Chapter 35 #2
The fabric that had looked like the starry night sky when this all began was dull now, empty of the magic it had carried.
Feeling my insides twist with worry, I gently placed a hand on his head, and Dante turned to look at me while trying to breathe fully, letting me see his eyes were devoid of magic too.
He’d given everything he had during the battle, fighting the Witch, and trying to help Bj?rn kill the Dark One.
“It’s okay,” I whispered, trying to hold back fear slicing through me. “The shadows are coming for you any moment, okay? They’ll be here soon.”
He nodded, but even that movement was weak. André and I exchanged another grim glance, fear as present in his eyes as it was in mine.
“He’s going to be fine,” I assured Natasha. “He’s the Lord of Twilight, he’ll be fine.”
“Fine,” Dante coughed the word out, his fingers trembled as he curled them over Natasha’s hand to reassure her.
Tears left her eyes as she nodded, but then she blinked. “Where are the shadows?” She looked all around us, searching for them. “Where are the damn shadows?”
Her gaze went to Dante, but he was looking beyond her now, his gaze lost.
“There is too much light,” Natasha gasped, her gaze snapping toward André. “Cover the sun.”
“I—”
“Cover the damn sun, André! He needs darkness!” she yelled.
André’s eyes glimmered and the light trembled out of existence all around us. His form shook from the effort, veins straining against his skin, André he held on to the sunlight as fiercely as he could.
Natasha jumped to her feet. “Twilight, Dante’s here come for him!” A chilling breeze swept over the dark desert while she whirled all around in all directions waiting for the shadows to appear.
They weren’t coming.
“Hecate!” Natasha roared toward the sudden night sky. “Dante needs you! Your favorite Lord of Twilight needs you!”
Her voice echoed as the sound of Bj?rn fighting the Dark One somewhere near reached my ears.
“You will not let him die; you hear me!” Natasha ordered. “You will send the shadows and save his life, or I will hunt you down and kill you myself!” A sob left her with the threat, but she looked to the sky again. “I will kill you if you take him from me, Hecate!!”
Falling to her knees Natasha covered her face while my throat burned with the pain. André’s form jerked next to us, and losing his hold on the sunlight, he slumped into me.
The brightness of day blaringly returned the next second, almost blinding us all.
“I can’t hold it anymore,” he panted.
“It’s okay,” I assured, holding him to me.
“I’m sorry,” Natasha’s lips quivered as she kissed him. “Are you okay?”
André’s arms wrapped around her. “I’m fine.”
“They are not coming…” she whispered, glancing down at Dante, who seemed worse each second.
Shadows suddenly burst from thin air, rushing toward us.
André and I moved away but Natasha leaned over Dante, holding his hand as the shadow bands reached them. They swiftly swirled about her like a caress before they began to wrap themselves around his body. The Twilight shimmered inside them when they covered his entire form.
Hecate had sent them for Dante.
“You are going to be fine,” Natasha whispered to him relieved, lightly kissing his lips.
Dante slowly nodded, his eyes falling close when he felt their embrace taking him home… and then they were gone.
Feeling strength return, André pulled Natasha into his arms, giving her comfort before helping her to her feet. My heart began to calm as I repeated to myself that Dante would be okay. The twilight had him now.
Standing too, I searched the dunes for the Dark One. My hands fisted at my sides; my chest filled with rage for what he had done to our mate.
Screams reached us, and I whipped around to suddenly see him become visible. I charged toward him, transforming into the Beast as I ran. Before I could reach him, the Dark One pushed Bj?rn to the ground and vanished again.
“Are you okay?” I asked, helping him stand.
His body was beaten up but not as badly as Dante’s had been—being the same kind of supernatural helped him hold his own in the fight.
“We can’t kill him while he is blocking. It makes him too strong,” Bj?rn answered instead, holding onto my shoulder while trying to catch his breath. “He’s still a bit hurt from when you guys attacked him, but his ability helps him endure.”
His side bled from a large gash, but he shook his head at me like he would be okay.
“I’m sorry about Dante. I tried to get him out of the fight when I returned from the castle, but the Dark One snuck up on me and almost killed me. Dante intervened. When he realized Dante was important to me, he set his rage on him just to punish me.”
The pain that constricted his face, constricted my chest too.
“It’s not your fault.”
“I am his focus,” Bj?rn warned. “He’s trying to destroy—”
New screams echoed along the dunes, and we turned to see the Dark One reappearing where I’d stood not too long ago… taking Isis into his clutch.
Pure terror rippled through Bj?rn’s face.
“Isis!” he bellowed blinking as he ran toward them.
The Dark One’s mouth stretched with a sinister leer when he realized he’d hit the right spot to hurt Bj?rn. He vanished once more taking Isis with him.
“No!” I yelled after them.
Bj?rn blinked back where they had been only a split second later.
“He’s got her!!” I shouted, and Bj?rn desperately searched through the Ethereal veil, blinking toward them the moment he found them.
“I’m going to help him bring her back,” I assured Natasha, who was still in André’s arms. “He’s mine.”
Shock, disbelief, and fear shone in her eyes, but she forcefully nodded, trying to steel herself to what was happening.
“Dad, bring the knights!” Heart pounding in my chest I whirled around, eyes focused, ready to pounce the moment that demon reappeared.
My dad and the knights ran toward me immediately, ready to help me end him.
The Dark One was going to regret this. The war was over now, and we could fight him together.
“There!” Natasha shouted, pointing right across from us.
My dad, the knights, and I flashed toward them, but the bastard went invisible while he held Isis by the throat. He escaped just as Bj?rn blinked to the spot and we staggered to a stop.
“Isis!” Bj?rn shouted, desperate, and blinked after them once more.
The Dark One vanished and reappeared, over and over, making us chase him around the dunes. He was terrifying Isis, who looked more distraught with our every failed attempt to save her—knowing he’d never let us get to her.
He was playing with Bj?rn, with us, making us all suffer because he’d realized we all cared for her… and that fueled his sadistic heart.
Hearing him reemerge somewhere behind us, my dad, the knights, and I lunged into a run against time, running faster than we ever had.
The bastard was in the air.
His hand still squeezed Isis’s throat as they hovered somehow—no, the Dark One wasn’t hovering, he was rising higher. He had jumped, and horror gripped my heart because I knew why.
He was going to drop her.
Leaping with Beast power, I lunged myself through the air too, moving my legs and arms to extend my flight and reach them… seeing his other hand turn into a giant talon.
Catching Bj?rn’s gaze, the Dark One grinned before plunging the sharp talon into Isis’s back with all his strength, pushing it through her until it came out through her front.
He let her go when they began to fall.
“Nooo!”
Bj?rn’s heart-wrenching cry cut through my being as I roared, crashing against them the next second.
The Dark One was sent spiraling sideways with our collision, but I gripped Isis in time. I landed with her in my arms while Bj?rn’s pain became palpable in the very air we breathed.
Bj?rn blinked in front of the Dark One as he landed, smashing into him before he could become invisible. A roar of rage and agony tore through our friend’s chest, and a viciousness I’d never seen in the sweet Viking Fae burst from his red eyes.
It was as though Bj?rn wasn’t himself anymore… but the other one he got lost in when he was first turned.
Shaking the Dark One around like he were a rag doll, he slammed him into the rocks that littered the ground, dragging him far away from us, from his Isis. The ragged edges of the rocks ripped through the Dark One as he struggled to fight back, suddenly overpowered.
My arms trembled as I lay Isis down gently on the sand, her blood soaking my white fur. Dad, Zelin, Luane, and Garion ran past us to where Bj?rn was, but I couldn’t see anything other than Isis’s torn body in front of me.
Short, quick breaths attempted to reach her lungs but failed while her still-shocked eyes looked straight into the sky. Her tattered torso was too much to bear, blood still sipping from her even as my hands attempted to close her somehow.
I almost shut my eyes—if only to stop the horror from imprinting the image of my friend like this into my mind.
Instead, I looked at her, forcing myself to smile while my insides ripped open too. “It’s okay, Isis,” I whispered, turning back into a man. “I got you… I got you.”
She blinked, looking at me while tears gathered in her eyes.
“Don’t move,” I murmured softly. My trembling hands stirred toward a different part of her, but I had no idea what to do.
Shaking myself, I remembered my original Moon Prince power. One I’d never needed to use. I could heal other Wolf Shifters. Taking a calming breath, I connected with our Goddess’s essence inside of me and sent the soothing power to Isis—slow and steady, just as my mother had taught me.
It flowed out of me and into her wound, but it dispersed inside of her… unable to mend a tear to this extent.
I could see through her body. Her injury was too great.
“No. No. No.” Natasha’s whispered sobs came from behind me, and I stood, wrapping her in my arms to block her from the jarring sight. Trying to save her from the hurt of seeing Isis like this.