Page 21

Chapter 21

Evie

T he loose plan to strong-arm our way in, capture the last relic and teach the mysterious Brad a lesson seemed flimsy once we actually got into the shrine. The place loomed huge with a warren of musty hallways that branched off the entryway. Shifters spread out to search the passages and deal with any remaining soldiers.

It looked exactly like all the other temples we had been to, but it seemed different. Boot tracks and paw prints through thick dust told us the soldiers and shifters definitely came in and out regularly. Tapestries rotted on the walls, broken furniture piled up in corners. Crates labeled with the words Sumus Machina looked new and sat open. The evil lair vibes were raising the hair on the back of my neck.

“Is this where you have been hanging out?” I asked Fallon and Mags.

Every sound we made echoed throughout the entryway as grand as the one castle I’d been in. Ward kept me close. Very close. Plastered to his side close.

“It gets cleaner as you get further in, but this was the first tip off Brad wasn’t here for our benefit. Presentation is everything,” Fallon said. She always swore her baked goods tasted more delicious on a cute plate.

Maggie stuck her head into one passageway. “Not that one.” She turned back to the group. “It’s still better than our village. Don’t let the cobwebs scare you into some sort of attack.”

I bristled for a second, my mouth glowing of its own accord, but Ward squeezed my shoulder, and I relaxed. The sister Maggie grew up with wasn’t completely gone. This remained terrifying. That hadn’t changed. But my anger toward her had softened. It still pissed me off to the seven hells that she betrayed me, but it mattered less and less when I knew if I ran to Ward, he would catch me.

I made sure my voice didn’t waver. “I’ll make sure you’re in the path of my dragon if I feel an attack coming on.”

Mags blinked twice and smiled at me. Was that a look of pride on her face? For the sass?

Ward sheltered me in the curve of his body. My agitation agitated him. “Can you sense the relic now?” He asked it almost too quietly to hear over the low, constant hum that made my ears itch.

I sensed we were in trouble, but I think we all realized that. “Everything feels the same in here—like lightning.”

“Helpful,” Noth drawled.

I can shake him like a rat, my dragon chuffed.

“You’re supposed to help us here,” I reminded the elf. “Weren’t you trapped here?”

“They didn’t take me in the front door, so I can’t exactly show you which dirty, cobweb-infested hallway leads to the relic. Aren’t you supposed to find them, too?”

“Don’t talk to my sister like that,” Maggie stepped forward and yelled.

Whoa, she had never snapped like that before. She swore criticism toughened my aura. Noth bristled in return and his eyes flared ruby, a spiderweb of darkness spreading around them. Ward picked me up and physically placed himself between me and the two hissing cats.

“Can you bring us to where they held you?” he asked Noth.

“We don’t need him. He can guard the entrance or something, right?” Mags asked.

Noth just huffed and followed Fallon, who was already starting down a random hallway.

“We’ll just take you back to where they had us,” Fallon said.

The sense of dread only increased as the halls all blended into one another. They were uniformly dark and creepy—haunted, even. After a few, or ten, perhaps a hundred turns, Fallon and Maggie led us to a gigantic hall with two enormous fireplaces at either end. Rather than stone, the flames sat in cold metal housing. The furniture squatted low, sparse, and uncomfortable. It was a strange mix of a temple and something completely otherworldly. Soldiers lounged on all of it and turned to us immediately when we entered the room, including the man in front of the fire. His sandy waved and curled short hair complimented his tanned-to-perfection skin, but it amounted to the personality of a balsa wood box. Somehow, it made the menace coming off him more apparent.

I hated him on sight.

Ward crashed into the gaggle of soldiers and I put my friends behind me, much to their surprise. Noth streaked out of nowhere, reaching for Brad, who produced a black stick and shoved it into Noth’s stomach. Lightning arced out and Noth fell to the ground, unconscious. Brad straightened a bunch of ridiculous clothes—a wide-collared sweater and sand-colored pants that puffed out around him.

“I remembered to turn it all the way up,” Brad said as he kicked Noth. When he turned back to us, his eyes grew harder. “There will be no monster violence in my pad. This is a good vibes only zone.” He smiled too wide, and it showed off straight horse teeth in a thin mouth under a arrow nose.

“I don't care what animal you are, you’ll be dead if you're full of holes. Thank God this place never invented firearms.” He turned to the soldiers, waving them down. “All right, they get the idea, guys.”

His casual attitude made my stomach flip. I wanted this quest over. “Give us the relic or we’ll rip this shrine to its foundations to find it,” I said.

Brad turned his attempt at charm on me. “It’s Evie, right? You’ve been quite the troublemaker. I thought you were just a fated mate the dumb bear picked up, but you turned into a real pain. I was hoping we would find some sort of cure for you and your village. But I guess bad genetics breed true. Those elves didn’t do you any favors.”

We all looked at the unconscious Noth sprawled across the floor.

“I mean, I don’t enjoy dabbling in multigenerational human experiments, but to each their own, I guess.” Brad flicked something from beneath his nail.

Mags took exception to whatever that meant and tried to move past me. I wasn’t fooled by his attempts to bait us. He wanted an excuse to pick us off one by one since he didn’t look like the type that could withstand a group attack.

Brad yawned, not at all bothered by the threat of violence. “It’s getting a little tense in here. I’ll show you the relic. Even let you keep it.”

We all collectively narrowed our eyes at him, but he walked past us, oblivious.

“Just you two.” He flicked a dismissive hand at me and Ward. “It’s a small room.”

“It is,” Maggie confirmed.

“You didn’t think to grab it when he showed it to you?” I hissed at her.

She held up her hands. “It’s Morganite. I definitely don’t need any more Divine Love in my life and it’s not like I understood it was the thing you were searching for.”

Of course she knew what kind of crystal it was. I bet she tried to read its signature, too. Ward dropped the soldier he still choked and put me behind him as we followed Brad down the hallway, down into the storage cellar and into a broom closet. I really hated this as a theme for our quest. Ward grew more uneasy the smaller the space got. I could finally sense the relic, but wrapped in that hazy buzzing.

“Here it is.” Brad gestured to the unreal, head-sized, glowing heart crystal sitting in a cradle of mechanics and yet more wires. “I recognize it’s sad.” He pointed at all the metal stuff. “But that's all that would come over with me. Don’t worry. I’ll build more.”

“You don’t seem particularly upset we’ve destroyed your plans,” Ward commented as we all squeezed into the room.

Brad shrugged. “Those are the expenses of a startup. I came through that Gate knowing there would be ups and downs to taming this place. You shifters were going to be great instruments of war, but you’re costly to control. I'll chalk this up to R&D costs and I got you out of it.” He gestured to Ward.

“He’s not any more controllable than the other shifters,” I told Brad.

The man just looked at me like I was the dumb one. “He is when I have you.” Brad held out a collar I guess I was supposed to put on. Ward reached for it and Brad snapped it back. “The bear will be the leader of my next army. I will pay you handsomely, of course. In return, your troublemaker will live with me since she seems so hard to kill.”

Ward snarled.

“I know enough about mates that I can’t have one without the other. The elves seemed pretty compliant when they ran up, practically tossing their King at me for all the experiments he could handle. Since you ruined my shifter army, we can try using them instead.”

I saw rage light up in Ward’s eyes. Brad would have been smarter to stay with his soldiers than confine himself in a room with us. Ward’s hand shot out and went to crush Brad’s throat, but when the bangle he wore lit up, a magical barrier came between them.

“Nice try, bear,” Brad sneered. The smile on his face was a flash of his malicious intent.

Ward squeezed harder, but nothing happened. He whispered a spell, but it cracked against the barrier.

“Okay, this is getting lame. Grab your prize, Evie. We’ll get back to your friends.”

We needed the last relic, so I couldn’t leave it there, but I didn’t trust Brad as far as Ward could throw him.

“Grab it,” Ward said. At least it will be in our possession.

I detached all the wires and mechania from the crystal. It pulsed its glow, the call now so strong I was falling.

Falling forward. Falling down. Stomach in my throat, much like the first time I turned into a snake. I closed my eyes against the vertigo and opened them to a vast ocean before me. Waves lapped gently onto a white, sugar sand beach. Warm breezes brought the scent of exotic fruit and alcohol. I sat in a long chair that propped up my legs and the woman next to me was sipping on all that juice and rum I smelled. Her bathing suit and sarong were on point, showing much more skin than I would ever dare.

“Oh… hello?”

Veretis turned to me, a soft smile on her face. “Hey there, Evie. I figured you might like this for your glamour.”

I recognized that voice all too well and my insides started quivering like jelly. I could look nonchalant and enjoy the brilliant sunset lighting up the sky. The sun didn’t seem to sink, so the colors stayed vivid and fantastic. I had never been to the ocean, but I always wanted to dig my feet in the sand. “Well, thanks! It’s really pretty.”

“You’re welcome. You deserve it for getting to the last of my relics. I thought you should enjoy mortal things for the last time.”

I was living my dream, digging my toes in the warm sand, but my head jerked up at that. “Am I going to need one of those?” I pointed to her drink.

“Sure! If it gives you something to hold.”

Veretis popped a drink into my hand, and my first sip was a revelation. Fruit I never knew existed danced across my tongue along with the warmth of the rum underneath.

“So, come again? Last time, mortal, what?”

A line came between her perfect brows. “No one told you what happens when you collect all the relics?”

“I think they all got lost somewhere in history, so it’s fuzzy for everyone.” Not like they’ve seen you in a while, I wanted to add, but I was talking to a Goddess. I needed to keep existing through the most terrifying part of this quest yet.

Veretis rolled her eyes. “Mortals are always getting everything wrong. Don’t worry. Give it a few millennia and they'll get the story of how you became a Goddess wrong, too. They did for me. But, really, if the first couple hundred years of corrections don’t stick, you just give up. People will believe whatever they want.”

I gulped more of my drink instead of chasing the rioting thoughts in my head. “I have so many questions.”

“I figured,” she said.

I closed my eyes. “I think you implied I am about to become a Goddess? Frumpy, flailing me—a Goddess? I guess that means I’m never going to be human again.”

“That is the end of the quest,” Veretis said as she adjusted her skirt to get more sun on her legs. “And you were never human. The elves saw to that when they kept their little human colony for their own purposes.”

“Let’s skip that for now because finding out how you became a Goddess is much more interesting than me becoming one.”

Veretis scoffed, but swung her legs over the side of her chair and grabbed my hand. “You really want to know?”

I nodded ‘yes’.

“No one ever wants to know how I’m doing. Sure, I can create worlds like this one, but it’s too depressing to populate it. It will end up all twisted like the ‘leading the shifters to salvation’ thing.”

I shrugged. “Well, you did save them and they kept going… and boning their way through the Harrowlands, so you must have done something right.”

“It’s just a lot of pressure to have that as your origin story. Everyone assumed I was saving my people from life in the Shadow Veil, but it was Steve’s fault. Godds, that guy was so fucking hot.”

I squeaked, trying to hold my laughter. I think I liked Veretis better than I ever imagined possible. Once we got past the using me as her instrument thing, that is. She would fit right in with Mags and Fallon. “Hot guys are usually trouble makers. Mine got me on this stupid quest to begin with.” Oops. Maybe I shouldn’t have said it that way.

Veretis smiled the soft smile again. “This was always your destiny, Evie. Ward couldn’t have stopped you if he tried.”

I wasn’t sure that was true. I was just me. A different me than when I started this quest, maybe more trusting since it was hard to deny my soul mate came through for me, accepted me, loved me. I didn’t know what to say to that, so I changed the subject again. “So how hot are we talking—this Steve?”

“Hot enough for a two-century long booty call. Hot enough to cross forbidden realms. With him in the Harrowlands and me in the Shadow Veil, it was work to even get five minutes together and that man could provide some thirsty horizontal refreshment. I’m talking hours.”

“I got it, girl.” I sipped my drink and tried not to get distracted by the flavor again.

“What was I supposed to do? The back and forth killed our alone time, so I found a Hag to boost my powers and accidentally pulled the rest of the shifter permanently into the Harrowlands when I attempted to stay here, too. The transition between worlds got me a little strange, and I just ended up superpowered, which people thought meant Goddess, like the other Godds who existed here already.”

“What happened to Steve?”

Literal fire sprouted from her eyes, and I recoiled. “Oh, he cheated on me. But I got mine. He became a wrinkly old wizard in no time.”

Wizards weren’t known for their short lifespans, so “no time” was relative, but I related to the need for cheated-on-vengeance. I looked out over the world she created so we might have this little chat, and I realized she had lost a bit of perspective on her power. ‘A little strange’ qualified the croissants at Fallon’s bakery that helped people fall in love. This was a Goddess’ domain and as much as I appreciated the sentiment, I didn’t want to lose touch like that. If nothing else, Ward was too delicious, and too much a part of my soul now to leave behind.

“What happens if I don’t eat this relic? This asshat in the broom closet thinks he’s going to hold me hostage while Ward does his bidding.”

Veretis blinked. “You’ve been eating them?”

I sipped hard through my straw and noticed that my drink was definitely never-ending. That power I could get behind. “Um…”

“I wouldn’t recommend my heart crystal on human teeth, or even dragon teeth for that matter, but you are still a dragon, Evie. I just helped you get there. That’s plenty good enough if you want to stop there.”

I smiled back at her. It was a strange pleasure to “be enough”.

“But if that’s what you choose, you will have to guard my heart for the rest of your life. Sounds like the asshat will be your first test.”

“Will Ward be mad if I pass this up?” I asked her.

“The bear?” Veretis sipped on her drink with more finesse than I managed. “The bear loves you unconditionally, in every way. Maybe if Steve had been my mate, he would have been worth becoming a Goddess for. Hold on to that one, Evie. I’ve seen a lot of things in this existence and what you and Ward have is pretty rare. I mean, he’s on top of you, trying to pump his life force into you as we speak.”

That sounded… dirty… and fun. “Should get back to it, then?”

Veretis spelled up a chicken kabob and munched happily. I waited patiently, letting her finish. She conjured another one, and I cleared my throat.

“I need to get back to it—please. Goddess.”

“Oh, you don’t have to wait for me, Evie. You’re a dragon. You have enough magic to get back even without becoming a Goddess.”

“Right. Cool. I should get on with that.” But when I reached for the idea like I did my shift, it was there, tumbling into my body, which indeed was beneath Ward. He wasn’t doing anything fun with his cock, however. Instead, tears were streaming down his face as he pumped my rib cage, casting spells directly into my heart. It didn’t feel fantastic, but as soon as I opened my eyes, he scooped me into his arms, crushing me against him.

“I thought I lost you. What would I do without you, viper?”

“You’ll never find out, teddy bear.” I went to nestle in the crook of his neck and found a thick, black metal collar in my way. The lights that blinked back at me made me see red.

“He’ll be safe, Goddess, if you do as I tell you,” Brad interrupted. He stood just outside the closet, the chain attached to Ward’s collar in his hand.

That bastard planned for me to absorb the heart the whole time. A powerful shifter and mage weren’t enough?

“Ward. You shouldn’t have. You can’t give your life to him.”

He wiped away his tears in my hair and kissed my cheeks. “I would do anything to protect you from harm. Anything.”

I hugged him. My love for him and anger at Brad warred with each other. “I know you would, Ward. I’ll never be afraid of you again.”

He took my face in his large hands. “You do?”

I nodded ‘yes’.

He kissed me soundly. “Thank you, viper. I will never betray your trust.”

Ward wouldn’t. Whether or not I wore his mark. I reached into that same well that put me back in my body and crushed the collar in my hand.

Ward looked at me in awe. How?

No one puts a collar on my teddy bear. Stand up slowly and give me cover. Then you’re going to throw me directly at him.

Ward vibrated underneath me. The hells I will.

“We’ll come out, Brad. Just don’t hurt him,” I called to Brad.

The donkey fart started monologuing again. I tuned it out, grabbing Ward's face to really look at him.

Mine , my mind supplied and my dragon agreed with that simple word. Ward was right all along. It felt like home. He wouldn’t walk away or rear back in horror, or change his mind. Nothing in my life had prepared me for this to be the thing I needed, but we were bound. Whether you wanted to call it Fate or a Mate Bond or the Goddess' will. Denying it was useless for both of us, especially when I almost lost my mind seeing that collar on him.

I think that meant I loved him. I was sure I loved him. There was a lot worse out there than an orgasm-dishing King, teddy bear.

Make sure you grab the crystal heart. I’m supposed to be its keeper now.

“You’ll find me a reasonable business partner. We’ll get so much more accomplished with a Goddess,” Brad said in the bored tone I was coming to hate.

I love you, Ward.

I love you, too, Evie. Ward stood slowly and turned.

“Sorry, Brad, your business offer has been declined,” I said.

Before Brad saw the broken collar, I flew through the air. The shift came as easy as stepping through a door.

“Dragon!” Brad screamed, his eyes rolling around in his head.

I gathered the light within me, blasting Brad through and through.

“Missed me!” he called, when he was still standing from the assault.

He didn’t notice the light corrupting his cells from the inside, like my dragon whispered it would, but he noticed when I slammed into him at full force and full size as a dragon. Only his mechanical barrier saved him from completely getting crushed beneath me. I punched a hole in the temple all the way through to the roof and lept to the top with him in my mouth. Swinging him in a wide arc, I loosed him into the sky and across the mountains like the crossbow bolt he tried to kill me with.

Come back from that, you slobbering cock goblin!

I turned my rage on the shrine and the soldiers within. Flesh fell to my light and chunks of stone felt my wrath as my claws and teeth tore it down stone by stone. No one would control the shifters of the Harrowlands ever again. Not even me. From the corner of my eye, I saw Ward with the heart, leading our brood out of the shrine.

“Her blood sugar is a little low,” I heard him tell them. We both smiled at our in-joke. I roared my agreement.

Sand and bones would be all that remained.