Page 23

CHAPTER 22

Diana

I stared out the window, still in shock at what we'd all just witnessed, but knowing there was little time for any of us to process those feelings. There were decisions to be made, and time was of the essence.

"Even if we had comms and could contact your soldiers, Will, I'm afraid there isn't time for them to mobilize and make it here to be of any help. We've got to assume that as soon as they shift back and regroup, they will come for us. I would expect us to be at war before noon tomorrow."

I turned as Sienna made her way over to Elka, who was in her wolf form, struggling to get to her feet from where Mav had flung her.

"Dom, Sienna. Bring Elka to the infirmary and make sure she's alright. Then, have the doctor keep her sedated until the moon passes so she doesn't further injure herself. There are flashlights and lanterns in the storage room down the hall." I turned to the other two vampires in the room as I made my way around the perimeter and lit some candles. "Will and Nicholas, please check on Lochlin."

While Elka would be able to shift back to human at will due to the dagger, Loch was a different story. He’d planned to spend the night in quarantine, and I could only hope that Maverick's wolf hadn’t had the wherewithal to rip off the dungeon doors and take Loch on his way out.

It seemed unlikely that he'd had the time, but I'd already gravely underestimated the bastard once today, and it had proven to be catastrophic. It was a mistake I wouldn't make again.

"Do you want me and Gabe to follow him?" Raven said, moving to my side and laying a comforting hand on my hip. "I can cover the ground, Gabe the sky?"

A chorus of wild howls and frantic yips rang through the night, and I shook my head slowly. The tides and weather had already taken such a toll on these lands as to have our third full moon in less than a month. The inconsistencies of the cycle seemed to make the wolves even less predictable than usual. It was a dangerous brew.

"No. As much as I loathe letting him get away, to follow him now would be a suicide mission."

"Even with hops like that, he'd be hard pressed to catch me in the sky," Gabe reasoned with a shrug.

"It's not just him. It's all of them. Accidents happen on full moons even when times are good. Tensions are high, my people are restless, moreover, we have no idea what Mav is truly capable of yet…Besides, half the demons already hate me and mine for what happened to Malach. The last thing I need is to tell them their new king was shot out of the sky by a fireball." I shook my head again, this time, surer than ever. "I won't consider a recon mission until dawn's first light. Even then, my instinct tells me to let them bring the battle to us. I'd rather defend the keep and land I know best than fight this war on their terms."

"Maybe I can use a bit of magic to help shore up some of your defenses? Boobytrap some entrances?" Theo said, creating flames with his fingertips as he hobbled closer.

"And if not, he can act as our little human candle, can't he?" Myrr cackled as she pulled up by his side. "If anyone wants to read in bed later, Theo's your guy."

"I appreciate anything you can do to help, Theo," I said, managing a smile. It was fleeting, though, as I looked around the room at the smashed chair, the broken glass…the people staring at me, just waiting for my instruction. "If ever I doubted it was time to step aside, I doubt it no more. If I'd have just let Raven and Dom take him out before he shifted, none of this would've happened. It would all be over…"

I let out a snarl and plowed my fist directly into the stone wall behind me, feeling no satisfaction as it cracked and spiderwebbed outward, reminding me of my vampire strength.

I could sense Raven just behind me and it took everything I had not to lean back into him. To let him comfort me when I needed it most. Instead, I turned and let out a bitter laugh.

"Mav might be a fucking sociopathic lunatic, but he was right about one thing. I was pathetic. I let him in. In my desperation to find my true, fated mate, I opened the door that led to every bit of this."

"As much as Lycan prepared you for battle and diplomacy and the ways of a monarchy, he didn't prepare you for life." I turned to see Evangeline stepping into the room. "I apologize for the interruption, but the lights went out and, when I came to see what happened, I overheard…I don't mean to pry.” She glanced around the space and jerked back with a start. “What did I miss?”

My mind was firmly on her words from moments before and I waved a distracted hand at the broken window. “Maverick turned into some sort of magically enhanced super-wolf. It’s a problem, but we’re going to deal with it. What were you saying about my father, though?”

She frowned with one last look around the trashed room and then nodded. “I understand that you’d feel responsible for this, but I think it’s high time for the whole truth…"

I stared at her in confusion.

"The truth about what?"

A regretful smile touched her lips as she continued. "When he took you in, your father feared for your safety. It caused him to keep you sheltered to the ways of the world and of men for far too long. Then, when it came time to consider handing over the throne, he demanded you find one and take him to be yours forever. It was foolish of him, and I know he regretted that dearly after the pain Maverick caused you. You don’t think he knew, but he knew."

I was already shaking my head before she even finished. It was nice to hear that my father had regretted pressuring me to find a mate, but Lycan hadn’t been the one to fall for Maverick’s charm. "While I wish I could lay the blame elsewhere, dear Aunt, it lies only with me. I?—"

"No! There are many at fault here, me included, and there is much more to this story, child. And until you hear it, I don't think you can truly grasp how little of your fate was within your control." She turned and focused her laser sharp gaze on Raven, who seemed frozen in place.

Myrr sucked her teeth and gave him a hard poke to the solar plexus with a sharp elbow.

“Speak up, boy'o. Her mind needs to be clear if she is to succeed. She has already chosen to be with you. You’re indelibly tied. It would only give her comfort to know the truth.”

Raven's muscular throat worked as he stared down at the ancient Oracle.

"You're sure?"

She shrugged with a raspy laugh. "As sure as I ever am."

"Someone better start telling me something," I hissed, a band of panic beginning to close around my chest like a fist, "or I'm going to start swinging now and asking questions later."

"The boy who saved you in the water that day when Edmund tried to kill you?" I held my breath, and he held my gaze. "It was me."

I heard the words, but they didn't penetrate as blood rushed to my head and my vision flickered.

"It's not possible. I…I don't understand. I was told he was dead. I was told…"

"I know, and that's because of me. The Duchess wanted to protect me?—"

"As you are trying to protect me now, Raven," she interjected, crossing her arms over her chest. "But I don't need protection. Diana…look at me," she pleaded. I did, and the emotion in her eyes was nearly my undoing. "I loved you like a daughter, and still do, to this day. I couldn't risk anyone knowing it was Raven who helped you, or he'd have been hunted to the ends of the earth and gutted like a pig. Your brother was the evilest man I'd ever seen. An ocean between them would not have stopped him. No one could know the truth while Edmund still lived."

"He's been dead for months now," I managed, still drowning in a wave of emotions I couldn't even begin to untangle. I wheeled on Raven and stared at him. "How can this be? Surely, I'd have remembered your face…"

Raven’s jaw clenched as he took a step back, giving me space. "You were so young, and in shock yourself, I?—"

His words were cut short as Dom, Sienna, Nicholas, and Will came sailing back into the room at the same time.

"Elka is fine now and resting comfortably, and Loch is right as rain," Sienna said, slowing to a stop as she did a quick survey of our faces. "What did we just walk in on?"

"Diana just found out Raven is her fated mate," Myrr said, clapping her gnarled hands together in glee.

Sienna winced and shot a look at Dom, who let out a string of curses.

Raven stepped forward and gave Nicholas an apologetic glance. "Man…I know you're beat, and I hate to ask, but I think it would help if she could see…"

"Are you kidding me?" Nick shot back. "When you first found out what I could do you looked at me like I was worse than a serial killer," he flexed his fingers with a sudden grin. "I wouldn't miss this chance for the world. Give it here, big guy."

Raven's mouth slanted into a scowl, but he stepped forward and presented his hand. As Nicholas closed his eyes, I almost closed mine too, knowing that what I would see would change everything.

A cool summer morning. The ocean, so bright and blue, it almost hurt to look upon. Two children, an older boy and a young girl with black hair and green eyes. Me, before I’d become a wolf and they’d turned ice blue…I was being held under the water.

The boy turned and I saw his face.

Edmund.

A second boy let out a whoop and launched himself at Edmund, even as I kicked and splashed. Taking him down at the knees. Dragging him to the sand and swinging. Over and over, even as I rose to the surface, coughing and spitting.

It was only then that a dark figure emerged, a woman, darting from the trees in the distance.

The image faded, and Nicholas released Raven to swipe at the tears running down his own face. “That was beautiful,” he said simply. “You can see he loved you, even then…”

“Excuse me a moment, I seem to have something in my eye,” Gabe muttered, stalking out of the room.

But I barely noticed because inside my head my thoughts were spinning over one another.

Evangeline stepped forward and took my hand in hers, squeezing tightly.

What did this mean in the context of my life? What did it mean for me and Raven? He’d kept this from me for far too long, and yet, the look on his face that day…The bravery it took as a young boy to stand against a prince to save me, with no regard for his own life?

"Lies were told to protect many, and I’m sorry for that,” Evangeline murmured, pulling me from my thoughts. “I made mistakes and missteps along the way. Lycan too. But everything we did, we did with the best intentions, with hearts full of love…The same way you embraced your adopted father. The same way you embraced your new people. The same way you embraced a stranger in need of help. You did nothing wrong, child, besides refusing to forgive yourself after all these years. It’s time to let go of the things you could never control."

I closed my eyes and swayed in place. Images of my father flashed through my mind. The two of us fishing by the harbor. Him laughing as I wrestled with my first slippery catch as it tried to get away. Him poring over history books beside me in the library, teaching me the ways of his—our—people. The Duchess had committed a terrible crime faking my death and sending me away. But she did it out of love, and something beautiful had come of it. I'd had a beautiful life because of it. Hell, I'd been a fucking queen for a time because of it.

She’d done the same for Raven. Saving him and saving him for…me. To give me the one thing she could not give herself. The mate of her heart.

Her soft heart only made her stronger in my eyes. Maybe it was time to give myself the same grace…And maybe even extend that same grace to another.

To my fated mate.

My soft heart swelled with joy as the reality of it finally began to set in.

"Raven? I'd like to speak to you alone in my chambers,” I said, ignoring the curious glances as I swept from the room.

Let them wonder. For now, there was only one person I wanted to know my heart…