Chapter 42
Max
When I break out into the sun, it takes me a few minutes to blink against the light and focus on the three Dark Fae and the shifter standing in front of the door.
I shiver when I see Wulf’s smile.
It’s positively sinister as if he knows what I learned inside.
As if called, my magic rumbles to the surface, fingertips darkening red.
“Did she answer your questions, flower?” he asks smoothly, eyes bright.
I don’t see a human in his eyes now. Just a wolf, looking for his next target.
I refuse to be it.
“She did.” Stepping slowly, I stop in front of him, keeping my hand on my dagger. I really wished I hadn’t left the other in the hollow.
Sensing the tension, Kaden steps next to me, keeping a firm hand on my elbow. He doesn’t know what the Mad Witch said, that he’s my Heartbond, but he still feels the need to cover my weakness. To protect me.
How much is this from him and how much is this from the fates? Does it matter if he still feels the same as me?
Shifting my weight, I try to remember the meager training from Nafre and Tay. Where to place my feet, where to block. It didn’t help much when the Coven was attacked, but it kept me alive.
I have no reservations in using my magic now. Now that I know it’s not something to fear, but coveted.
Wulf smiles wider. He knows.
“She told you,” I whisper, body locked tight with nerves. “Told you what I am. Who I am.”
He inhales, purring as if he smells a delicious meal. Maybe he does.
Kaden sneers, glaring at the shifter as his shadows flare angrily along his back.
The air ripens with tension as his siblings unsheathe their weapons.
“I’ve known since the moment she sensed you coming. You’re someone we’ve been waiting for.” He steps closer, but Kaden blocks him, sword tip pointed at his heart. Wulf narrows his inhuman gaze on to the heir. “You would wish to risk dissolving a truce between our people over a woman?”
“I would risk my crown over that woman,” he growls, pushing further against him. “Now back off, Wulf. She’s not yours to take.”
“If I lay claim to her—” he breaks off, looking at me as if the thought just occurred to him. His teeth elongate like that of an animal, fangs and canines sharpening by the second and my pulse jumps. “Yes, a claiming.”
My body freezes, fear icing over my neck as if a winter wind has blown on it. What does he mean to claim me?
“I lay claim to her heart, to her body. It is my claim onto her soul.”
I stumble, looking to Kaden then to Reid’s alarmed face. Something is happening, something I don’t understand. Fee grasps at a chain around her neck, forcing it into Kaden’s hands, but he waves her off.
“So now, shifter, you cannot claim the blood summoner.” The shadows hover, striking out against Wulf as they push him away. “For she is not yours to lay a claim on. She’s mine.”
The seer’s threat comes to me.
Beware a Fae’s words.
Fee sighs, looking skyward, stricken. “Gods above.”
Wulf stands, readying to attack. I can’t tell who would win; Kaden is powerful with his magic, but Wulf is a animal in human skin. Both would be equally matched.
There’s a clanging from the front gates, a few shouts of alarm that causes both males to stop and pivot as something heavy drops into my gut. Almost like a chain.
Wulf rushes by as I pat my chest. Kaden turns back to me, eyes so intense, I nearly step away. “What did the seer say?”
“What did you do?” I ask instead, gesturing to the empty place behind him. “What does claiming me mean?”
Even now, I can feel something unfurling in my stomach, the weight growing. It’s a chain, pulling me toward the Dark Fae.
It’s grotesque and vile, whatever it is. It feels permanent. Unbreakable.
“Now’s not the time,” he snaps, hauling me closer, inhaling my scent. “You’re terrified. What did she say?”
“I’m terrified of you!” I exclaim, pushing against his chest. “What did you do to me? What is this?” My hand touches my chest again, feeling the constriction beneath.
This is not love. This is a claim of ownership.
He owns me.
“What does a claiming mean?” My voice wobbles, even as the voices further back shout louder. The air is turning violent, something coming to harm us.
But all I can see is the heir. Feel my heart fracturing as everything falls into place.
First Nessa. Then Tay and Nafre. Now him.
Beware the Fae’s words.
“You own me.” I crumple, knees giving out.
Betrayal, hot and furious winds around my heart, drowning me in despair as tears drip down my chin. My strength leaves me and I hang in Kaden’s hands.
“If I didn’t, he would have,” he argues, eyes blazing, fingers digging into my arms. “You would have been tied to that animal. Do you know what they do to women here who they think are powerful? They breed them until their bodies no longer function. They use them to make as many pups as they can, to ensure the power lives on in their clan.” He shakes me slightly, cradling me against his body.
“If I hadn’t laid claim on you, you’d be stuck with that future. Is that what you have wanted, Max? To be used for only what you can give him?”
“How is that any different from you?” I ask, tears clogging my throat. I can’t breathe. “You laid claim to me and even though I don’t know what that means, I feel it, in my heart. I’ll never be rid of you. Was this just a way to get to me—to use me?”
Taylay’s words echo in my mind, telling me not to trust him. That he only wanted my magic.
Is that what this is?
A muscle jumps in his jaw. “No, you’ll never be rid of me, pet. But as much as you hate me owning you, you own me now too.”
Shoving me away, he glares at his sister, her face deadly pale. “Ready Wulf’s horses. We’ll head back to the Black Palace through the other side of the mountains.”
“And the guards?” Reid asks, voice quiet.
“Send a hawk to them. They’ll catch up.”
Fee steadies me, eyes pleading. “Kaden, you know doing this—”
Kaden levels a glare at me as if this is my fault. As if I was the one to chain him to me in the most intimate of ways.
That blooming love I felt for him is crushed under the weight of what he took.
My choice. My freedom. Gone.
I’m his now, just as he said I was.
“It’s done.”
A flaming arrow cuts through our group, landing onto the Mad Witch’s cabin. We drop to our knees, taking cover, as more rain down.
Glancing up beneath the cover of my hair, I catch sight of the invading army through the gates. Large black horses, crimson leathers glint against the morning sun as soldiers gallop through the entryway.
“Oh gods,” I groan, fingers digging into the dirt, terror coating my tongue.
The Crimson Army has finally come for the Phoka, and they’re here to burn the village to the ground.