Chapter 47
Lumi POV cont-
They collide with a thunderous sound.
The bed frame cracks beneath me, wood shrieking as I scramble backward, dragging the sheet with me, trying to cover my nakedness.
I feel like a ghost caught in a blizzard.
Two Andriks. Two.
They’re tearing into each other with claws and fangs, a blur of white fur and blood splatter. I can’t tell them apart. It’s like watching a man fight his shadow in a mirror—except neither of them are men.
They have the same massive reach, the same massive antlers, the same eyes burning with freezing, blue light.
My chest heaves—what do I do?
Heat claws through my blood, a cruel hormonal fire that won't die even as terror floods my veins.
How is this possible? Why didn’t he tell me? Was it him all along?
One of them slams the other into the last remaining wall. The impact cracks the wood like an eggshell. The cottage groans, leaning into the wind.
“Lumi! Run—”
The voice comes from the one pinned against the wall. It’s rough, choked with blood and desperation.
But the other one, the one who shielded me, snarls and drives his claws into the first one’s shoulder.
“She’s not going anywhere,” he roars.
That voice... it’s a perfect copy.
I press myself against the headboard, clutching the sheet until my knuckles ache.
Think. Think.
The bond—I try reaching for it, that invisible thread that tethers his soul to mine—but it‘s a mess of static. It feels muted, pulled in two directions.
The one against the wall snarls and shoves forward with inhuman strength. They crash to the floor, rolling, clawing, snapping at each other’s throats.
Blood sprays across the floorboards in a hot, dark spurt. I don’t know whose it is.
“Stop,” My voice breaks, a pathetic sound in the face of carnage. “Please. I don’t understand!”
Neither of them listens. They’re locked in a death-grip. One gets his claws around the other’s throat; the other drives his knee into the twin’s ribs with a sickening crunch.
You couldn’t save the sister you raised. How are you going to save the beast you’ve known for days?
But something glitches.
The one who was just about to claim me—the one who was winning the fight—his form flickers.
It’s like a candle flame, guttering in a draft. For a stolen second, his white fur ripples, replaced with dark hair. A sharper, human jawline. Eyes that aren’t the frozen blue I fell for, but a dark, haunted brown.
Then the white fur snaps back into place, and he’s Andrik again.
But the image is burned into my mind.
“What—” I gasp, the sheet slipping from my fingers. ”What are you?”
The real Andrik, because I suddenly know without a doubt which one it is, throws the imposter off him and staggers to his feet. He’s a mess of gore.
“Shape shifter,” he growls, blood dripping from his claws, steaming in the cold air. “He’s wearing my thrahking face, Lumi.”
The fake Andrik pushes himself upright, breathing in jagged hitches. His form flickers again, and this time, the magic struggles to hold.
The white fur recedes like a tide. The antlers shrink, melting back into a human skull. The dark hair returns, and I can’t tell if he’s human... there’s so much of Andrik still clinging to him.
“Lumi—” His voice cracks. It’s still Andrik’s voice, but it feels wrong now. “Please, I just wanted to—”
“Get away from her!”
Rh?en’ka lunges. They collide again, but the rhythm has shifted. The imposter is weakening. His movements are heavy and sluggish.
Andrik slams him into the floorboards with a force that knocks me off the bed.
“You touched her.” His voice is barely recognizable. “You dared to wear my face and lay hands on my mate?”
His claws sink in, and the imposter chokes, clawing at Andrik’s hands.
“Andrik, stop!” I don’t know why the word leaves my throat. I should want him dead. But the way he looked at me... not with the terror of a monster, but of a man who truly thinks he’s lost his soul.
Andrik hesitates for the length of a breath.
It’s all the other beast needs.
He twists, driving a sharp elbow into Andrik’s wounded ribs. He wrenches free with the strength of a cornered animal and scrambles backward. Blood pours from the shredded remains of his chest as he stumbles from the cottage
“This isn’t—” He coughs, spitting scarlet into the snow. “This isn’t over. She’s mine.”
Andrik pounces, but the shadow is faster, disappearing into the black of the night.
Silence stretches between us. Andrik stands in the wreckage, his chest heaving, blood dripping steadily from his claws.
He turns slowly. His eyes find mine.
“Lumi—”
I’m shaking so hard the broken floorboards rattle beneath me.
He crosses the room in a blur, kneeling beside me in the splinters. His hand hovers over me. He’s terrified to touch me.
“Did he—” His voice cracks. “Please tell me he didn’t claim you. Tell me the bond is still ours.”
“No.” Tears stream down my face. “You stopped him. You came back for me.”
“Thank the Gods.” He drops his forehead to my lap, shoulders shaking with silent tears. “Thank the thraking Gods.”
I reach for him, my fingers tangling in the matted fur of his neck, and he pulls me into his arms, his face buried in the hollow of my neck.
“I’m so sorry,” he whispers. “I felt you screaming through the dark. I tried to break through, Lumi... I’m so sorry.”
“You saved me.” I sob into his shoulder, the scent of cinnamon drowning out everything else.
He pulls back, thumbs brushing the tears from my cheeks. His jaw is set, eyes studing my face with a new purpose.
“We have to go. Now. Before he comes back,” he says quietly.
A cramp shoots through my abdomen. I clench my teeth to keep from crying out.
“Your heat,” he whispers.
“It won’t stop,” I gasp. “I think what we did just made it worse.”
“I know,” he scoops me up off the floor, sheet and all. “We aren’t waiting another second, Sael?n.”
He carries me over the debris, stepping over the life I thought he had built for us.
“Where are we going?”
“The sacred ground,” he says, pressing a kiss to my temple. “Where the stars can see. We seal this tonight, Lumi. So no shadow can ever stand between us again.”