Page 16 of Fated In Forever (Nocturne Vampire Clan #4)

EVANGELINE

B y the time we arrived in France, this incursion felt more like a guided European bus tour than a military operation.

We’d dragged half the castle with us, and even while I watched, Brendan curiously poked his finger into a shale outcropping, sending a handful of stone tumbling down into the ravine below.

Finn had brought most of their Knightsguard, Nash had brought ours. Blake, Riordan and I stayed out of the grumpy commander’s way—hell, we all stayed out of his way—while he secured the perimeter and sent Nikolai to reinforce the ward, since Fiona had stayed behind to tend to Eldric.

Malachi—clearly staying true to form—remained close to the trees.

“Holy gods,” Brendan muttered, craning his neck. “Will you look at this place.”

In fact, I didn’t know where to look first.

At what remained of the chateau, no longer the stately ruins of two days ago, artfully covered in vines and mountain mist, but rough, broken piles of rock.

Or at the enormous crack running down the side of the mountain from the Keep’s edge, splitting open the side of the cliff like a gaping wound, or at the rift overhead…

“I don’t like the looks of what’s behind that. I’ve never seen one so…wide open.” Brendan br eathed.

“Nor I.” Nikolai’s voice echoed off the stone, tipping his head back to get a better look at the rip in the sky. In fact, we’d all adopted the same posture, and the same horrified expression, consumed by the looming threat over our heads.

The sun was just rising, and we were so high in the mountains, fresh snow dusted the ledges and collapsed arches, streaked gray with soot and ash from the explosion, like the bones of some slumbering god—charred stone towers clawing at the sky, jagged silhouettes haloed against the pale light of dawn.

But all around us, the mountains lay silent beneath the dull, constant roar from the rift. Even the wind seemed to hold its breath.

Finn didn’t notice the silence, or the gaping rift in the clouds. “Knightsguard, take the perimeter—spread to the north and west flanks. Eyes sharp. If anything moves, you kill it. Thralls, especially.”

Nash was already moving our guards toward the south, barking orders in low tones, efficient as ever. Our soldiers responded without hesitation, forming into a tight unit with the Shadowsend guards, until the entire perimeter was secure.

Nikolai’s fingers flickered in a complicated pattern once he’d reinforced the wards, then a no-nonsense Finn was at my elbow, nudging me closer to the base of the cliff, “We’re secure. One at a time, up to the Keep.”

Finn might be a grump, but he ran this operation like a well-oiled machine, keeping his eyes on every single person here. Nash went first with a patrol of his best guards, followed by Finn and Nikolai, then Rohr, then Blake’s arms tightened around me, his lips pressed to my ear.

“Ready? Once we land, stick close while we get our bearings. Nikolai will have to secure the leaking ley line.” I nodded.

One minute, I was on the floor of the snow dusted forest, the next, up on what little remained of the castle Keep, my knees trembling from the sheer force of the black misty magic pouring from the rift.

“Once we locate the opening, we head into the tunnels and see how far we can go.” Finn’s jaw worked as he studied what little was left of the castle.

“Expect cave ins and blocked passages. Providing we reach the round chamber, and the walls are still intact, Brendan performs the ritual, then we get out as quickly as possible.”

Finn and his men spread out across the ruins, Nikolai heading to the far side of the Keep, where a faint haze of magic stained the air like a glitter bomb.

“Are you sure about this, Evie?” Blake stayed close, both of us watching Riordan, and Nash gather near the remnants of what had once been the grand entry hall. “There’s no reason for you to go back below, and we could use another spotter up here.”

“Brendan needs my blood for this to work,” I reminded my mate, even though my stomach was heavy, like a stone sinking to the bottom of a deep lake. Maybe all that clotted cream wasn’t agreeing with me. “I have to go,” I repeated. “I have to make sure this works.”

I had to fix what happened to Malachi, and by extension, what happened to me.

Because those black veins pulsed and I felt every throb like a phantom heartbeat. They were reacting to this place, to the magic here, like they were urging me below.

A few broken columns still stood, their details blackened and chipped; one half-frozen Revenant corpse sprawled beside them. Beneath our feet, something rumbled, like the snores of an enormous dragon.

“The stairwell was right here,” Riordan muttered, swiping away snow-covered debris with his foot. “Stone steps, dropping right into the undercroft.”

“If the main passage is blocked, we’ll have to find another way down,” Finn said, but I could hear the doubt in his voice as he swung his gaze over the destruction. “Are you sure the entrance was here?”

“I’m sure,” Rohr gathered a ball of fire at his fingers, casting the orb down into the hole. I was too far away to see anything but broken rock and dust. “The steps have to be here. Looks like we’ll be moving some stone.”

“Let me go help Rohr out before him and Finn get into it,” Blake squeezed my arm and headed to join them, then the four males were crouched around the pile of rock, hands waving, fingers pointing.

I wrapped my arms around me, trying to stay warm.

These ruins breathed with memory—echoes of cruelty, marked by sooty black marks of cast magic. My boots crunched over broken stone, a sliver of brightly colored stained-glass glittering like a jewel in the snow, the silence thick enough to choke on.

One more step and I stopped cold.

Malachi stared out from the edge of the ruin, where the mountain dropped away into a shrouded valley. His monstrous form could have been sculpted from the stone itself—dark, jagged, permanent. Steam curled from his hunched shoulders, his head hanging, hands limp at his sides.

Haunted. Hopeless. Beautiful.

Malachi? Once again, nothing.

I know you can hear me. Just talk to me. I can’t stand this not speaking to each other. Just tell me what is wrong. We’ll figure this out, I promise.

A flicker inside my ribcage, like a thread, tugging. Almost like the mating bond, but…deeper. A pulse of awareness, someone peering into my darkest depths. And then?—

No.

The word cut like a blade. Not angry. Not cruel.

Just final.

The connection closed, like a slap in the face and I gasped like I’d been shoved underwater. Oh no, you don’t get to tell me no. You don’t get to shut me out, like I don’t have a stake in this, just as much as you…

“Found it.” Riordan’s voice rang over the stone.

I turned to see him, Blake and Nash dragging aside a half-collapsed archway—well, using their magic to drag the stone away—revealing a spiral of steps disappearing into darkness. The air that rushed up from that black hole reeked of rot and old magic, like the mountain was exhaling.

Finn lit a torch, the flame flickering violently in the breeze. “We go down in a tight group. Quiet and fast. Me, Nash, Blake—we’ll take the front. Riordan, you and Evangeline in the center, Brendan and Nikolai in back with Malachi. Evangeline?—”

“I know, I know,” I said, trying not to roll my eyes. “I’ll stick close to Riordan. If anything happens, he’ll get me out.”

I didn’t look back at Malachi. If he was going to shut me out, then fine.

I couldn’t wait to get down to that pool and complete this ritual, and put Ravok’s bullshit curse behind us. I couldn’t wait for him to be back in his mortal form. At least then, I knew I could kick his ass.

The monster, I wasn’t so sure about.

And as we descended into the belly of the broken castle, the shadows welcomed us like an old friend.