Chapter Twelve
Legend
Wind drags cold air across my skin as I brace my hands against the stone railing of the balcony, trying to will the surge inside me into something manageable.
Her voice, all rasp and hot honey, is lodged under my ribs like a splinter I can’t dig out.
The second I heard it, I realized I forgot the sound completely.
Nothing about it was familiar yet every fucking tenor slipped into my mind and, like acid, burned a hole there.
It was like her voice was erased from my brain.
As it fucking should be.
Right?
Arabella’s heels click against stone as she approaches. Her hands settle against my shoulders, and I have to force my muscles not to stiffen further.
It’s not her fault I’m in a mood. A good mate would remember that.
“You cannot let her get inside your head,” she murmurs, fingers smoothing down my spine. “She came to provoke you. That’s all she wants. Revenge. To hurt you. We can’t let her.”
My teeth clench and I don’t answer.
Her touch grows slower, more rhythmic, her voice lowering as if she is speaking only for me, a sort of sereneness taking over her already soft tone. “She is chaos, filth at its finest, and you are a king.”
The words should settle me, so why do my insides twist?
I feel restless, like I’m the one with royal magic bound around my wrists.
Arabella’s fingers glide across my collarbone and down my arm. The tension drains too quickly from my body, the sharp edge of my anger dulling into something hazy.
I straighten abruptly, stepping away from her. “Stop.”
She freezes before flashing a wounded expression. “I’m just trying to help you, my mate.”
“You’re trying to—” I snap, catching myself before I say something I regret.
I need to control myself, lock up my anger and this—this fucked-up fog in my head so I can think straight.
Her expression flickers for a fraction of a second before smoothing again. “You are overwhelmed.”
I drag a hand down my face. With her touch gone entirely, that restless heat returns, stronger than before, pushing hard against my ribs.
I need answers, and the only way to get them is to speak to the witch who holds them.
“She is beneath you,” she says quickly, reading my resolve through the bond. “I hate what she’s done to you.”
I spin so fast my shoes nearly slip beneath me.
She calls after me, footsteps chasing mine through corridor after corridor, but I don’t slow. The closer I get, the faster my feet seem to carry me, until I finally reach the chamber where she’s being held.
I throw the door open.
Creed pushes to his feet with the grace of a king and speed of a serpent. “Legend.”
He might as well be a wall; his presence means nothing to me.
My eyes instantly fall to the girl on the ground. She sits with her legs crossed, bound in hellhound leashes that hum faintly against her skin, red light sliding over her wrists and throat like molten thread. There’s something so relaxed in her posture that draws a dark cloud of anger over me.
She glares at first, fury etched into every line of her body. But the second her eyes lock onto mine, a hint of softness appears, so subtle I almost miss it.
Heat and longing curl under my sternum, and I hate her even more for that.
Arabella steps in behind me. Haide’s gaze hardens again, her upper lip lifting slightly in a low, unmistakable growl that vibrates through the room.
I step closer despite myself. The leashes flare faintly as she moves, but she doesn’t flinch. Something shuffles inside me again.
“The man with the mask,” I say evenly. “Who is he?”
Arabella stiffens beside me.
Haide’s mouth curves slowly, deliberately. “That’s your first question after everything that’s happened?”
“Yes.” My voice is colder than I feel, my response instant. “Why did he smell of you?”
She tilts her head slightly. “Make her leave,” she says softly, gaze never breaking from mine. “And I will answer every question you have.”
Arabella inhales sharply. “Legend, don’t entertain her games—”
“Silence,” I snap without looking at her.
Haide’s pupils darken, and the faintest purr slips into her tone. “Jealous?”
My hand is at her throat before I realize it, fingers digging into her warm skin, talons slowly splitting free to press at her heated flesh.
“Answer me,” I murmur.
She leans into my grip, breath fanning across my knuckles. “Harder, mate.”
The word is like an electric boost, power surging and filling places I didn’t know were empty until my heart doesn’t just beat. It throbs.
I jerk back, releasing her instantly, as my body betrays me. Heat surges low and unwanted, cock jerking in her direction, and I could fucking kill her.
Her smile widens like she knows, but the door bursts open before she can respond.
Vicente storms in, Knight and Sinner close behind him, all three of them drawn tight in a way I’ve seen only before battle. I snap to attention instinctively as Creed rushes to my side.
“The East Tideward borders,” Vicente says, out of breath.
“What about them?” Creed demands.
“The wards collapsed and the sea has risen.”
“Risen?”
Arabella grabs my arm, pressing closer.
“It breached the water barrier and rolled over the lower grounds. The Tideward Academy is flooding. The children—” Vicente’s jaw tightens. “They’re trapped.”
My blood runs cold.
“We have to go.” Knight jerks toward the hall again. “Now!”
“I can help!” Haide shouts.
I turn on her, finding her already on her feet. “You’re out of your fucking mind if you think I’ll let you anywhere near my kingdom,” I snap. “You will stay here until I decide whether you live or die.” When the last word leaves me, the tendons in my muscles stretch so hard I fear they’ll snap.
“There are children dying,” Haide shoots back, fury replacing the earlier heat.
“Like you fucking care!”
“Leave her here with me.” Arabella squeezes my arm. “I will make sure she doesn’t escape.”
I don’t know why I hesitate.
“Legend,” Haide snaps.
I swing her way. “We don’t need you.”
“Yes, you do.”
“If you think we’ll just let you go after—”
She steps forward and the hellhound leashes flare bright, red light searing as they activate to restrain. I watch closely, waiting for skin to blister, for flesh to split. I almost yell at her. To warn her to fucking stop before she gets hurt, but the words get lodged in my throat.
The smell of burnt flesh never fills the air.
The magic rolls over her, wraps tight around her limbs for a breath, and it sinks beneath her skin like it was born there.
She stands untouched and my stomach drops for more reasons than I can count.
“I’m not asking permission,” she says, defiance radiating off every infuriatingly perfect fucking inch of her.
Before anyone can make a move, the side wall shudders violently as the stone cracks down the middle.
“What the fuck?” Sinner hisses, throwing his hands out to sweep the falling stones to the side. They slam into the wall with a hard thwack.
A hint of light seeps into the space just before a massive claw punches through from the outside, talons gouging into space.
Haide doesn’t hesitate. She grabs the offered claw, steps up onto the ledge, and vanishes in a rush of wind and dust before I reach her.
“After her!” I bark.
She’s already gone by the time we reach outside. “Fuck!” She’s escaping. Leaving.
Why is my heart clenching?
“There’s no time to worry about her! The kids!” Sinner screams.
Creed rushes to the front of us. A portal rips open at the East Tideward border in a violent bloom.
We’re met with chaos the instant we step through.
Water churns over what used to be training fields and stone walkways. Waves crash against the academy walls as children cling to windows and broken railings. Gifted attempt to portal in and out, but there’s barely solid ground to land on. Every miscalculation drops another body into black water.
Creed curses. “The sea has swallowed the lower grounds!”
“There! The flying perch. It’s still standing!” Knight points to the tallest point of the academy.
We use another portal to safely transport ourselves to the cracking stones of the pointed roof.
The air is thick with screams, old and young alike.
Fae strain to push back the surge, hands raised, water bending only inches at a time before slamming back harder.
“They aren’t strong enough. Can we get more from Rathe U?”
“No time.” Knight scans the area. “We’re on our own. The argents can’t portal jump like we can. We’ll lose more today than we’ll save and that’s just a fact.” And then he dives into the air.
“Knight!” London screams.
His body falls fast; a portal appears just before he hits the water. He pops back through the mouth shortly after, a young girl in his arms.
He throws her at London and then he’s gone again.
“London, keep a portal open to Rathe. Drop them through!” Creed orders.
The wards flicker uselessly around us, shattered sigils dissolving into salt spray.
A loud crashing sound alerts us too late as a massive dark wave slams into the north wing of the academy.
Screams rip out around us. “The Nocturn wing.” My eyes snap to Creed. “They’re in dream state, they won’t even know to try to run.”
“Get down there before it—”
The entire building breaks open, water slipping in and sweeping out bed after bed, young after young. It takes a moment before their cries fill the air.
“Fuck!” I scream, sliding down the edge of the roof, preparing to jump when the sky turns dark.
I look up just in time to see the dragons sweeping in.
One by one they plunge through smoke and mist, claws slicing into the flood, lifting children by collars and arms, throwing them on their backs. Wings beat hard enough to scatter debris, heat evaporating sections of water just long enough for some to escape.
A little girl is swept wide, just after the closest dragon bursts past, a full load already on his back and between his claws.
I roar, stepping to the edge and portaling to the highest intact tower. Grabbing two girls by their tunics, I haul them up before shoving them through the portal at London.
Knight, Sinner, and Creed each appear beside me and help pull the remaining children from the rising water.
The sea surges again when a blast of heat hits us from behind, hot enough to burn the shirt off my back—the fabric falling to the ground in a pile of flame and ash.
“Holy shit,” Sinner rasps.
Dragons stretch across the horizon, wing to wing, a living barricade that spans the coastline as far as I can see. Their bodies form a wall of scales and ancient fury, jaws wide as flames pour from them in relentless sheets. Each stream of fire angles downward into the surge.
“They’re creating trenches through the water.”
The sea fights back, though, a strange whistling heard in the wind if you listen hard enough.
It rises higher, darker—swelling against their heat in thick, rolling walls. But the dragons do not break formation.
A massive black flame bursts through the center of their formation, and my attention is immediately drawn to the source. The moment I find her, my entire body jolts.
I’m cold and warm and empty and full all at fucking once.
Haide stands between the massive beasts. Panic sinks its claws down my throat. A single paw would be strong enough to take her ass out with zero effort.
Wind lashes her hair around her face, dark strands thrashing like swords. Her eyes aren’t the same green I know. They burn red.
And that black flame, it pours from her open palms.
It’s not smoke-dark or shadow-dim. It is void fucking black, edged in crimson, moving like liquid night forced into the shape of fire. Like demonic smoke that burns, but that’s not possible. Demonic smoke is reserved for royals. It was created to protect us and only us.
And our mates.
My brows snap, but I shake off the thought.
The fire rolls outward in heavy waves, meeting the ocean head-on, and where it touches water—
“Is it—” Sinner gasps.
“Yes,” I breathe.
The sea recoils, like a mouse in a rat’s cage, it tucks itself away, as if recognizing something superior.
The heat hits me seconds later, slamming into my chest and ripping the breath from my lungs. My magic answers without permission, surging to the surface, pressing hard against my ribs like it wants out.
Like it wants her.
You want her, you want her, you need her.
I growl in response, forcing the trickery from my mind.
Haide throws her arms wider, black fire intensifying as dragons beside her adjust their angle, their flames blending with hers but never overwhelming it. It’s clear that they’re not leading this.
They are amplifying her.
Water crashes upward in towering sheets, but the line holds. Mile after mile of scaled bodies and roaring fire stand strong, and in the very center of it stands the exile I cast away, wielding a force I have never seen before and yet somehow feel I have known all my life.
My heart pounds once, so hard it fucking hurts.
Haide isn’t just a random gifted who grew up on Exile Island. She can’t be.
So, what the fuck is she? More importantly…
What is she to me?