Page 33 of Fated In Forever (Nocturne Vampire Clan #4)

EVANGELINE

T he obsidian corridors grew darker as Malachi led me deeper into the castle's twisted heart. But that could have been my imagination.

Maybe because the lost souls stayed upstairs, as if they knew whatever waited down here was something they wanted no part of.

But this was bullshit. Complete and utter bullshit. This was Malachi and his twisted sense of nobility, and okay, sure my hair was a little bit darker, but sending me away was a bullshit move.

Malachi’s transformed form—Orcus—moved with a fluid grace that both fascinated and terrified me—every step silent, every gesture flowing like liquid shadow, as if he was truly becoming part of this place.

But…

I caught glimpses of my reflection in the polished black walls—skin growing paler by the hour, hair darkening at the roots like ink spreading through water, eyes that held flecks of darkness that hadn't been there before.

He was right. The Underworld was claiming me, and the longer I remained here, the thinner the connection with my own realm became.

“How much further?” I asked, my voice echoing in the vast corridors like a deep, resounding echo, not unlike Malachi’s.

“Not far. One more corridor, and a right, and we’re there,” Malachi replied, squeezing my hand. “This portal was made by someone, the owner of the castle, perhaps. There’s a room, much like the one at Chateau des Ombres éternelles. But…bigger.”

I tightened my grip on The Book, its black leather binding as dark as the walls around us, the golden band gleaming softly, the key strung around my neck. Still warm from my body, as if the darkness here had no effect on it.

We turned a corner, and the corridor opened into a vast circular chamber carved from the same obsidian as the rest of the castle.

Five, ten times the size of any other room in this castle.

Those ancient symbols covered every inch of the walls, glowing with a faint red glow that emanated from within the stone itself, and then it struck me.

These symbols were the same as those beneath the chateau.

Glowing with the same crimson light.

And hanging in the center of the room, like a dark, twin specter, was another portal.

“Your doorway, my queen,” Malachi bowed slightly, that arrogant smirk back on his lips, as if it could erase the vulnerability he’d just shown. “If I had to guess, sealed since before your species—and mine—ever drew breath.”

I held out the key, fit it between his too-big fingers, helped guide it into the tiny hole. There was a click, and the golden band vanished altogether, the key falling into my palm. Warmer than it had been, and I slipped it back around my neck for safekeeping.

He approached the portal, The Wishrender spread open in one enormous hand. The language was nothing I recognized, even though I sensed the immensity of the power drifting off the relic, so strong, every shadow in the room drew back.

“Malachi,” I said, unease creeping into my voice. “How do you know any of this?”

He paused, his transformed features softening slightly as he looked back at me. “Esme figured out the secret,” he admitted. “It took her hundreds and hundreds of years to unravel, but now, being here…this feels right. Like I’m remembering something I learned a long time ago, but forgot.”

He paused before that unmoving opening, placed his free hand on the pages, and the symbols on the walls pulsed, responding to his touch, the shadows of the room retreating until we were surrounded by a mirrorlike dome of black, lit with crimson, like the skies above us.

“The Book,” he said quietly, his voice filled with a reverence that made me shiver. “When it grants a wish, it doesn’t only grant a wish. The magic rewrites reality, according to the wisher’s deepest desire. And there are rules.”

“What do you mean?”

He turned to face me fully, and in his changed eyes I saw something that might have been fear.

“One, you only get one wish. Two, the wish must be spoken while your hand is on the pages. Three, you must understand the implications of your desire. And the price...” He trailed off, his grip tightening on the ancient tome.

“What price?”

“Proportional to the scope of the wish. The greater the desire, the greater the cost.” He looked down at The Book, its yellowed pages.

“If you wish for Ravok’s defeat, you must end him with the least personal cost to yourself.

Because his death will be no small magic. The price will be significant. ”

The price . Understanding hit me like a physical blow, and I stepped back, shaking my head. “No. Malachi, no. There has to be another way.”

“There isn't.” His voice was gentle but implacable. “We’re out of time, Evie. If you stay much longer, there won't be enough of you left to save.”

I felt the truth of his words in my bones, in the way the darkness welcomed me, in how the cold stone was now warm beneath my feet, the shadows were like a caress. The Underworld was seductive, but it was also hungry, consuming everything I was, in favor of what this place wanted me to become.

“What price will you pay?” I asked softly. “For sending me back?”

“I do not know.” He shrugged, his transformed features earnest. “But the cost is immaterial. You're worth any price I have to pay, Evie. Any price at all. You need to save your world, and love Blake and Riordan. To have a vibrant life and be an aunt to your new niece. Or nephew. You can’t do any of that from here.”

“And what about you?” My voice was barely a whisper.

His smile was heartbreaking. “This is my home. There is something here I have to do. And…call me crazy, but I think I’ve always known this is where I’d end up, from the very first time I ever saw that portal. And better to be a god in my realm, than Ravok’s slave in ours.”

Malachi’s eyes searched mine, then he was kissing me. A clash of teeth and tongues and desperation that was more of a battle than a goodbye, and over far too soon. “I love you, Vicious. I have loved you from the first time I saw you and I will love you until the universe crumbles.”

Before I could respond, he turned back to The Book, placing his trembling hand on the pages and power built in the air around us—ancient, terrible, magnificent power that made the bones of this place tremble.

“I wish,” he said, his voice carrying the weight of absolute certainty, “for Evangeline Marten Graves to be returned unharmed to her own world, with the power and knowledge needed to save her people from the threat known as Ravok. Take her back to Laith Castle. Keep her safe.”

The Book erupted with golden light, its pages whipping in a wind that came from nowhere and everywhere at once.

The sealed archway cracked, then shattered, revealing a swirling vortex of light and possibility beyond.

But even as the portal opened, I could feel something terrible happening—the cosmic price being extracted for such a monumental wish.

The bond between us.

The golden thread that connected us, that had grown stronger in this realm—began to fray, as if being slowly sawed through by an invisible blade.

“ No .” I lunged toward him, but the portal's pull was already sucking me in, my feet sliding across the smooth obsidian floor. “Malachi, not the bond. You can’t take that away.”

“It's not me…” His eyes were wide with horror, mouth drawn back from those ferocious fangs. “I don’t choose the price,” he breathed. “The magic chooses for us.”

He lunged for me, and in his transformed features was the agony in my caved in chest, in my soul being ripped out of my body.

I thought he’d change his mind, pull me back, save me, but he snapped The Book closed and shoved it into my hands.

“Do not lose this. This is for the best, Vicious.

As long as we're connected, part of you would always belong to the darkness. This way, you can truly be free. ”

“I don’t want to be free . I want a fucking life with you .” I snarled, as the vortex pulled harder, lifting me off my feet.

I sensed the Underworld's hold on me breaking, the changes it had wrought slowly coming undone as Malachi's wish took effect.

My hair was lightening back to honey blond, my skin regaining its natural warmth, my eyes losing their dark flecks.

I was becoming human again, purely human, as the realm's influence was stripped away.

But the bond—our beautiful, terrible bond—continued to dissolve. The connection that had given me the strength to follow him into hell itself, was being severed, thread by thread.

“I love you,” I screamed, shadows swarming over me. “Malachi, I love you.”

Something broke in his expression, and for a moment I thought he might call back the wish, might find some other price to pay.

“Then live,” he said, his voice somehow carrying clearly over the chaos.

“Live for both of us. Be everything you were always meant to be. Be a fucking force of nature, Vicious, and mold the world into whatever you need it to be.”

The last thread of our bond snapped, and the pain of it tore through me like a physical wound.

The portal swallowed me completely, tearing me away from the realm of shadows and the last thing I saw was Malachi's transformed face, beautiful and terrible and heartbroken, growing smaller and smaller until the shadows consumed everything.

Then I was falling through dimensions, through layers of reality, The Book clutched against my chest like an anchor in the storm.

But the price of my freedom would haunt me forever—the severed bond, the love sacrificed for duty, the knowledge that somewhere in the realm of shadows, Malachi waited alone with his terrible, magnificent power, bound to the darkness that had remade him.

The portal spat me out into watery daylight and green grass and the overly sweet scent of phlox and roses. I rolled to a stop on solid ground, staring up at a pattern of thick Hawthorne leaves I recognized, etched against a gray sky, The Book still clutched in my arms.

I was back.

And I was utterly, completely alone.