Chapter 94
Chapter Ninety-Four
Kade
Agentle breeze roused Kade from slumber.
White bled ahead of him, and as he blinked, he found himself in a tent.
An enchanted lantern rested on a small bedside table, lighting the space in a heady light.
On the outside, someone neared, their boots crunching under rock.
Kade’s wolf rose to the surface, growling in his blood.
The tent’s entrance burst open, and he readied—
“You’re awake!” Linx exclaimed.
“Moons.“ Kade released his grip on the sheets and sat up. “What happened?”
With no shirt on and bandages around his waist, Kade occupied a tent that seemed more like an infirmary than the one he’d shared with Evelyn.
He tried to rack his mind for the last moments before he’d lost conscious.
Most was a blur, but he distinctly remembered Evelyn’s ever tree, growing and sending its life and light across the Void. Beautiful, magnificent silver.
The color that had shined in her eyes since the day he met her.
“Where’s Evelyn?”
Linx’s smile tightened as she saddled herself on the nearest stool. “She’s resting. You both fought hard. Now drink this—“
“Linx—“
“Drink.” She pushed a steaming cup of tea into his hand. “Stars above, Kade we, won. The curse is broken, the Sun Goddess is gone. Now rest for one damn minute. I’ll take you to Evelyn after I inspect your wounds. You’re no use to me if you bleed out on the way there.”
Kade took the mug she offered. Its herbal remedies were floral and spicy on the nose. His inner wolf wrestled inside his blood, but he ignored the restless feeling—blaming the lingering battle gripping his bones—and sipped the tea.
“What of the others? My brothers and parents? The Gray Fenris?”
Linx smiled, releasing a small giggle. “I always forget how deeply you care for others, Kade.”
She peeled back that bandage on his arm without any finesse, and Kade grimaced as the cheesecloth tugged his stitches.
Linx busied herself with adding more ointment to a gash running across his bicep, and he drank the less-than-pleasant tea.
It tasted similar and as foul as the one she’d made him on Captain Flynn’s ship. At least, a hint of honey helped.
And stars above, he and Evelyn had broken the curse.
A breeze blew into the tent. Kade couldn’t detect where on the battlefield they sat.
He spied the darkness of night, that was all.
The camp remained eerily quiet, too. No celebratory songs.
No moans of the injured. No crackling fires either.
Were they on the Drystan or Sorin side of the Void?
Could he even refer to that landmark anymore if it no longer existed?
“How long have I been out?” he asked.
Linx ignored his question and moved on to the bandage wrapped around his middle. “Your god-like making is so impressive.”
Kade fidgeted in his seat, Linx’s tone sending unease through him. Her fingers grazed up his abdominal muscles, her thumb brushing underneath the cheesecloth. Fascination gripped the mage healer, her eyes wide—
Kade blinked. No. Linx’s eyes had shifted from yellow to a deep blue. Linx peered up at him, and the color vanished, as if he’d imagined the change. Of course, the mage healer changed her hair color weekly, but he’d never known her to change her eye color. Moons, was he that tired after the battle?
As if he craved the taste, and he downed the rest of the tea.
A wave of energy flushed through Kade, and he rose from bed. An odd sensation gripped him, like he walked without the gravity weighing down his limbs. He searched for a pair of boots, a tunic, anything to wear as he went to sought out Evelyn.
“Where are you going?” Linx hissed, her words cutting through the unnatural silence with a level of venom Kade had never heard before.
He stiffened, fisting his hands at his sides. “To see Evelyn.”
“I never permitted—“
“I don’t need anything of the sort to seek out my mate,” Kade growled.
His instinct screamed. What in the fuck what gotten into his teammate?
Linx didn’t flinch. She narrowed her eyes, and Kade found the patience he’d had for Linx lately vanish. His legs moved of their own accord, and he sprinted from the tent, desperate to reach Evelyn because something was very, very wrong.
Outside, the desolate wasteland Kade had dreamed of many times sprawled across Sorin, and he came to a bone-chilling halt. It wasn’t the loss of gravity he felt, but the empty otherness of dark magic gripping his mind.
The aftershocks of an explosion clung to his legs. Rang in his ears. Evelyn’s fear-filled scream ripping through the air. Kade stared at his unmarked hands, the phantom feeling blood coated them wet and slick.
Stars above, what had he done?
“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” Linx appeared at his side out of thin air, like she had so many times before.
Yet, Kade had never questioned it. Why hadn’t he? Why had he let Linx join the Gray Fenris? He barely recalled meeting the mage for the first time. She’d always just…been there. Yet, who was she, really?
His mind reeled, and as desperation coursed through his blood like acid, he reached down the mating bond. He met nothingness. The worst possibility rooted him in place, and he replayed the last events over and over. Mere fragments flashed across his mind.
Evelyn had planted the ever seed. A magnificent tree had grown. Darkness had left the lands of Drystan, and the Mother of Darkness had almost ended the Sun Goddess. And then—
“It was you.” Kade whirled to face Linx. “You caused the explosion—“
The mage next to of him wasn’t the Gray Fenris’s healer. In fact, she wasn’t a mage at all.
The two females shared a likeness, but small features had changed.
First, she’d grown taller, no longer hitting above his waist but at his shoulder.
Her eyes shimmered a blue gray, distant yellow flecks lingering.
Her pink hair, twisted into her usual buns, shined more rose gold then magenta.
Her nose had shrunk to a narrower bridge and petite point.
But most notable of all were the gold-like fangs peeking out of her parted lips.
One became Three.
Kade stumbled back. “You’re… You’re the third? But Matilda Moore died—“
“My name is Morrígna, and I am the triple goddess remade,” she seethed.
Kade reared closer, his demand echoing across the wasteland. “How? Why? We were winning, Linx. We were ridding Sorin of darkness.”
“My name is Morrígna!” she screamed.
Kade’s mind trembled at the baritone.
He shook his head, disbelief chilling him to the bone. The Linx he knew. The friend he had. The teammate he’d fought with. She was gone. He had a thousand questions and more worries, yet he could only manage one.
“Why?” he asked again.
Morrígna paced. “Because a millennium ago, I was jilted.
After the One split us into Three, I was born the measly, insignificant witch, Matilda Moore with no memories of being a goddess, no powers aside from watered-down magic in my coven, while Macha had the Otherworld and the love of witches and Badb had demons, darkness, and Hel. But what did I, have? Nothing!
“When the curse fell, I discovered what I was while searching for Odin. I felt him die and our fated bond fractured, and yet, I lived. Lost and broken, I found the same altar the Verena’s discovered. I’d read about their bargain with the Blood Goddess and demanded the same. Bring him back.”
Emotions twisted Linx’s features. Rage warred in her eyes while tears welled within them. Her body shook, and yet she remained in place, like her tale had put her in trance.
“Yet, Macha recognized me for who I truly was. Nemain, she’d said, it is you. Then, she offered me something greater than love.”
A chill ran down Kade’s spin. “What was that?”
Linx’s lips split into a sinister smile. “Power.”
The earth trembled under Kade’s boots, and thunder rumbled above.
“If I helped Macha ruin Badb’s reputation, she’d restore me to a god-like being.
Though, she underestimated me. She thought I was a na?ve and obedient follower to her cause.
Of course, I made sure I appeared as so.
I helped plant seeds of doubt in this world.
As Matilda Moore, I had access to research regarding the vampyrs before the curse and burned it all.
It was I who made sure only a single stanza lived on from the prophecy, enough to keep hope and chaos in balance.
I weaseled my way into witch politics and influenced the use of birth order and duty.
I orchestrated Riven’s alliance with the Sun Goddess, manipulated Circe to darkness so she’d abuse Evelyn. ”
Kade’s hackles rose.
“I whispered the date of your wedding to Riven, even sparked the idea about walking in the sunlight. It is I who funneled information who connected the prince to Claus and Circe in the first place. I tried to kill your mother, and at least successfully killed Evelyn’s parents…
“ She shrugged. “I did everything in my power to make sure the third borns never succeeded.”
“But you failed,” Kade whispered. “Evelyn broke the curse.”
Linx—no, Morrígna—cackled. “No, I’ve been remade.
I didn’t trust Macha to truly restore me and knew the only way to regain what I’d been robbed was bringing our souls back together and recreating the One.
I almost wouldn’t have succeeded if it weren’t for your obstreperous and vexing witch, but then Macha’s own pride got her in the end—she emerged from the Otherworld, giving me the perfect moment to draw us all back together.
The curse may be broken, but the prophecy is not fulfilled. Darkness remains.”
“Evelyn and I—“
Morrígna screeched. “Stop saying her name! She is not here at your side, I am! You might not see it now, but in time, I hope one day you will, Kade Drengr. The power in your soul was once intertwined with mine—“
“I am mated to Evelyn Carson, and nothing will break that bond or my love for her,” Kade growled.