Chapter 39
Chapter Thirty-Nine
~ Shade ~
The shadow queen’s magic releases us, and Thane roars, “Shade!”
Thane and Galen rush over to me, and Knox vanishes in a cloud of shadows.
Emorie’s voice is still faint in my head.
“Where are you?” I ask my phoenix as my mates fuss over me.
“Queen Krosia took us by surprise,” Emorie replies. “By the time we broke free of her binds and made our way here, it was already too late. We can’t get through the barrier.”
“Wait. You’re outside the academy grounds?” I tense. “Who’s with you?”
“Bonfang, Arizak, and Rinoc are also here. But we are unharmed,” she answers. “Raith did all he could to protect us before he was taken.”
Galen and Thane curse, and going by the looks they give me, I’m guessing they’re having similar conversations with their own animali.
“How is Raith?” Emorie asks.
I kneel at Raith’s side, pulling his head onto my lap, and he gains consciousness shortly after.
“I think he’ll be okay,” I tell her.
“Good,” she replies. “Then for now you are safe. We will watch the perimeter and advise if the Xalgrith appear.”
“No, you can’t do that. You’re not trapped like the rest of us. You all need to get as far away from here as possible.”
“We will not leave our bonded,” Emorie replies simply.
“But you can’t be out there when the Xalgrith come,” I tell her, but there’s no response.
Raith groans, blinking up at me. “Did we win?”
“Got our asses handed to us,” Thane replies.
Raith grimaces. “Figured. Sorry, I thought I was bein’ careful, but Krosia fuckin’ found me while I was out there.”
“She was already suspicious,” Galen says. “It was only a matter of time.”
I run my fingers through Raith’s hair. “I shouldn’t have asked you to stay out there.”
“You didn’t,” he rumbles. “I volunteered.”
“None of that matters,” Thane comments. “At least, we’re alive.”
Shadows gather close to us, and Knox appears from a pathway, his face a mask of stone.
Thane looks up. “The barrier?”
“Sealed tight,” Knox replies. “There’s no way out.”
My shoulders droop. “This is all my fault. If I hadn’t bonded with Elgen and Tarlaz in the first place, Queen Krosia wouldn’t know about them.”
Galen rests a hand on my shoulder. “Don’t do that, treasure. None of us knew what the queen was searching for, or the truth about the oracle. This isn’t your fault.”
I struggle to believe that. If I hadn’t meddled with the shadows, Elgen and Tarlaz, Queen Krosia still wouldn’t know where they were.
The oracle sacrificed themself to stop Queen Krosia from taking their power, and now she has them.
I hope Elgen and Tarlaz are all right… Dread coils in my gut as I think about what I’ve unleashed on the realms. I try to tell myself that maybe the oracle had it wrong.
That maybe Queen Krosia will use her new power for good, but I don’t really believe that.
“We need to prepare the students,” I say to my mates. “We have no idea how long it will be until the Xalgrith attack.”
“What we need is to find a way to make you stronger, sunshine,” Raith counters.
“He’s right,” Galen agrees. “We need to strengthen your abilities if you’re going to survive what comes next. You heard Krosia. We’re on our own.”
“Maybe when the Xalgrith come we can just explain that Queen Krosia has the power? Then they might leave us alone,” I say optimistically.
“We’ll only be able to communicate with the Xalgrith after the barrier comes down,” Galen points out.
“But I can talk to my animali?” I question.
Galen nods. “That’s different. We’re able to speak to our animali because of our bonds.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Thane growls. “Even if we could talk to the Xalgrith through the barrier, it’s unlikely that they would take our word for it and leave us alone.”
I sigh heavily. Of course, they wouldn’t. King Malgur wants the oracle’s power just as desperately as Queen Krosia did, and he detected the magic on me. The Xalgrith wouldn’t leave until they were sure I didn’t have it.
I swallow thickly. “They’re only after me. Maybe if you give me to the Xalgrith, the king will spare the rest of you,” I suggest, though even saying it makes me feel ill.
“Over my dead body, tiny mate,” Raith rumbles, his voice more monster than man. He shakes his head, regaining control.
“What he said,” Galen agrees, giving me a stubborn look.
“Besides, the Xalgrith would still kill us all,” Thane says. “This is the academy that trains Queen Krosia’s shadow warriors. If they find us vulnerable, there’s no way they’ll leave it standing.”
“Okay, so what do we do then?” I ask.
“The only thing we can do,” Thane rumbles. “We fight.”
My stomach drops as I think of the vast Xalgrith army. How long would we last after the barrier fell? Hours?
Knox turns from the blackened wall where the bookshelf used to be, and he faces us. “What we really need is to make you immortal, but there are two beings who can do that—the oracle and Krosia—and neither of them are here. So if we can’t make you immortal, then we do the next best thing. We bond.”
Everyone freezes, and I swear my heart stops beating. “What?” I squeeze out. I expect the others to disagree with Knox, but no one does. “But you know we can’t bond,” I say incredulously. “Have you forgotten the prophecy?”
“You heard what the queen said,” Knox replies calmly.
“She doesn’t need us to close the fold any longer.
Not when she intends to simply wipe out all the Xalgrith.
If we bond, your powers will grow as will ours.
I don’t see any other option. Because if you die, nothing else will matter to us anyway. At least not to me…”
My hands tremble, and I clasp them together. “But the prophecy wasn’t just about the fold. It says I’ll break you.”
“Your death would break us,” Galen states simply. “For all we know, that could be what the prophecy means. In any case, I don’t think any of us give a damn.”
They say it so casually like bonding is the only thing that makes sense, and honestly, I find myself not saying no. I don’t want to hurt my mates, but we’re running out of options, and bonding would make them stronger as well.
My heart races. Partially, because an aching pain has started in my chest, like just the thought of bonding has activated it. But also…because the idea of bonding with my mates is a little terrifying.
I think of the oracle’s last words to me: The prophecy is not… Is not what? True? Is that what the oracle meant to say? If so, maybe bonding won’t be the worst thing. Maybe I won’t break my mates after all? I want to hope that, but worry still twists inside me.
“What if it’s a mistake?” I say softly, my heart hammering. “What if I destroy you?”
Galen brushes his fingers lightly across my cheek. “Nothing about you could ever be a mistake, treasure. Besides, if we are to die soon, I will die bonded to my fated mate.”
“As will I,” Knox replies, before adding, “We can use Shade’s room.”
A short while later, we’re back in the guy’s private rooms. I bounce on my feet as we stand in front of a black door with a hot pink handle.
“I’m sorry, did you say we should use my room?
” I squeal, asking for the third time, because getting excited about this is way better than thinking about our impending doom.
“It was my brother’s idea,” Raith comments with a lopsided grin. “Figured you might like your own space when you’re not with Kenzie in the dorms.”
I give them all a giddy smile, because I have been feeling like a house guest. I just hadn’t thought they’d noticed.
Also, Raith referred to Knox as his ‘brother’ again.
He’s being doing that a lot more since we returned from the Xalgrith realm, and it reminds me of how Raith and Knox used to be when I’d first met them in my dreams. Whatever hostility was between them is starting to soften, and it makes my heart warm.
Knox bands his arm around my waist, and he pulls me to him. “I wanted you to feel at home, my love, and seeing as your room now has the biggest bed…” He trails off.
Oh right, because there are five of us and we need a big bed for bonding.
That has my stomach twisting in knots, and the increasing pain in my abdomen isn’t helping either.
I don’t even know why I’m so nervous. I mean, I’ve been with all the guys, it’s just…
this will be the first time all five of us are together, and the idea has me fidgeting with my hands.
What the hell do you do with so many peens at the same time?
I rack my brain trying to recall any of the group scenes from my favorite smutty books, but I’m drawing a blank.
If Blake were here, I could ask her for advice, but I tried to contact her again when we were still at the library, and the academy barrier is blocking us.
I’m still worried about Blake and her mates in the beast realm, but at least I know why my portal ring isn’t working.
Stop stressing about Blake. She can handle anything the beasts throw at them.
You have other things to worry about right now.
Yep, like how to navigate four cocks when I only have three holes.
I snicker then, because this is not the kind of problem I ever thought I’d have.
“Ready?” Knox asks, gesturing toward the door.
I nod, and my mates all watch me intently as I reach for the doorknob.
I’m not sure what to expect, but when I swing the door open, I find myself squealing again. My mates haven’t just made me a bedroom. They’ve created me a dream bedroom.
Huge floor-length bookshelves line the walls, and there’s a fireplace with crackling black flames and a plush reading chair in one corner.
A round table decorated with a large vase of beautifully arranged red and black roses, sits near the sprawling window that overlooks academy grounds.
And there’s even an angled stained wooden desk, ready with paper and charcoal pencils.
I spot my journal there, and before I can ask about it, Galen says, “Don’t worry, we didn’t peek.
You won’t have to hide here, little shadow. ”