Page 128 of Forever My Siren Luna

We were close. The landscape has changed around us. It was darker and harsher than before. Jagged rocks erected from the dusty ground made the environment around us unwelcoming and haunted. All the trees were dead and rotting. The very life of the earth was nonexistent here. This land was nothing but death, devoid of anything good. Killian was horrified that our mate came to such a place on her own.

“Do you smell that?” Cedric asked.

“Aye. It’s the smell of fire and death,”Cherum answered.

We followed Lira’s scent up a hill, seeing smoke thickening the already darkened sky. We saw it further off, but I had mistaken it for a dark cloud.

“Alpha?”Meldec’s voice echoed in my head. We were closer to the borders between lands now, just several miles north of our warriors where they were standing off with the dark army. “I could feel Cedric getting closer. Can you hear me?”

“Yeah. I can hear you.”

I had been worried about the upcoming battle, but couldn’t leave the hunt for Lira to check in on them. I sent Percy with the rest of our forces to the border to tell them what was happening. Me, Cedric, Cherum, and King Brennus were the ones to remain.

“Alpha, something weird just happened here and we got a bit of a situation.”

Killian growled, his focus taken from finding our mate. “What is it?!”Killian snarled at our Gamma.

“We’re alright, I think, but the demon forces are dead. They were all just burned to death.”

“What?”Killian froze, turning his head towards the direction of the border. The sky wasn’t so black in that direction, so the billowing smoke lifting into the sky was much more noticeable.

“Alpha, it was a-”

“WATCH OUT!” Cherum yelled right then, louder than Mel in the link.

Killian turned just as a dark, demented fairy dropped from the sky, right on top of us. It snarled and yelled, “DEATH TO US BOTH.”

Killian's body was frozen by dark magic, unable to move or react as the monster grabbed my neck and twisted. After a sickening crack, my entire body went numb and my world went black.

Thirty-Eight

King Brennus

Everything happened so fast. I was already feeling weak because of draining as much of my magic into the necklace as I could.

It was not just my daughter I needed to save anymore. It was all of them. My daughter, son-in-law….and their child. I wouldn’t let all the sacrifices her mother and I made be in vain. With the bond connecting them, I prayed that the magic would flow through that and keep her safe, while also protecting the one that will protect her and my grandchild in my coming absence.

When my mate told me before we reset the fabrics of time once again that his happiness was hers, I didn't understand what she meant. I thought that just Elelira being alive and safe was all that mattered. Then, she ran away, joining the pirates, and though she was fierce and found her inner strength, I could see that it only made her bitter. Not happy.

Her happiness didn't come until she finally forgave and accepted her mate. Now, he was dead, and everything was coming full circle once again.

When that creature came down from the sky, it snapped Lachlan’s neck so quickly that I didn’t have time to save him. None of us did. In that fraction of a second, we were all forced to watch in horror. By the time my hand moved to send a bolt of lightning from my triton, throwing the dark fae off my son-in-law, Lachlan's beast was already falling to the ground in a crumpled heap. He was dead, and his Lycan’s body faded back into Lachlan’s. His neck was bent to the side, and his eyes were void. Lifeless.

Cherum and Cedric gripped their chests, bending and falling to the ground. The pained sounds and howls of Lycan’s out in the far distance told me that the rest of the pack already knew that he was gone.

Anger boiled inside of me. The creature was struggling to sit up, and before he could accomplish that feat, I rained down four more strikes of my power, plummeting him back to the ground.

It groaned with excruciating pain, unable to find the strength to push itself up again. As I dismounted from my horse, I sent down one more bolt for good measure, making him lifeless, though I knew he was not yet dead.

He would be. Whatever the creature was, it would be dead. Soon.

Bending beside Lachlan, I righted his neck, fixing his head back to where it should be.

“Just a moment, my son,” I whispered. “Just give me a moment, and this will all be finished.”

I pressed the tip of my triton to the necklace on his chest, giving my magic residing in the pendent the final push it would need. Just a few minutes, and I would be back to finish the rest.

When I saw the glow of the pendant burn brightly, then spirals of my magic slipped out and moved around Lachlan’s limp body until they rested against his neck, I knew it was working. I knew my magic was working to heal his brokenness, though it could not give him life.