Chapter 20
The void wasn't dark. Dark implied the absence of light. This was the absence of everything.
It was cold, but not in a way that made you shiver. It was a cold that stopped your atoms from vibrating. A cold that convinced you that you had never been warm, never been held, never been loved.
I was falling. Or floating. It was impossible to tell.
Rhett? I screamed into the silence. Kai? Lucien?
The bond—my golden, sturdy, beautiful lifeline—was dead. Not broken. Silent. Like a radio tuned to a station that had gone off the air.
Panic, hot and frantic, tried to claw its way up my throat. Marrow had won. He had eaten me. I was being digested in the stomach of the universe.
No.
The thought was small, but it was sharp.
I am not food.
I closed my eyes and reached for the magic. Not the magic in the air—there was none here. I reached for the magic inside. The spark that the Brotherhood had tried to crush. The spark that the Triad had fanned into a flame.
It was tiny. A single ember in a blizzard.
But it was mine.
I am Lina. I focused on the ember. I am the Anchor. I am the Storm.
I pushed.
I didn't push outwardly. I inverted the pull. Marrow wanted to eat magic? Fine. I would give him magic.
I thought of Rhett’s fury—the burning, red-hot rage of a wolf protecting his mate.
I thought of Kai’s growth—the relentless, cracking force of roots shattering stone.
I thought of Lucien’s shadows—the deep, oceanic pressure of the dark.
I pulled those memories into the ember. I fed the fire with the only thing I had left: my bond. Even if it was silent, the memory of it was powerful enough to burn.
The void shuddered.
A crack appeared in the nothingness. A jagged line of white light.
There.
I grabbed the crack with my mind. I didn't treat it like a wall. I treated it like a wound. And I tore it open.
The transition from "Nothing" to "Everything" was violent.
One second I was floating in silence. The next, I was exploding upward on a geyser of raw power.
I hit the floor—or rather, I burst through the floor—with enough force to shatter bone. But I didn't break. I felt weightless. Charged.
I opened my eyes.
The ballroom. Or... what was left of it.
For a second, my brain couldn't process the image. It looked like a bomb had gone off. The floor was a cratered ruin. The windows were blown out, letting in swirls of gray snow. The chandeliers were shattered piles of glass on the ground.
And the noise. The silence of the void was replaced by a cacophony of screams, growls, and explosions.
"Lina!"
The voice was a roar. I looked up.
A massive black wolf—easily the size of a pony—was tearing through a line of men in suits.
Rhett.
He was magnificent. And terrifying. His eyes were burning red, his fur bristling with shadow. He wasn't fighting like a man; he was fighting like a natural disaster.
To his left, the floor was alive. Massive, gnarled roots had erupted from the marble, thrashing like tentacles. Kai was standing in the center of the storm, his hands pressed to the ground, his face a mask of golden fury.
And Lucien...
Lucien was everywhere. He was a blur of darkness, moving between shadows so fast the eye couldn't track him. He was dismantling the Enforcers with surgical precision.
They were fighting for me. They were tearing the world apart to find me.
The bond snapped back into place with a deafening CRACK.
It didn't hum. It roared. The sudden influx of their emotions—Rhett’s panic, Kai’s desperation, Lucien’s terror—hit me like a tidal wave.
I staggered, gasping.
"I'm here!" I screamed, though I doubted they could hear me over the chaos. "I'm here!"
Across the room, standing near the ruins of the stage, was Dean Marrow.
He looked... wrong. His suit was torn. His face was pale. And he was clutching his chest, staring at me with eyes that were wide with shock.
He hadn't expected me to come back.
He had eaten something that didn't agree with him.
"You," he wheezed.
I stepped out of the crater. My feet didn't touch the ground. I was hovering, buoyed by the sheer output of magic radiating from my skin.
"You forgot one thing, Dean," I said. My voice sounded strange—amplified, distorted by power.
The Triad froze. Rhett stopped mid-lunge. Kai looked up. Lucien solidified out of the shadows.
They saw me.
The relief that crashed through the bond was so intense it almost brought me to my knees. But I held on. I had one more thing to do.
"What?" Marrow hissed, backing away.
I raised my hand. I felt the Triad’s magic rushing toward me, answering the call of the Anchor. Rhett’s fire. Kai’s earth. Lucien’s shadow.
It pooled in my palm, a swirling vortex of tri-colored light.
"Hunger works both ways," I told him.
I released it.
It wasn't a spell. It was a backlash. It was every ounce of fear and pain he had caused us, returned with interest.
The blast hit him square in the chest.
Marrow didn't scream. He just... flew. The impact launched him backward with the force of a cannonball. He smashed through the stage backdrop, through the brick wall behind it, and vanished into the snowy night.
Silence.
Sudden, ringing silence.
The magic faded. Gravity remembered me.
"Got him," I whispered.
Then my knees buckled, and the world went dark.
I woke up to the smell of blood and ozone. I was moving. bouncing.
"I have her. I have her."
The voice was rough, broken. Rhett.
I forced my eyes open. I was in his arms. He was human again—naked, shivering, covered in dust and blood—but he was holding me so tight I could barely breathe.
"Rhett," I croaked.
He stopped. He looked down at me, and the raw vulnerability in his eyes broke my heart. "Lina. You came back."
"I always come back."
"We need to move," a voice said. Arthur.
I looked around. We were in the tunnel connecting the Ballroom to the Library. The group was moving fast.
"The Archives," Amelia said, her voice shaking slightly. "Sub-basement. It's lead-lined. It's safe."
We ran.
We burst into the Archives, skidding on the marble floors. Arthur led us to a heavy iron door behind his desk. He punched in a code, and the door swung open to reveal a narrow staircase.
"Down," he ordered. "Go."
We scrambled down the stairs, the heavy door clanging shut behind us.
The sub-basement was dusty, cramped, and filled with crates, but it was quiet.
Rhett didn't stop until we reached the furthest corner. He collapsed onto a pile of old drop cloths, pulling me down with him.
"Safe," he breathed, his chest heaving against mine.
"We're safe," Kai said, dropping to his knees beside us. He reached out, touching my face, my hair, my arms, as if checking that I was whole. "You're real. You're here."
"I'm here," I promised.
"You were gone," Lucien whispered. He was standing over us, his face pale, his violet eyes blown wide. "The bond... it was empty. It was just... gone."
"I know," I said, reaching for his hand. "I felt it too. It was cold."
Lucien shuddered. He dropped to his knees, burying his face in my neck. "Don't ever do that again. Do you hear me? Never."
"I won't," I swore, my hands tangling in his dark hair.
The adrenaline began to fade, replaced by a desperate, clawing need.
I needed to feel them. Not just through the bond, but physically.
I needed to know they were alive. My skin was still chilled from the Void's embrace, a deep, unnatural cold that seeped into my bones, making me shiver uncontrollably despite the press of their bodies.
Rhett felt it first. His nostrils flared as he scented the lingering emptiness on me, his wolf instincts kicking in with primal fury.
"You're freezing," he growled, his voice thick with possession.
He yanked at the tattered remnants of my dress, ripping it away with a savage tear that exposed my chilled skin to the air.
"Mine. Need to mark you. Warm you up. Make you smell like us. "
"Yes," I gasped, arching into him as his hot mouth descended on my neck.
He sucked hard, teeth grazing the skin before biting down—not breaking it, but leaving a deep, throbbing hickey that bloomed purple under his lips.
His tongue lapped at the mark, scenting me with his musk, rubbing his stubbled jaw along my collarbone, my breasts, claiming every inch. "Rhett, please—fuck, yes."
Kai stripped off his shredded shirt, his earth-warm body pressing against my side, hands roaming frantically over my ribs, my hips, thumbs digging into my flesh as if to imprint himself.
"So cold," he murmured, voice rough with desperation, his mouth latching onto my shoulder.
He sucked a trail of bruises down to my breast, tongue swirling around my nipple before biting down just hard enough to make me cry out.
His scent—rich soil and fresh rain—flooded my senses as he nuzzled into my skin, grinding his hardening cock against my thigh.
"Gonna thaw you out, Lina. Fill you with my heat. You're ours."
Lucien shed his jacket in a blur, his cool fingers—warmer now from the bond's rekindling—trailing fire along my inner thighs as he knelt between my legs.
"We lost you," he rasped, violet eyes locked on mine, dark with feral need.
He spread me open, inhaling deeply before dragging his tongue through my folds in one long, possessive lick.
"Never again. Gonna scent you inside out.
" His mouth sealed over my clit, sucking hard while two fingers plunged deep, curling to hit that spot that made stars explode behind my eyes.
He bit my thigh, leaving his mark—a sharp, claiming bruise—before rubbing his cheek against it, his shadows flickering to tease my entrance.
The bond began to re-knit with every touch, frayed golden-silver-green threads weaving tighter, pulsing with their arousal, their fear turning to raw hunger focused solely on me.
Rhett's storm crashed into me first, his massive hands pinning my wrists above my head as he freed his cock, thick and leaking, slamming home in one brutal thrust. "Fuck, so tight—cold and wet for us," he groaned, pounding deep, each snap of his hips grinding his pelvis against my clit.
His mouth claimed my lips, tongue fucking my mouth in time with his cock, teeth nipping my lower lip bloody before licking it clean.
"Take it. Warm up on my cock. Milk me dry. "
Kai shifted, shoving Rhett's shoulder playfully but urgently.
"My turn to fill her." Rhett pulled out with a wet pop, and Kai surged forward, his thicker length stretching me wider, bottoming out with a guttural moan.
"Gonna root so deep—feel that? My heat flooding you.
" He rutted slow and grinding at first, letting me feel every vein, then faster, his mouth on my tits, sucking bruises into the soft flesh while his fingers pinched and twisted my nipples.
The bond thrummed, green vines wrapping around the core threads, stabilizing as his release built.
Lucien rose behind me, lifting my hips as Rhett guided me onto all fours.
"All of us," he demanded, slicking his cock with my arousal before pressing the head against my ass.
"Open for me, love—let me claim this too.
" I nodded frantically, pushing back as he breached me inch by inch, the burn exquisite with Rhett's fingers now plunging into my pussy alongside Kai's earlier heat.
"So full—fuck, you're clenching like you never want us to leave.
" He thrust in tandem with Rhett's fingers, his free hand fisting my hair to arch my back, mouth on my neck sucking another hickey while shadows teased my clit.
They focused only on me—Rhett's cock replacing his fingers in my pussy now, double-penetrating with Lucien's relentless drive; Kai's mouth devouring my breasts, hands everywhere, scenting, marking, warming my chilled skin until I was burning alive.
"Come on our cocks," Rhett snarled, slamming deeper.
"Squeeze us—show us you're thawed, you're ours.
" The bond sealed fully, a supernova of color exploding as I shattered, walls pulsing around them, dragging their orgasms—hot jets of cum flooding me, marking me inside as thoroughly as their bites outside.
We collapsed in a sweaty, marked heap, their bodies pressed skin-to-skin, thawing every last trace of the Void's cold. Rhett nuzzled my neck, lapping his hickeys. Kai rubbed his scent along my thighs. Lucien kissed the bruises on my ass. The bond hummed whole, unbreakable.
"You're warm now," Rhett murmured, satisfied.
"Always," I sighed, safe in their arms.
We lay there for a long time afterward, a tangle of limbs and erratic heartbeats.
"We're going to war," Lucien whispered into the silence.
"I know," I said, pressing a kiss to Rhett’s shoulder.
"We might lose," Kai said softly.
"No," Rhett growled, tightening his hold on me. "We won't lose."
He looked at me, his eyes burning with renewed fire.
"We just realized we're unkillable."