Chapter 25 #2
Doubt crawls through me like poison. I think of my father's careful instructions, how he never mentioned the fated bond would make killing Malakai impossible. How he seemed unsurprised when I told him.
"I don't believe you," I say, but my voice lacks conviction.
"You don't want to believe me," he corrects. "But deep down, you know there's truth in what I am saying."
I stand, needing to move, to think. The dizziness has subsided enough that I can walk, though my legs still feel unsteady.
Feet appear in front of me. When I look up, Cade is there, and all I see is Asher in his gaze.
"I'm sorry, Sera," he says, his expression flickering between pain and rage, as if two different people are fighting for control of one body. "I want to save you, but seeing you with him...Cade's memories, his hatred—it's poisoning everything I feel for you."
I reach out to touch him, but he pulls away. The warmth I glimpsed vanishes, replaced by something cold and hard. "I saw you," he says flatly. "In the corridor with him."
Understanding crashes over me like a wave. The corridor. Malakai pressing me against the wall. My body responding to my Alpha's touch.
"Asher, I can explain," I begin. "The fated bond—it creates feelings that aren't…"
"Aren't what?" he cuts me off, anger flaring. "Aren't real? Aren't yours? Don't insult me with excuses, Sera. I was there. I saw the way you melted for him, the way you moaned his name. The way your Omega begged for hisAlpha."
Shame burns through me. "It's complicated," I whisper. "The magic between us…the mating bond…"
"Magic can only influence, not create," he says harshly. "It can't manufacture desire where none exists. It can't make you wrap your legs around your enemy's waist in a public corridor. It can't make an Omega beg for an Alpha's bite unless she wants it."
Each word is a knife, cutting deeper than any physical wound. I have no defense because he's right—the bond may have amplified my response to Malakai, but it didn't create it from nothing.
"I'm sorry," I say. "I never meant to hurt you."
"And yet you did," he replies, turning away. "But it doesn't matter now."
I wipe a tear from the corner of my eye. "What do you mean?"
He moves to the small table, retrieving something from among various vials and instruments. When he turns back, he's holding a small crystal vial filled with iridescent purple liquid.
"I found a way to free you," he says, excitement suddenly replacing the bitterness. "To break the mating bond."
I stare at the vial in disbelief. "That's not possible. Malakai said the bond can never be broken. The fated mate bond is permanent."
"And you believed him?" Scorn drips from each word. "The Alpha who enslaved you with blood magic? Of course, he would tell you it's permanent. He wants you to believe you're his Omega forever."
"But the magic is ancient," I argue. "Even Ivy said—"
"Your fairy friend knows much, but not everything," he interrupts. "Cade's memories contain knowledge passed through generations of Shadow Court guards, secrets even the Shadow Lord doesn't know."
He holds out the vial. "This will sever the magical connection completely. One drink, and you'll be free of him. Free to return to the Light Court. Free to be yourself again."
I should feel elated. This is what I wanted since the moment Malakai bound me to him: freedom from the magical tether that connects us. Yet I hesitate, my hand not reaching for the vial.
"What happens after?" I ask. "If the connection breaks, what then?"
"Then we leave," he says as if it's obvious. "We return to the Light Court, warn them about the prophecy, about the conspiracy between the courts."
"And Malakai?" The question slips out before I can stop it. "What happens to him if the bond breaks? Will it hurt him?"
A cruel smile twists his lips—an expression I've never seen on Asher's face before. "Why would you care?”
"I just…I need to understand what this potion does," I say, though even to my own ears, the explanation sounds hollow.
He studies me, suspicion darkening his gaze. "The potion breaks the magical connection," he explains slowly. "It doesn't harm either participant physically. It simply...releases you from each other."
Relief washes through me, followed immediately by confusion. Why should I care if Malakai suffers? After everything he's done, doesn't he deserve pain?
"Take it," Asher urges, pressing the vial into my hand. "Drink it, and this nightmare ends."
The glass is cool against my palm, the liquid inside shifting with hypnotic patterns. Freedom. An end to the constant pull of Malakai's presence in my mind. An escape from the confusion of feelings I've developed for my enemy.
Yet still I hesitate.
"What's wrong?" Asher asks, impatience creeping into his voice. "Don't you want to be free of him?"
"I do, but…" I stop, unable to articulate the conflict raging inside me.
"But what?" His voice hardens dangerously. "What possible reason could you have to hesitate?"
I look away, unable to meet his gaze as I struggle with emotions I don't fully understand myself. Something in my expression must betray me because Asher's face transforms with rage so intense it makes me step back instinctively.
"Love?" he spits the word like poison, a bitter laugh escaping him. "You love the Alpha monster who murdered me? Who helped kill your mother? Who has slaughtered countless innocents? Your Omega wants to keep her Alpha?"
"It's not that simple," I say, desperation creeping into my voice. "The bond changes things. The mating mark—it makes me feel…"
"It makes you feel nothing!" he roars, knocking the vial from my hand. It rolls across the floor, coming to rest against the wall. "That's the magic talking! It's not real!"
"How would you know what's real?" I challenge, anger rising to meet his. "You haven't felt it. You don't understand what it's like to have someone else's emotions mingling with yours, to sense their thoughts, their desires. To be bitten, marked, claimed."
"I understand watching the woman I died for—the woman I loved—spread her legs for my murderer."
His words find every tender place where my guilt lives, pressing until I can't breathe. "That's not fair," I whisper.
"Fair?" he laughs bitterly. "Was it fair when Malakai's shadows tore me apart while you watched? Is it fair when I wake up trapped in another man's body, forced to watch you surrender to him over and over? Forced to watch you complete the mating bond with him?"
A flicker of movement catches my eye—a flash of silver at the window. Ivy hovers outside, her tiny fae face contorted with panic as she beats silently against an invisible barrier. Her mouth moves frantically, but no sound penetrates the cottage walls.
"She can't help you," Asher says, following my gaze. "The barrier isn't just magical, it's iron-laced, woven with the one element that drains fairy power. Each time she strikes it, it weakens her further, but she keeps trying anyway."
His eyes flicker between amber and a darker, flat black, as if two souls are fighting for control of one body.
"Asher, please," I say, trying to keep my voice calm despite the fear building in my chest. "This isn't you. Let me go, and we can figure this out together."
"Together?" he laughs, the sound sharp and unfamiliar. "Like you and Malakai together? Fucking against walls where anyone could see? Did you scream my name like that when I was alive? Did you beg for my knot the way you begged for his?"
"Stop," I whisper.
"I watched you surrender to him," he continues, stalking closer. "I watched you melt for the Alpha who tore me apart. And you want me to let you go back to him? Back to your mate?"
Outside, Ivy throws herself against the barrier with increasing desperation. The cottage trembles with each impact, dust raining from the ceiling, but the barrier holds.
"You're not yourself," I say, moving around the table to put distance between us. "This is Cade talking, not you."
His expression shifts suddenly, the eyes that stare down at me cycling between Asher's amber, Cade's dark brown, and something else entirely—a black void that suggests whatever magic brought Asher back came with a terrible price. "Does it matter? He hates you, too. We all do."
He lunges across the table, faster than I can react in my weakened state. His hand closes around my injured arm, fingers digging into the open wound. I cry out as pain lances through me, fresh blood welling between his fingers.
"I love you," he snarls, face inches from mine. "I would have died for you willingly. Instead, I died because of you, and you reward my sacrifice by opening your legs for my murderer. By letting him knot you, bite you, mark you as his Omega."
Terror floods my system, and suddenly the fog in my mind clears slightly—adrenaline burning through whatever drug is in my system.
With unexpected strength, he hurls me across the room.
I hit the wall hard, my head snapping back against the wooden planks with a sickening crack.
Stars explode across my vision as air is forced from my lungs.
Before I can recover, he's on me again, his fist connecting with my cheekbone.
The impact sends my head sideways, and I taste blood as my teeth cut into my lip.
"Asher, stop!" I plead through swelling lips, struggling against his grip. "This isn't you!"
"Isn't it?" he challenges, backhanding me across the other cheek.
The force tears my lip completely, blood trickling down my chin.
One hand moves to my throat while the other grabs a fistful of my hair, yanking my head back, exposing the fresh mating mark on my throat—Malakai's bite, permanent and visible.
"How would you know? You replaced me the moment I was gone; let another Alpha claim you. "
I bring my knee up sharply, connecting with his groin.
He doubles over with a curse, and I shove him away, scrambling for the door.
But the drug and beating have left me weaker than I realized.
My legs give out halfway across the room, sending me crashing face-first to the floor.
Wood splinters bite into my palms and cheeks.
He recovers too quickly, grabbing my ankle and dragging me back across the rough planks. I kick and fight, my fingers clawing at the wooden floor until my nails tear and bleed, but I'm no match for his strength. He flips me over and drives his knee into my ribs. I gasp, the wind knocked out of me.
He straddles me to immobilize me, his weight pressing against my bruised ribs. When I continue to struggle, his fist crashes into my left eye. Pain explodes through my skull, and I know it will swell shut within minutes. "Drink it, and this all ends."
"No!" I twist beneath him, but he captures my wrists, pinning them above my head with one strong hand. Through the pain and terror, I feel the mating bond flare—Malakai sensing my distress.
"Then I'll make you," he growls, reaching for the vial with his free hand.
I buck upward, trying to throw him off. The movement makes my dress ride up, and something in his expression changes—darkens with an intent that sends ice through my veins.
"So eager to move against me now," he says, voice dropping to a dangerous purr that sounds nothing like Asher. "Were you this responsive with him?"
"Let me go," I demand, renewing my struggles despite the pain.
His hand leaves my wrists, but before I can capitalize on the freedom, it clamps around my throat instead—right over Malakai's mating mark. My vision clouds as he squeezes, just enough to restrict my air without cutting it off completely.
"I could take what you gave him," he says, his other hand trailing down my body to the hem of my dress. "Show you the difference between a man who loves you and an Alpha who only wants to possess his Omega."
Horror floods me as I understand his intention. "Asher, no. Please."
But the eyes that stare down at me aren't Asher's anymore. The amber warmth has been completely overtaken by flat, dead black—Cade's eyes, or something darker still.
"Asher can't help you now," a voice that's no longer even pretending to be my former lover says. "He's buried too deep, screaming where no one can hear him."
I roll away, scrambling toward the fallen vial. Not to drink it—to use as a weapon if I must. My fingers close around the cool glass just as he grabs my injured arm again, sending waves of agony up to my shoulder as the wound reopens completely.
Blood streams down my arm, dripping onto the floor as he drags me back, tearing my dress further in the process. The fabric hangs from my shoulders in tatters. Through the bond, I feel Malakai's rage building.
"Let her go!" Ivy screams, her voice finally penetrating the barrier as cracks in the walls widen.
"Asher, stop this!" The windows shatter, glass cascading into the room.
I turn my face away as shards scrape against my already battered cheeks.
A few lodge into Cade's face, but he pulls them out as if they are annoying flies.
He doesn't slow down as he flips me onto my back.
His hands work at the fastenings of my underpants, yanking them down brutally.
I claw at his face, hoping to deepen the cuts.
A slap snaps my head to the left with a force that makes me see stars.
"Please," I beg through my swollen mouth, no longer certain who I'm pleading with—Asher, Cade, or whatever dark entity now controls them both. "Don't do this."
He forces my legs apart, positioning himself between them.
Tears stream down my face as I realize what's about to happen—the ultimate betrayal from the man I once loved.
The mating bond suddenly flares to life as my terror peaks, and I realize Malakai can feel every moment of my agony. My Alpha knows.
The cottage shakes more violently, dust and debris raining down as Ivy's assault on the barrier intensifies.
A scream of agony from my fae friend squeezes my heart.
A support beam cracks overhead, but the man who was once Asher doesn't even look up, his focus entirely on the violation he's about to commit. A sob tears from me.
I close my eyes, gathering what little strength remains. I won't surrender without a fight, even if it's hopeless. An angry cry pours from me, calling desperately through the bond for my Alpha.
The door explodes inward with a deafening crash, torn completely from its hinges by a wave of pure shadow. Cold air rushes in, and with it, a darkness so complete it devours the firelight. Frost coats the room within seconds, my breath coming in painful puffs.
Standing in the doorway, shadows writhing around him like living weapons, eyes blazing with murderous fury, is Malakai.
My Alpha. My mate. Come for his Omega.