Chapter 17 #2
Fear for my Mate pushes me forward, but before I can heave myself to my knees the marble flooring shudders. The ground rolls, pitching me to the side. I fall, landing on my shoulder. I try to right myself but the resounding CRACK of stone breaking apart jerks my attention to the side.
A chasm appears mere inches from Idril’s feet, shooting across the floor like black lightning. Cracks appear in the very foundation and dart up the walls, as if the house itself is buckling beneath the weight of her rage.
The sound still emanating from my Omega is not of this world.
It’s a summoning of righteous fury. A shriek into the Void, and the Void answering back.
It reverberates through my bones, making my teeth ache. The guard closest to Idril raises his fingers to his ears. When he pulls them away they’re covered in blood.
The guards nearest her stumble back. One raises his hands as if to shield himself from her anger. Another screams in fear. The one closest to her falls to his knees as blood pours from his nose and leaks from his ears.
So much destruction.
In mere moments, the entire foyer transforms into a war zone.
And through it all—that scream.
That Fatesdamned scream.
Terrible. Beautiful. Powerful. It pierces through the air like a call to arms. A declaration of war.
Then, as if someone’s flipped a switch, the sound cuts off.
There’s silence. Silence, and the soundless echo of her scream swirling thickly through the air. Not a soul in the room dares to move, including her father.
Idril sways on her feet. She blinks once, slowly, like she doesn’t quite understand where she is.
Her eyes sweep around the room, but I don’t know that she’s actually seeing anything until they land on me. The moment our eyes meet, her vision sharpens.
She wrenches out of her father’s grip with strength that shouldn’t exist in someone so delicate. So obviously starved.
She lunges forward, face set in a mask of determination, and runs.
Her bare feet slip and slide through blood as she sprints straight toward me. She goes down hard, the sound of her knees cracking on marble pierces my heart.
I reach for her instinctively, but she catches herself with both hands, and keeps moving.
She crawls, slips, and scrambles back to her feet. Her beautiful white hair is matted with red blood, tears stream steadily down her face, but she doesn’t stop.
Doesn’t slow.
Her terror pulses through the Bond, accompanied by a single-minded determination that brings tears to my eyes.
I swear I can hear her, the faintest whisper of her soft voice in my mind.
Get to Caelan. Just get to him. You can’t let him die. For once in your life, do something!
Please… please…
Fates, she’s so close now. I only have a second to register that she’s not slowing down before she crashes into me with enough force to drive the air from my lungs.
“Get down!” Her scream is raw, desperate, and full of terror.
Instinctively, my arms wrap tightly around her even as she tries to throw her body over mine, like she can shield me.
As though her tiny, starved frame could stop a bullet meant for my skull.
A gunshot cracks out—and misses.
I feel the flutter of air against my cheek as the bullet whistles past my face.
Directly where my head had been, less than a second before.
We hit the ground in a tangle of limbs. Despite the real fear of crushing her, I wrap my arms as tight as I can, relishing in her slight weight against my chest. I refuse to let her go. Refuse to loosen my grip now that I have her.
Fates… she just saved my life.
The realization is terrifying.
This Omega—this tiny, terrified Omega—just threw herself between me and a silver bullet meant for my head.
I can’t make sense of it. Can’t wrap my mind around the reality of it.
Idril is sobbing. Great, heaving sobs that refuse to quit.
Using my chest as leverage, she pushes herself up on trembling arms. Her delicate hands flutter back and forth, hovering over my face, my chest, my shoulders.
Like she’s terrified to touch me, but also needs to be sure I haven’t been shot again.
Her eyes snag on my wound and widen in panic. The color in her already pale face drains further.
“No,” she whispers. “No, no, no, oh gods—”
Her words end on a whine of fear and pain. My Alpha surges toward her, snarling in rage. She’s not paying attention, though. She scrambles down my body and presses shaking hands to my thigh. Blood wells, spilling from my wound in thick, hot pulses.
I try, but fail to choke back a grunt of pain. My blood seeps between the gaps of her fingers and another whine falls from her lips. It’s half whimper, half disbelieving keen of distress, and my heart tears open at the sound. I can barely fucking think over my Alpha’s bellows of rage.
I reach for her, desperate to reassure her. My voice is raspy and weak, and I don’t know if she’s even listening. “It’s alright, love. Idril, it’s alright—”
She can’t hear me.
She reaches for her cardigan, but struggles to grip the fabric with hands that won’t stop shaking. Over and over, her fingers slip until with a frustrated jerk and a snarl, she rips it from her shoulders.
She yanks the sleeve taut, wraps it around my thigh and pulls. Tight.
I hiss through teeth clenched in pain, hating myself when the sound makes her cry harder.
“I’m sorry,” she sobs through choked gasps. “Caelan, I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
I snatch her wrist, making her look at me. A beat passes. Two.
Finally, she yanks her eyes from my wound and focuses on me.
“You’re doing great,” I reassure her. “You’re perfect, love. You’re doing so well. I’m so proud of you.”
She lunges, crawling up my body, soft whimpers falling from trembling lips.
Slowly, gently, I raise my hands to cradle her face, forcing those bright blue eyes to meet mine. My thumbs caress the delicate skin of her cheekbones, her tears slipping over my calloused fingers like a benediction.
Like something holy.
“Idril. Idril.” I whisper the world with reverence. Her name is a vow. A prayer.
“It’s okay, sweet girl. It’s going to be okay.”
I have no idea if that’s true, but I keep whispering it into the space between our breaths anyway, desperate to anchor her to the sound of my voice.
“Breathe. I’ve got you. I’m here, okay? Everything is fine.”
It’s a lie that tastes like ash on my tongue.
“You’re bleeding. You’re hurt.”
“I know.”
I press my forehead to hers and let my eyes flutter shut. I just want to feel her against me. Just for a moment.
I want to memorize this feeling. The way it feels to hold her. The weight of her in my arms. The way her breaths puff, warm and soft against my lips.
“Please don’t leave me,” she begs. “Please don’t die.”
My fingers flex against her delicate face.
“Never. I will never leave you.” I pull back enough that she can see the truth of my vow in my eyes.
“I’m not going anywhere. I’m going to be fine, and you’re going to be fine.
My brothers are going to get here, and when they do, they’ll get both of us out of this house.
Out of this nightmare. I swear to you, Idril. ”
She nods in understanding, but her tears refuse to stop. “Caelan.”
My name on her lips sounds like a secret. A prayer whispered just for me.
I feel it flow through my veins, suffusing my very blood with a sense of power I’ve never felt before. It explodes into my soul, pushing and shoving with determination until it cracks something open that I never knew existed.
Something in my chest pulls tight, then snaps….
And unlocks.
The pool of silver light churns faster and faster until it’s a spiraling cyclone of molten starlight.
It builds and builds until it can’t possibly be contained any longer.
Then it flares once and ignites. The pool pulls taut, forming into a silver thread that launches from my soul, eager and starving, and latches to Idril, wrapping around her soul.
Claiming her. Binding her to me with undeniable certainty.
Idril gasps, her body arching against mine. I catch her—I will always catch her—as the world, the universe, fucking time itself twists and bends until it morphs into something new.
There’s silver everywhere.
Behind my eyelids, in my blood, woven through every strand of my DNA, every cell of my body, and fiber of my existence.
I can see it. I can see her.
A thread more alive than any Bond has a right to be, it pulses between us—bright and eternal and so achingly, perfectly right that I want to weep at the perfection of it.
Centuries I’ve lived, and I never once believed that something like this could exist.
The thread of our Bond beat in perfect synch with our hearts.
Hers. Mine.
Ours.
If I thought what we shared before was the full force of the Bond, I know now how wrong I was.
This is life-altering. World-shattering.
Idril floods through me—her joy, shock, relief, fear—all held together by a fierce, determined love that’s unmeasurable.
I don’t fight it. I wouldn’t even if I could. I let myself drown in her, happy to die in the waters of her soul if it means I get to feel her essence tangled with mine for even one moment more.
My Mate.
Mine, the Alpha inside of me roars, rising with a claim so primal and feral it shakes the foundations of what I thought I knew about designations.
MINE. OURS. FOREVER.
Idril’s answer flows across our Bond. There are no words, but that doesn’t matter. We don’t need them. I can understand her as clearly as if she were shouting the answer out loud.
Yes. Yours. Always yours. I’ll set it all ablaze before I let them part us.
My world has just been permanently altered, and despite the magnitude of the shift, only a few seconds have passed in real-time.
And I don’t even get a moment to process any of it.
“Well, isn’t this fucking beautiful?” Varenthrall’s voice shatters the most important moment of my life.
His words pull us both back to the blood-soaked nightmare we’re trapped in, and reality crashes in on me with terrible, brutal clarity.