Chapter 26
Chapter Twenty-Six
Kade
“I’m afraid, Evelyn will have to die,” Blair whispered.
“Out of the question.” The words shot out of Kade like he fought with his sword. Harsh, quick, and cutting. He paced inside his cottage, sending all his wolfish wrath in the scholar’s direction. “How dare you suggest such an idea?”
Neither Evelyn nor Blair said a word. Embers in the hearth popped, and trees groaned outside as they stood against the howling wind’s force.
The shock, the sheer horror of Blair’s suggestion washed through Kade, threatening to unleash his wolf.
Or worse, the pent-up power he couldn’t control.
“I don’t like it either, Kade,” Blair said, “but Evelyn cut a piece of her soul out. I have tried no avail to find a way to destroy the bloodstone or get Evelyn’s magic out of it. I have a theory—”
Kade growled through gritted teeth. “You’re willing to bet your sister’s life on a mere theory?”
Blair threw out her hands, wind and static rising in the cottage. “I don’t like it any more than you do.”
Kade whirled towards Evelyn. “Tell her this is out of the question.”
Evelyn’s silence rang like deafening drums in his ears. “Kade . . .”
“You can’t seriously be considering this!” he roared.
Evelyn flinched, and the minimal peace they’d found earlier evaporated. Why did it feel as though fate berated them at all ends?
Moons, Kade couldn’t bare it. He’d already lost Evelyn before when she was Riven’s captive, and that had riddled him with agonizing worry. But this? Maddening.
“Did you know about this?” he asked, his words coming out far calmer than he felt.
“What?” Evelyn reared back, her anger hitting Kade in waves. “No, I wouldn’t keep this from you, but I have a good idea as to why Blair has.”
“Excuse me?” Kade stepped towards Evelyn, peering down at her.
She released a breath. “She probably knew exactly how you’d react—”
“Like what?” he seethed.
“An overbearing, protective mate!” she shouted.
His werewolf raged underneath his skin, threatening to shift, to protect Evelyn, just like she said, from Blair’s absurd suggestion.
“You’re right,” Kade whispered. “I am an overbearing, protective mate, so why bother with what I think?”
“That is not what I’m saying!” Evelyn hissed. “We haven’t even heard Blair out or have a sense of the idea.”
“Moons, I don’t care to listen to another word of this.” Kade laid his hands on his hips and stared out at the snowfall in his homeland. Tried to find peace in it. Softness.
But it was no use. He couldn’t rally his anger, and his control snapped, his power rising in one giant tidal wave inside him. He threw out his arms as he said, “In the cave under Nūa, we made a promise that we are in this together.”
Evelyn’s brows pinched. He didn’t need their bond to know it was hurt flashing in her gray stare. Perhaps he was being harsh. Perhaps he was being hurtful. But he was so worried, so frightened.
“We are, Kade,” she whispered.
“The concept of you dying, leaving me, doesn’t exactly feel like it.” He turned towards the door, snatching his fur-lined coat.
“Where are you going?” Evelyn asked, voice cracking.
“I need a moment, Ev,” Kade whispered, not daring to look at her and face more hurt marring her gaze. He heard it enough in her tone and by her racing heart. “Right now, I don’t accept this.”
Night crept through the forest, and the darkness followed Kade as his legs moved on their own accord. Down the village streets and through an alley as a shortcut, he marched through the Shield-maiden’s entrance.
He nodded once to Lucy and slipped through the curtains that led to his team’s secluded area, and found his brother, Eldrick, lost in thought as he trailed a finger around an untouched pint.
Eldrick’s head snapped up, his eyes widening. “What has you so tightly wound?”
“I could ask the same of you,” Kade said.
His brother snorted. “Evelyn?”
“Tovi?”
The brothers sighed and sank further into their seats.
“Do you want to talk about the vampyr queen?” Kade whispered.
Eldrick sighed, combing his hair through his head. “It feels like my heart is the last thing I should be worried about.”
“I heard what happened when Riven attacked,” he said. “It isn’t an easy thing to dismiss.”
Eldrick didn’t meet his brother’s stare. “No, but it has become more apparent that we both must focus on what’s best for our people. I take it you’ve also heard about Bjorn’s decree?”
Kade nodded. “He’s a fool. Riven already demonstrated he’s not afraid to cross the Void and attack. To leave the Vadon Mountains without a leader . . .”
“I know.” Eldrick stared deep into the depths of his ale. “What of Evelyn’s magic? What of your own?”
Soot and rot was faint under Kade’s nose, like he was back under Circe’s influence. He brushed his fingers through his beard, exhaling the memories and scents.
“Blair has a theory,” Kade said, hands itching for a drink of his own, something to burn away the fear coursing through him. “Yet, I—”
“There you are.”
A voice Kade had only heard in memories jolted him out his seat.
Nadia, their mother, strode through the curtains. His heart hammered. He knew she was alive and had returned home, but seeing his mother firsthand, locking eyes with the amber stare they shared and feeling her strong, fierce presence in the air had him sprinting towards her.
He didn’t care she’d stayed away. He didn’t care she’d kept secrets.
He only cared that she was alive and home.
As they collided, his mother held him in a tight hug, but Kade lifted her in his arms and spun. A laugh escaped her, and she swatted his chest.
Kade placed her back on her feet, gazing down at her with a smile that made his cheeks ache. “Mother.”
“How dare you remind me how much taller you’ve become.” She cupped his cheek, tears glistening in his eyes. “Kade, you’re . . . I’m so proud of you. Both of you.” She spied Eldrick over his shoulder.
Kade gave her hand a squeeze and held it close.
Ten years. A whole decade without her. Fuck Blair’s danu.
This left him off balance, but in the best way, like a piece of his heart that had never healed had been restored.
Even though he’d read her name in letters from Eldrick, this was better.
So much better. His eyes stung with years of emotion and joy.
“Thank you,” he said, the words a breath.
Her dark brows pinched. “For what?”
“For looking after Evelyn and getting her out of Drystan,” he said. “She told me everything.”
His mother blinked, eyes darting to the stone ground.
She set her shoulders back, exhaling through her nose.
Those amber eyes of hers tracked him, uncertainty swimming in them.
“Speaking of Evelyn,” Nadia whispered, “I went by your cottage looking for you and found her rather . . . upset.” She raised an expectant brow.
Kade opened and closed his mouth, chest tightening. “Blair knows a way to get Evelyn’s magic back, but she would have to die.”
Eldrick shot out of his seat. “What? That is asking far too much of Evelyn.”
Nadia hummed. “What exactly does it entail?”
Kade squirmed under his mother’s perusal. The truth was, he hadn’t the slightest clue. Usually, he and Evelyn needed space when they disagreed on matters. It worked for them, to sort out their thoughts and feelings, but this time he’d simply left, fear herding him out of his cottage.
He swallowed. “I can’t fathom the idea, let alone learn more about it, when it risks who I love most in this world.”
His mother studied him, gold eyes as sharp as any blade. “You’d walk into battle with Evelyn, wouldn’t you?”
The question yanked him back to the underbelly of Nūa. No matter what we face, may it be matters of the heart or an enemy on the battlefield, we face it together.
It’d been the same concept Kade had thrown in Evelyn’s face, yet he hadn’t given her space.
Hadn’t heard Blair out. Because he felt time slipping through his fingers.
Not only the impending Blood Curse, but Evelyn’s dwindling days.
If they tried to get her magic back or if they failed, Kade feared no matter what direction they ventured, he’d lose her no matter what.
To rub salt in Kade’s already festering wound, he, too, had to master his power, and he wasn’t certain he could when his emotions ran so wild, more wolf than man.
Though, he had made a promise, one he intended to keep until his last breath.
“I’d walk by Evelyn’s side through anything,” he whispered.
“Then perhaps you need to remind her of that,” Nadia whispered back.
His mother was right—of course. Kade couldn’t take back that he’d yet again retreated from Evelyn, but he could show her something that might demonstrate how deep his commitment was to her.
“Thank you. If you’ll both excuse me.”
Kade left the Shield-maiden, his gait set at a determined pace.
He weaved through werewolves still recovering from the aftermath of Riven’s attack and past the thicket of werewolves manning the destroyed gate.
Snow crunched under his boots as he listened to the surrounding forest. Night critters and wind greeted him, and as he stormed up the steps of his cottage, his wolfish hearing detected Evelyn scrubbing dishes.
He entered their cottage on cautious feet, awaiting Evelyn’s wrath, but found her expectant, tunic sleeves rolled up and gray stare roaming him up and down.
Kade swallowed, rallying his courage. “Can I show you something?”