’t mean I had to like him smiling at my mate.
“Positions,” I said instead, turning to face the narrow passage before irritation could get the better of me.
Lark’s expression grew serious as he pulled Bechora closer to the rock wall behind them.
He carefully moved to position himself in front of her, as Dante launched up to the ledge above them, settling into a crouch where he could strike from above.
I let my shadows spill forward, filling the passage in a slow, creeping tide.
We waited. And waited. Minutes dragged by, each one stretching longer than the last. The flag in Bechora’s hands continued to glow, a quiet reminder that the timer was running.
Five minutes passed, then ten. No constructs, no students wandering into my waiting shadows.
Just the distant echoes of battles that never seemed to get any closer.
“This feels… too easy,” Dante muttered from above.
Lark shifted his weight slightly. “I ain’t complaining. Not after yesterday.”
I looked over my shoulder to reply when I felt it. The air shifted, the creeping sensation of magic crawling across my skin. A tear split through the center of the alcove behind me. Not at the entrance.
“Shit!” Lark hissed. “Just had to fucking jinx us.”
Dante dropped from his ledge to land next to the shifter, standing close enough that the pair made a wall of muscle between the opening portal and Bechora.
I pivoted, yanking my shadows back to me as I raced around it to stand beside them.
I skidded to a stop, kicking up dust, just as Daena stepped through.
The portal snapped shut behind her with a crack that echoed through the alcove. For a split second, no one moved.
“Miss me, lover?” she smiled, her voice saccharine sweet as she waved her fingers at me.
Lark took a threatening step toward her. “You’re outmatched if you think you’re gonna take the banner from us,” he snarled.
Daena rolled her eyes and waved her hand, “I don’t give a fuck about some stupid banner,” she drawled.
A surge of power raced from her outstretched hand, stronger than what I knew she was capable of on her own, slamming into the shifter and throwing him into the rocky outcrop behind us.
Dust flew around him as his head hit the rocks hard enough to dent before his body collapsed to the ground.
I heard Bechora gasp behind me, but I didn’t dare move.
The shifter’s chest was still moving, so he was alive at least.
Daena returned her attention to me. “Remember when I said I was meant to be the queen? That I’d make sure you regretted ending our betrothal?"
“Whatever you think is going to happen here, Daena, I’m still not marrying you,” I bit out.
Her lips twisted into a malicious smile. “Oh, I’m not marrying you,” she said sweetly. “I’m here to end you, so that I can provide your father with a new heir to the throne.”
Shadows erupted in her palm. My shadows. Laced with a brilliant, white light that looked alarmingly like the description of radiance magic, which had died out with the Aurelion fae. My blood turned to ice in my veins.
“Shadows can’t harm me, Daena,” I said, managing to keep my voice steady.
“Maybe not on their own,” she grinned, the white light sparking brighter among the shadows. “But the King gifted me with something we’d be sure could kill you.”
The radiance-laced shadows exploded forward.
Time seemed to slow to a stop as they raced toward me.
Beside me, Dante shifted, his stone form slowly creeping over his skin.
And then I felt a hard shove at my back that sent me sprawling forward.
My hands flew out to break my fall just as time seemed to speed back up.
I turned my head following the path of the magic Daena had thrown at me, eyes widening in shock and horror as it hit Bechora square in the chest.
“No—” The word tore from my throat, but it was too late.
Light and shadow collided against her chest in a violent burst, the impact lifting her off her feet before she hit the ground hard enough to echo through the alcove.
Something inside me snapped. The world narrowed to a single point.
Bechora’s body crumpled on the ground, unmoving.
My shadows reacted before I did, exploding out of me to blanket the alcove in total darkness.
They writhed, wild and violent, tearing through the space in a frenzy.
I barely registered Dante shouting something as he threw his body over Lark’s unconscious form to protect the shifter from my magic, as if he knew Bechora no longer needed protection from my shadows.
A scream cut through the chaos. High, sharp.
Daena. My shadows found her, and I couldn’t help the twisted satisfaction that settled in my chest with the knowledge that she wouldn’t walk away from murdering my mate.
I didn’t need to see it happen; the sound of her screams cutting off was enough.
The shadows stilled. The world rushed back to me all at once.
My gaze snapped back to Bechora, and my magic barreled back toward me, burrowing beneath my skin.
“No,” I breathed.
I crawled across the rocky ground toward her, pulling myself up to settle on my heels when I reached her crumpled body.
Sobs echoed through the alcove as I grabbed her and dragged her lifeless body across my thighs, and I vaguely recognized they were mine.
One of her hands fell above her head, lying next to her red locks spread across the ground.
I grabbed the other and pulled it toward my chest, my head tripping back as a raw, pained scream tore from my throat.
I barely saw Dante in my peripheral, moving to drop to his knees in front of me, his head hung low, palms resting toward the sky on his thighs as his shoulders shook with a mixture of rage and grief.
Another primal, agonized scream ripped from me as my shadows latched onto a piece of my soul and tore it from my chest. Without thought, it plunged into hers , desperately hunting for any spark of life left in her.
I knew, instinctively, that I’d initiated a soul bond in a last-ditch effort to save my mate.
My body shook violently as my shadows latched onto a fading spark deep within her, and I almost breathed out a sigh of relief before I felt it snuff out.
My magic recoiled, leaving the piece of my soul I’d torn away behind as it slammed back into my body.
My head tipped forward as tears streamed down my face.
No sound came out; I’d screamed my voice raw already.
My gaze lifted and landed on Dante, his stone wings planted in the earth, the only thing keeping him upright as he curled in on himself toward our mate.
Magic crackled beside us, another portal ripping open in the alcove.
I didn’t bother preparing myself for a fight.
I’d already lost the only thing worth fighting for.
“Give her to me,” Thrackborne’s rough voice rumbled, causing my head to turn toward the open portal.
Dean Femirea stood just next to it, her face twisted into an unreadable expression. “Hurry,” she urged us. “Give her to her mate. You must go. Now!”
“You!” Dante snarled, surging to his feet and lunging for the Dean.
Femirea simply side-stepped him and shook her head.
“I know you’ve come across the list in my office and suspect I’m working with the king,” she sighed.
“If this were any other situation, I would take the time to explain what you’ve found, but right now we do not have time for this.
” Her gaze shifted to me. “Your father wants you dead. I’m sure by now, Daena has told him the deed is done. ”
I opened my mouth to tell her that wasn’t possible, but she waved her hand to silence me.
“We don’t have time to get into the details, Vallynn. Right now, I need you to take a leap of faith and hand Bechora over to her dragon mate, and then for you and Dante to go through the portal.”
“Do what she’s asking,” Thrackborne spoke, bending to take Bechora from my arms.
I shot him a questioning look, and he nodded before jerking his head toward the portal.
Numbness crept in as I rose to my feet and moved to stand beside Dante.
I hesitated in front of the portal long enough to cast one last glance at the woman I’d lost, before I ever had a chance to prove myself to her, and then stepped through the portal.