Chapter 16 An Anticlimactic Event
An Anticlimactic Event
SHADOW
Seven Years Ago
Ignoring Liam, I focus my attention back to the traitor before me and tighten my grip on his throat. “Do you know what I do to traitors?” My magic tugs on the shadows surrounding us. Groans and moans fill the night air, sliding in closer to its target.
Sodie’s knees buckle, and his eyes dart back and forth, searching for the looming threat. He sinks to the ground, and I follow his movement, towering over him. Shadows surround him, ready to penetrate his mind. No one hurts my Princess and gets away with it.
A fireball passes right in front of my face, singeing my eyelashes. The smell of burned hair infiltrates my senses.
Are you fucking kidding me? Traitors, all of them!
I squeeze his throat harder, ready to crush his esophagus, when another fireball passes in front of me.
“Shadow! I didn’t miss. I’m warning you to back the fuck off!” Liam yells.
“Fuck! He’s controlling the shadows!” Darwin yells.
“I didn’t bring him here for you to kill him. Let him go so he can talk!” Liam shouts.
What little humanity I had left is gone. Nothing will save Sodie now.
A burst of bright light saturates the night sky. I swing around, looking for Liam. His entire body glows with an infernal flame, both hands in front of him.
My hand closes in on itself, passing right through Sodie’s trachea. He falls to the ground, gasping for air. Confused, I glance at my now-empty hand.
Darwin rushes forward, dragging Sodie away from me and adopting a protective stance. I raise my hands, redirecting the shadows toward Liam. The moans of the shadows grow louder as they slither in Liam’s direction. The flames coating his body burn brighter, pushing my shadows back.
“You dare side with this traitor!” I scream.
“He’s not a traitor,” Liam calls back, slowly advancing forward until he too stands in front of Sodie. “He was protecting her.”
Protecting her? Lies! They didn’t see her body washed up on the shore near the pier—her skin icy pale, lips practically blue from the freezing temperature of the water. I had only just met her, and she was taken away from me.
Rage fuels the magic deep within. The shadows murmur in delight, ready for my command.
Sodie kneels on the ground, coughing and gasping for breath.
I take one menacing step toward Darwin, but he doesn’t flinch. He doesn’t fear me.
“Traitor!” I yell at Liam, urging my shadows in his direction. They groan in protest.
“I am not a traitor. You will make a grave mistake if you hurt him. Trust me.”
“You side with these two, Darwin? I can easily tear you apart with my magic.” My shadows snake around his legs.
Impressive. The non-magic wielder doesn’t fear you.
Liam stands his ground, yet I sense he’s torn between who to protect.
Darwin lifts his chin. “Our duty as guards is not only to protect the royal family but to protect each other. You can do your worst. I will not leave my post.”
Shadows slide their way to his throat, wrapping several times around it, threatening to choke the life out of him. True to his declaration, he doesn’t move a muscle.
“He’s innocent. If you hurt him, you hurt the Princess. Sodie is one of her favorite guards,” Darwin adds, his eye contact never straying from my own.
The mere mention of her gives me pause. My eyes dart to Liam, who nods in agreement.
I narrow my eyes. Liam doesn’t trust anyone. “What did you do to her?” I ask Sodie.
He shakes his head, refusing to answer me. I silently command the shadows to wrap around his body like a python ready to engulf its prey. “Stop stalling and tell me what you did!” I bellow, my voice echoing into the night.
He clears his throat and lift his chin. “We didn’t hurt her. We wanted to keep her safe, so we saw an opportunity and took it. I swear on the oath as an Emerald Guard, I acted to protect the Princess.”
I step toward him, and he swallows in fear. “What did you do, and who were you protecting her from?”
“There isn’t much I can tell you. I’m not only protecting Jessica. I’m protecting my pack and my Alpha.”
“Is that so? Then, I guess you’ll die with those secrets.” I lift my hands, commanding the shadows to squeeze the life out of him.
“No!” both Darwin and Liam shout in unison.
“Wait! Stop!” Liam yells.
I pause my ministrations, waiting for Liam to give me a reason not to kill this shifter.
“Sodie! Just tell him what you can!” Liam urges Sodie.
A loud piercing screech fills the night air. My shadows wince at the sudden intrusion. It takes a moment to recognize the sound of a ringing phone. Darwin pats down his body and then frowns. Another shrill ring reverberates through the silence of the secluded area, followed by another.
“Answer it!” I bark.
The shadows surrounding Darwin slowly slither away, and he stumbles toward Sodie, sliding the phone out of his back pocket. “It says Alpha,” he mumbles.
“You better hope your Alpha says something that will save your life.”
Sodie squeezes his eyes close.
“Hello, Sodie’s phone. Darwin speaking.”
I growl in Darwin’s direction, and he breaks into a cheeky grin.
“Yes, ma’am—I mean Alpha, sir, ma’am.” He presses the phone against Sodie’s ear, who can’t even utter a greeting when a soft voice speaks on the other end of the phone.
I loosen the shadowy bindings surrounding Sodie, allowing a brief reprieve so he can speak to his Alpha.
“Yes, Alpha.” Sodie’s eyes drift to mine momentarily, and he shifts them toward Liam.
“Yes, Alpha.” He pulls the phone away from his ear and ends the call.
Settling on his haunches, he closes his eyes and pinches the bridge of his nose.
“I could have used that phone call an hour ago,” he grumbles.
“She just gave me permission to tell all of you the truth.”
“You vouch for him?” I ask Darwin.
“With my life,” he replies.
“I’ll hold you to it.”
Darwin emphatically nods in agreement.
I drop my arms to my sides. The shadows retreat, groaning as they slide back into their previous formation.
I straighten my shirt and sigh. “I’m hungry,” I blurt and spin on my heels, walking toward the village beyond the wooded area.
Stopping in my tracks, I realize they aren’t following me.
“Are you coming?” I toss over my shoulder.
I don’t necessarily need to walk to the restaurant. All the residents on the island wield magic. No one would blink an eye if I just popped in out of nowhere.
Not a normal response from someone who meant to kill them a few seconds ago.
No one said I was normal. Now for the millionth time, leave me the fuck alone.
“You can tell me what you did while we walk down to the village.”
Liam helps Sodie to his feet and checks Darwin for injuries. I grind my molars waiting for them to catch up. Within minutes, the soft thud of footfalls becomes the only sound between the four of us. I glance over my shoulder in Sodie’s direction.
“Six months ago, my brother and I took her to the Void,” Sodie says, without additional explanation.
“Where the fuck is that?” Liam asks, his brows pinched. With no ready answer, Liam repeats, “Where the fuck is the Void, Sodie?”
Sodie glances down at his feet as he continues to walk quietly alongside Darwin. “Nowhere.”
Heat radiates from Liam’s body. “Sodie, so fucking help me, if—”
“No! You don’t get to be pissed with me for trying to save her from you!”
Liam recoils.
“Greystone and his two goons were after her because of you. Now, I don’t know a whole lot about the longstanding beef between the two of you. But they planned to hurt her, and I wasn’t going to let that happen,” Sodie explains.
Darwin clears his throat. “You mean to tell me that you and your brother were the ones who kidnapped the Princess? How? When? The whole time, man, you were with us. You worked tirelessly alongside all of us. And you knew exactly where she was? I’m with Liam on this one.
You should have said something. We’re a team—a pack within a pack. ”
Sodie looks away. “I regret not saying something. The look on everyone’s faces. The plan was she was supposed to stay there, and I figured that, once things settled down, she would be declared dead. I would have gone back to join her, but she’s so fucking stubborn. She escaped and returned home.”
“You kept her prisoner in this place you call the Void?” Liam asks, his eyes adopting a silvery shine.
“She wasn’t a prisoner. It’s the home of the surviving white wolves.”
“Wait a minute. Do you mean the in-between?” Darwin interjects.
Both Liam and I swivel in Darwin’s direction.
Bemused, he shrugs his shoulders. “What? I actually know something the two of you don’t?”
“Explain,” I command.
“So, there’s a hypothesis about the extinction of the white wolf species. I remember reading it on some blog. Anyway, the hypothesis is that the white wolves are not quite extinct, and the surviving white wolves escaped to a place called the in-between.”
“The in-between?” Liam asks, frowning.
Darwin nods. “You know, based on the legend.”
I slap my hand over my face, losing my patience.
“Spit it out, Darwin, before I light a fire under your ass,” Liam urges.
Darwin snorts.
I know Liam will make good on his threat. I kind of like that about him.
“Fine. Fine. Keep your pants on.” He runs a hand down his face.
“I read on the Internet about a space between the portal of the fae world and the Luna Solar Realm. Some say it’s an empty space where time doesn’t exist, like a loophole of sorts—a space that defies quantum physics.
Anyway, I guess the survivors of the white wolf species retreated to this space for sanctuary after the Great War.
Apparently, when the white wolf queen fulfills the prophecy, the portal will open.
The white wolves will return, and magic will be restored. ”
“It’s a myth,” Liam deadpans.
Darwin shrugs. “Every species believes its own story, whether cursed by a witch or a sorcerer or bestowed a second chance by the Sun God or Moon Goddess. They are stories told over and over worldwide.”
Liam turns to Sodie. “You mean to tell me that this place—the in-between or the Void, whatever you call it—really exists?”
Sodie slowly nods. “Don’t act like I’m crazy.
We’re literally standing on an island hidden from the world by some kind of ancient magic.
The only difference here is that time is consistent with the rest of the world.
In the Void, years can pass in a matter of days, or it can loop over and over, stuck in a time warp of sorts.
The Void isn’t exactly a vacation either.
It can make your worst nightmares come true, or it can let you live a life different from the one you lived before.
It’s also a place where souls of the originals go to rest and wait to be reborn.
There are infinite possibilities in the Void, infinite planes to visit.
Only those born there can control the direction that the Void takes them. It’s why she was safe there.”
“You’re saying that the Princess was born in the Void?” Darwin asks.
“No, but my brother and I were. That’s why it had to be one of us to take her.
My brother followed her closely when I couldn’t be with her.
We planned to take her to the Void when the opportunity presented itself.
Just so happened that night when everyone was at the mansion for Luke’s welcome home dinner, and she left without a guard, it was his only chance. ”
I narrow my eyes. There’s more to this story. I’ll let him keep his secrets for now, but eventually, I will get it all out of him.
“Why can’t she remember anything?” Liam inquires.
“I don’t know. She should remember. I ask myself the same question. I also don’t know how she ended up near the pier on the other side of the LS.”
“Why did she look different?” I ask. Memories of her long platinum-blonde hair floating in the ocean flash in my mind.
Sodie scoffs. “Powerful magic healers reside within the Void. She was there long enough for them to heal her.”