Page 41 of Fated In Forever (Nocturne Vampire Clan #4)

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T he past five minutes had been spent in a blind rush of panic, ever since I’d watched Evangeline vanish from Laith Castle’s gardens, snatched away by some powerful, unforeseen force.

And now I was feral. Possessed .

I couldn’t fly fast enough, couldn’t make my shadows transport me back to this cursed place quick enough to keep my temper in check. Every time we got Evie back, every time we had a moment of peace, she was taken away from us again.

And I was fucking done.

I was killing these two fucks. Now. Any way I could.

Riordan and I materialized straight into a warzone, fought on the crumbling stone of the Keep's courtyard, in a storm of shadow and fume.

My boots hit ancient cobblestones slick with something that might have been rain, if rain carried the metallic reek of magic gone wrong.

The air writhed with power, thick enough to choke on, so fouled by magic, my skin crawled as darkness brushed over me, my eyes watering.

“Holy fuck .” Riordan doubled over, bracing his hands on his knees.

The air is pure poison. And Evie is right beneath the rift. All that blackness spilled right over her, but unbelievably, she was…fine.

Above us, the rift yawned wider, Stygian shadows poured out in waves, not the deathly shadows I commanded, but something hungrier. Corrupted. Foul . They cascaded down the mountainside in torrents, swallowing trees and rocks alike, painting the world black.

But it wasn't the rift that stopped my breath.

Nor was it Ravok, surrounded by a rotting wall of thralls, their empty eyes as vacant as their souls.

It was my brilliant, fierce mate.

Evangeline faced Ravok, raising her arms toward the hemorrhaging sky, and she was fucking magnificent .

Penumbral magic coated her arms—no, her arms had somehow turned black—and she was wielding the power pouring out of the rift like a conductor.

Her long hair whipped around her face as she drew the spilt shadows to herself, and damn if they didn’t obey, spiraling around her in a chaotic tempest.

Then she sent them spinning across the ruins toward Ravok.

The bastard looked strong, and there was a good reason for that. With every blast of his magic, more thralls dropped, their desiccated bodies curling into husks, until he was surrounded by piles of corpses, but my mate was holding her own. No, she was doing better than that.

She was kicking his fucking ass.

“Where the fuck do we even start?” Riordan's voice cut through the magical storm, sharp with urgency. “The ley line’s been opened, and that rift is getting bigger. And Evangeline is…” He shook his head with a grin.

The dark air around us was choking, speckled with tiny bits of glittering magic, and every inhalation burned, tasting of copper and ozone and something vile that made my teeth ache.

“Fiona, Brendan and Nash have to be here somewhere. Secure them, I’ll help Evie.” I pulled my shirt up over my face, wondering how the hell she was breathing this air.

“There.” Rohr pointed to a tumbled pile of rock, the three of them crouched behind it, then to my mate, tactically placed directly between them and Ravok.

Because of course she was .

Ravok raised his hands, gathering energy for what would surely be a killing blow, and every thrall around him collapsed. I was already moving when he released his magic, my boots barely gripping the magic-drenched rocks.

My shadows exploded outward without conscious thought, pouring from every part of me in a tide of darkness that was nothing like the wild chaos above.

These were mine , trained and honed and desperate to protect what mattered most. They streaked across the broken stones toward Evangeline, and the connection struck like lightning.

Her darkness and mine didn't just meet—they exploded .

Two distinct powers, both born of the night, spiraling together, amplifying power, until what flowed between us was something incredible and new. Not shadow, not void, but a vicious force, humming with a terrible, beautiful hunger.

In that moment, I felt everything Evangeline did—the crushing weight of the rift spilling over her shoulders, the burning of her own magic through her veins, and underneath it all, her fierce determination to protect everyone she loved.

Especially me.

There is my beautiful mate, something primal in me whispered, and her gaze whipped to mine, a fearless, sharp grin on her lips. You are my queen, Evangeline. Give this bastard hell.

And our power surged, like it never had before.

All Ravok's thralls were dead, his spell shattering beneath our darkness, his face a mix of outrage and shock that I wanted to paint on my memories forever so I could gloat over it later.

“Impossible,” he snarled, but I could hear the doubt in his trembling voice. Good. He should be afraid of Evangeline. Of what she could do.

The shadows we commanded together rose like a living thing, and when they slammed into Ravok, they didn't just strike—they erased everything in their path. Stone and rock crumbled, air itself warped, and our enemy was swallowed in a fury of absolute power unleashed.

He flew backward, his arms windmilling and for one crystalline moment I relished the helpless terror in his eyes before he plummeted over the Keep's edge. His scream faded to nothing, lost in the howling wind.

My eyes might have been deceiving me, but something that looked a lot like Romulus crawled to the edge of the drop off and flung itself over, and the two rotting corpses I assumed were Evie’s still-semi-operational uncles vanished in a swirl of smoke, a second later.

The rift above us pulsed one final time, the leaking darkness slowing.

Riordan shouted to Fiona, who raced to the ley line rupture, encasing it in a dome of fire.

In the sudden quiet that followed, Evangeline swayed on her feet, but I was there to catch her. To scoop her up into my arms and cradle her against me, feeling every exhausted tremble of her body.

I carried her to the edge and we peered over together, her arms tightening around my neck. Riordan and Brendan joined us, the four of us sharing the same bemused can-it-really-be-over looks.

“You didn’t pace yourself,” I scolded gently, kissing the top of my mate’s head. “Always, always, leave a reserve, Evie, no matter how strong your enemy is. If you’re running low, retreat and fight another day.”

“I won the battle, yet here you are, giving me advice.”

“Only because I’ve been in your shoes.” My smile turned wry. “More than once. And the advice bears repeating.” I nuzzled her throat. “You dematerialized.”

Her nose wrinkled. “It was awful. I thought I was going to be torn apart like a chicken wing on wing night.”

“Well, that’s something else for us to practice then.” I pressed my face into her neck, breathed her in, drowned in her, and thanked all the gods for keeping her safe.

Around us, the Keep's ruins slowly settled into stillness, and for just a minute, I let myself savor the familiar weight of my mate in my arms, and her delicious smell, before Riordan stole her away.

“You shouldn’t have used all your magic, Silver,” he scolded gently, and I stifled my I-told-you-so grin when she looked at me over his shoulder and rolled her eyes.