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My twin kept a tight grip on my arm as we shadow walked faster than we’d ever traveled before through the lower catacombs of the citadel. Frustrated growls I couldn’t contain filled the darkness as we occasionally crashed into a chilled stone wall in the dank, deserted passages.

Only a few scattered lumis orbs lit our path, yet we had lived so long within darkness and shadow that neither of us needed light as a guide.

Or at least, I’d never needed it before.

Now, Alula’s light drew me like a homing beacon, even as her grief consumed her and she retreated into herself once again. Her light within me connected us much the same way my shadow did as it thrummed against her chest, trying to comfort her. Raw parts of ourselves we’d gifted to each other, even if it was unconsciously done.

Still, it wasn’t enough. The need to put my hands on her, to hold her close and protect her with my body, had me shaking. It was a pull toward her that had become manifest in its desperation, like a thread of gold that coiled about me and cut deeper the farther I tried to move away from her.

Icy fear still roiled through me at how close she’d come to the wraith goring her, only her mother’s selfless actions saving her life. I’d been too far away, while it all happened in agonizingly slow motion in front of me. I’d only left because she’d insisted, but I’d had no intention of straying far. My brother and I had stayed as close as we could without endangering her further by starting a battle we couldn’t possibly win.

Now I was even farther away while violence stalked her steps. Forcing myself to move in any direction except toward her felt like peeling my skin from my bones after what had just happened, yet she’d insisted. Again.

She was acting on pure instinct, always safeguarding those around her by keeping them away. She still didn’t recognize she no longer needed to stand so solitary against the world. The need to protect her was a building drumbeat within my veins, a call to arms. Especially now that I could sense her moving away from me too. Or being dragged away.

When Raed lurched to a stop in a barren passageway, the tang of magnesium in the air told me we were close to our destination—the pool beneath the citadel.

“We can’t stay,” he said, his tone insistent, despite my not uttering a word. His eyes were two liquid pools of fury in the darkness, although his ire wasn’t directed at me. I wasn’t sure his words were either. My brother was no coward. Running from a fight was as little in his nature as it was mine. We just battled in different ways. “Our people need us. I didn’t embellish the threat they face.”

“I know.” It wasn’t something he would ever misspeak about. He was as pulled in different directions as I was.

“So why do I sense you’re about to shove me into this pool and disappear on me again?” His glare intensified at my silence. “You’d choose her over our people, over me?”

It was an honest question, not a judgment.

“I’d choose her over me.”

Raed sucked in a breath before he spoke again, letting the silence hang in the darkness between us for a moment. “Why?”

We didn’t have time for this conversation, but I needed him to understand if I was going to convince him to leave without me. Only then could I return to Alula and my place at her side, knowing he’d protect our people.

“She’s my mate.”

The word seemed to echo beyond us, out into the void that enveloped this cursed world. Speaking it aloud bound me to her. It wasn’t one that could be taken back, not with deities hovering and watching us far too closely.

“So it took a fated mate to finally draw you from your shadows.” My twin’s familiar frown deepened as he stepped toward me, his mind already mapping a shift in my future and trying to figure out how to protect me. “Does she know?”

He didn’t ask if I was sure, or even how I knew. It wasn’t a claim anyone made lightly.

“In this citadel, the elders arrange marriages. They don’t appear to even acknowledge love. I’m not sure she knows mates exist.”

Mates were a rarity throughout this world, not just within Lumière. Stories were told around campfires across the realms of legendary mates from long ago. The mate bond had the strength to alter fates. Centuries ago, one such pairing had led to the Fallen.

I’d wondered when the increasing pull toward her made it impossible to keep myself from constantly reaching for her, or to leave the citadel without her. I’d known for sure the moment the wraith lunged for her.

Her deep need to touch me last night told me she at least felt the stirrings of it, too.

“Will they hurt her if they’re framing her and her mother?” Raed asked.

My jaw clenched, making my words come out stiffly. “They’re not being gentle with her, even now. I think they’re escorting her to a trial.”

“Then we stay,” Raed stated, standing firm with his hands on his hips, all the facade of his casual arrogance long gone. It wasn’t a mask he wore for me.

In the Netherworld, his word was law, and he wasn’t used to being contradicted—once again, that never applied to me.

“I’m staying, but you need to go,” I insisted. “I’ll follow when I can.”

His glare was fierce, a slice of impenetrable ice, and his body went still the way it always did when he was resolute. “I’ve never let you fight a battle alone before. I’m not about to start now when you’re planning on taking on an entire citadel. Besides, if she’s your mate, that makes her my sister.”

“Raed—” I countered, but he spoke over me.

“Nier, if our history shows anything, it’s that mates rise at turning points for their people. The Fallen are tough. They will stand together and fight against the wraiths until we return. They’ve done it before. What happens here today will matter. You matter. Not just to me, but to our people too. You’ve never seen it before, but I’ve always known a fate was coming for you.”

Life had led us down different paths, and we each wrestled with our nightmares alone, but I’d never doubted my twin had my back.

“You can’t save me from my fate, Raed.”

“Watch me.” His gritted teeth and clenched hands betrayed his stubborn determination.

He’d been trying to save me ever since I’d gotten the scars on my neck. My hand twitched, instinctively wanting to cover my throat, as I often did when I remembered that moment. Especially when I woke sweating at night, choking back a scream. I forced my hand to stay at my side. He didn’t need the reminder right now.

Despite the heavy memories that always rose between us, having my twin here eased something inside me. I couldn’t deny it. “Whatever we’re going to do, we can’t do it in this passageway.”

He nodded as his eyes shifted and he considered our options. My brother was a brilliant strategist. “We could find Alula’s father again, but I think our best bet is still to go through the pool. It would be too easy to get pinned down here in these tunnels. If we wait outside the citadel walls, we can see what’s happening and move quicker to wherever we’re needed. It’s also where Alula expects us to be, if she needs to signal for help somehow.”

A nod from me was all he needed before we were moving again. Being outside also meant he could leave easier if we spotted any flares from the ground indicating our home had been breached. Raed barely blinked at the glittering pool before diving in fully clothed. The weight of his clothes and the armor strapped to him would help him swim to the bottom. Plus, we’d need them on the other side.

I’d thought this would be the straightforward part. Yet, after sending our shadows casting wide for the hole during several dives before straining back to the surface, I’d realized this was no quick escape. Our waterlogged clothes and wings grew heavier with each plunge. I finally figured out we needed to cover the lumis orb and reduce the glittering light on the surface. As soon as we did, the faint light of the halo shone through the inky blackness from below, almost directly under the orb, which was acting as camouflage.

Raed’s groan of relief was loud, echoing along the roof of the cavern.

Finally knowing that didn’t make our escape easier. We dove together, and Raed swam through first, his shadows easing his passage even under the water. When I tried to follow, a burning resistance pressed at me. It was enough to drive me back to the surface, gasping for air as I slapped at the water in frustration.

Alula was running out of time. I could feel pressure building within me. She was going to need me soon.

Raed surfaced alongside me a moment later. “What happened?”

“The light Alula shared is blocking me from shadow walking through the halo.”

“Will it fade?” he asked, treading water alongside me. The tense furrow between his brow deepened with worry.

“Eventually, from what I can gather, but we don’t have time to wait.”

“Light blast it,” Raed grumbled, as he glanced back toward the steps. “We’ll have to find another way.”

“It’s not just me,” I said, my words coming out sharp as Darkness urged me back to Alula’s side. “If I can’t get out this way, she definitely won’t be able to do it.”

Raed shook his head. “We’ll deal with how we get her out later. For now, we need to get us into a better position. We’re blind down here.”

“Not completely,” I answered, ignoring his questions as I started swimming back to the edge of the pool, my muscles burning with the unfamiliar exertion of the strokes. All Fallen knew how to swim, but we didn’t do it often.

He followed, not willing to be put off. We hauled ourselves out and wrung water from our clothes on the rocky steps after collapsing onto them.

“What do you mean?” he asked, not giving me a moment to catch my breath. Raed wasn’t a patient person when he wanted answers.

“She has one of my shadows with her.”

My twin was silent for a moment, but not for long. “I sensed your shadow on her when I first saw her, before you stepped into the room. I’ve never heard of that happening before. Is that a mate thing?”

“We can talk about that another time. We need to move. Her elder has dragged her down the promenade, and most of the citadel appears to have followed. I think she’s on trial now .”

When I’d left her, I’d sensed the physical pain she wasn’t acknowledging as her emotional pain overruled everything else. Since Elder Welkin had started dragging her around, her physical pain had been building. The thought of him hurting her had me seething as my shadows grew increasingly agitated.

“Darkness take us. We’re too far away if we have to backtrack through the citadel, even shadow walking,” Raed muttered.

A sudden spike of fear followed by a flash of intense pain burst through my mind, and neither was coming from me. My shadow sent impressions of bloody white wings on the ground. Ice filled me and the impotent rage of the hovering deities battered my mind.

Save her, came the silent demand of Darkness as it thundered through the cosmos.

“Move. Now. We’re going through,” I roared, as I shoved Raed to his feet, almost toppling him into the water before he caught himself.

Not wanting to waste time swimming, I flew out over the water, straining my sodden wings.

“How do we get you through?” Raed shouted, as he flew right alongside me.

“Drag me.”

I no longer cared if it burned.

Every frantic beat of my heart urged me to her side with no time to waste. The fates pressed close, and I knew without a doubt whatever her mother had feared had come to pass, and I wasn’t there.

Nier, came one whispered word, almost lost in the frantic demands of the deities. Alula calling for me, as her mother had said she would, as she clutched my shadow tightly. Every thought homed in on that one word, pushing all the rest aside.

Raed dove with me, the speed of our abrupt flight and the dive propelling us through the water and straight to the bottom. Raed banded his arms around me, locked his hands beneath my wings, and pushed through backward, pulling me with him.

The halo hit me with force, burning me, stripping the light from within me, yet Raed refused to let go, hauling me through with him until we tumbled into the air with a scream ripping from my throat.

It echoed endlessly.

Only, it wasn’t mine.

As I spun, my senses disoriented at abruptly emerging in the sky, I spotted a figure plummeting through the air below us. A female, with a blood-splattered robe and bright golden hair billowing.

Alula was falling.

Without her wings.

Two Apex Flight guardians trailed behind, wings spread wide, battling the buffeting winds instead of diving tightly. They would never reach her in time, and even if they did, given the way they gripped their swords, she would be no safer.

“Take them out,” I screamed, trusting Raed to follow as I dove.

Alula was all I could see. I let gravity pull at me and kept my wings tucked in tightly, angling slightly to zero in on her as the ground rushed toward her too fast.

I wasn’t going to make it.

Still, I chased her through the sky.

I refused to watch her die. To see her lying bleeding and broken, like her mother only moments ago.

Not if my life could be used to save hers.

The wraiths came into closer view—a vicious, screeching horde massing in the dark shadow of the citadel and the blighted the land below it.

In a furious burst of motion, I stepped as I flew and emerged in the deep shadow of the horde. Unable to judge the distance accurately from the wrong angle, my shadow walk slammed me into the hard earth, knocking aside some of the wraiths tightly packed around me. Ignoring the pain and pulling myself into a crouch, I spread my wings. With a single, powerful thrust, I pushed up and through them, pumping hard to clear their grasping claws.

To catch her.

A heartbeat from the ground.

The momentum of her fall pushed me backward as claws tore at my legs and my wings. The wraiths, recovering quickly and unwilling to lose their prize, tried to drag me back down as I held her tightly to me—battling to keep her above their grasp. I loosed the sword I rarely used, and hacked indiscriminately around me, knowing it wouldn’t kill them but trying to create an opening for us to break free.

Hot blood rained down from the dying guardians above us as Raed unleashed his wrath. His sword slashing so fast it was hard to track its movement, a deadly blur of darkness in the bright sky.

For a moment, our fates hung in the balance—life or death, both hovering possibilities. There was only one I would accept for my mate. A harsh war cry ripped from my throat as my shadows whipped into a maelstrom around us and leaped in dark arcs from my slashing sword, confusing and disorienting the wraiths. With a final savage hack and a thrust of my wings that strained every muscle in my back, we ripped clear.

Raed appeared at my side as we flew out from underneath the citadel, scanning the skies and the ground, keeping watch over us while I focused on Alula.

Her wide eyes met mine briefly as I curled her in my arms. She still had my shadow woven tightly in the hand clasped to her chest, keeping it safe. My eyes roved over her, tallying each injury I could see on her body. A bill to be repaid in blood. Her wings were truly gone, and the light within her was ashen, but still she called to me, even now.

“I knew you’d catch me,” she whispered, before her eyes fluttered closed and she went limp. Trusting me to protect her in a world full of dangers she knew nothing about.

“Always,” I whispered back. She was unconscious, bleeding and broken, but alive. I would never let her go anywhere without me ever again. Even if I had to shadow her until the end of our days—maybe even beyond.

For Alula had fallen.

And survived.

Now, she was in my world.

***

If you’d like more of Alula and Nier, the second book in their story—All the Fates That Rise—is available for pre-order now.