Page 30 of Moonlight Bonds (The Nexus #4)

“Time to go,” I tell my mates, because standing here any longer is making me nervous.

I let my Nexus take over, shifting into a wolf, and she stretches out before running forward through the guards, who stare in shock at my grey wolf and the sheer power radiating off me.

My mates shift with me until Hollis’s snow leopard is at my side, Finnegan’s brown bear and Aleksander’s black bear.

I sense them all following alongside me, and I look back once to see Onyx is running on foot with Annie and Issan and the other guards. Why didn’t he shift?

I know I can’t ask him right now as we head straight into the city.

I shift back in the first street, which is littered with abandoned cars, kids’ toys dropped in the street, and rotten food.

Everything is left exactly where the people who died had just stood.

A breath catches in my throat as I look at the ground, seeing how pale it is as it is covered in unnatural grey ash.

Death. I left behind a city of death.

“It’s a trap! RUN!” Onyx screams, and I spin, seeing him collapse to his knees, the line of guards pausing behind him.

Issan grabs Annie at his side, and the both of them disappear into the night.

The ground vibrates like an earthquake, shaking violently from Onyx, and his Nexus flares to life, so bright and strong it hurts my chest to feel him.

Orbs float out of his body at an alarming rate, just like the orbs that I see after taking a life.

They were inside of Onyx, all the souls, and now, they spin into the air between us all. I shift back.

I frown, touching one of them that floats right in front of me and hearing a woman’s soft voice. “Save my son. It is not his time.”

“Onyx!” I shout just as an orb explodes, as every orb explodes like bombs.

I scream as I go flying into the building behind me, straight through a glass wall and over a desk, before finally rolling to a stop on a floor of broken glass.

I heave in pain, feeling a shard of glass stuck into my side and more of them in my back.

I cough out blood as I stand up, my ears ringing and the world spinning like a storm.

I shake my head, clutching my ears, which are bleeding. “Onyx was the trap.” I whisper to myself.

“It was easy enough to control the souls you took and make them flood the only living soul in the city—your mate. I scared him with a warning from the God he feared the most, but he forgot it. Those souls all waited inside him like drops of water in an ocean, drowning his Nexus and waiting to be freed. It’s a rare gift to control the dead…

but not for me.” I turn around, facing the Vian king as he leans on a desk, looking perfectly untouched by the chaos.

He flicks some dust off his suit, and he smiles at me like we are old friends, even as I search around for Georgina in fear.

“Hello, Gwenieve. Do what I ask, and no one needs to be hurt.”

I do what any smart person would do, I push off the desk and run towards the only open door while letting my Nexus free.

She takes over my body, pulling up grey shadows to block the Vian king’s magic as it shoots through the air between us.

Bullshit, no one would get hurt. I run through the open door, slamming it shut behind me like it might stop him, and get to the back door of the building.

Stopping just outside, I close my eyes and cast out my magic, searching for the walls and wrapping them in grey shadows.

My Nexus helps me control it, guide it, and I see the Vian king running across the room to me.

I hope this hurts, motherfucker. I close my hands and my power responds, taking out all the walls of the building.

His roar echoes to me as the ceiling collapses onto him, and I run as the dust pushes me forward, my magic barely holding back the flying plaster and dirt, keeping it from cutting into me.

Breathless, I get into the next street over and walk out, expecting to be alone.

I’m not.

My eyes widen as I come up to a group of people. All Nexus. The survivors of Starlight City. They’re sitting on the floor in circles, and Vian grunts circle them. “Nexus, these ones are yours. Let’s free them.”

“Tasting their blood will be my treat.” She explodes with power, taking the Vian down one by one before they even see her coming.

The bodies slam on the floor in pieces, and she kills them like she is dancing to a song, like it’s a song she has danced to for a very long time.

I watch in awe and disgust, feeling the hot blood pouring over our hands and body until she stops at the last one.

Until there isn’t a Vian alive and she looks over the crowd of Nexus.

Most are crying or pleading to the Gods, who will not listen or help them.

I don’t know what I expect her to do, but she simply watches them. “They used to bow and cheer.”

“They are scared,” I explain to her. “But they are thankful. Let me back.”

“Bowing to a Goddess was a privilege, and one day, they must all bow,” she finishes, letting me back in control.

I gasp at the lack of her presence and how quiet it goes in my mind as people stare at me.

I search around them for anyone I know, for any ranger clothing, and one man stands up, his red hair shining.

Howard claps. “Gwen!” He runs to me through the crowd, which is beginning to move. “You came back and you’re alive!”

As much as I’m glad to see him alive and realise Rhodes was telling the truth, we have bigger problems right now.

“Howard, I need you to listen. We are all the rangers left, and the Vian king is in the city. I distracted him, but it won’t last long.

There are helicopters by the academy, and you need to tell everyone you can to get to them now.

The pilots are still inside. You need to get everyone out, okay? ”

“Okay, I’ll stay. I’ll tell everybody.” Howard nods, lifting his chin.

“We are rangers and we protect our people.” Howard, who always has come across as scared of his own shadow, clearly has changed as of late.

He begins shouting the orders I gave him and commanding a panicked crowd like a boss. I love that for him.

I need to find my mates before the Vian king does, and I need to find Finnegan. His family aren’t here, I don’t think. This was all a trap to lure us, and he had no intention of trading anything with us at all.

The ground shakes as I come around a corner and find a Vian army facing my mates, and they’re different.

Shadows echo around Hollis like red darkness itself, crashing through the Vian king’s army, one after the other, whereas Alek—shirtless now, his top ripped to pieces—has a giant snake tattooed up his back.

He’s in that form he was before where it’s just his Nexus in control, and he’s barrelling through the crowds.

Finnegan has now shifted into a bear that is four times the size of the one that slept on my floor, black lines striped down his fur that glow as bright as his glowing silver eyes as he crashes through the army.

Gods. They are fighting like they are Gods, and the Vian don’t stand a chance.

Maybe we can win this war, with all of us fighting in our true forms, letting go of the fear.

We can be Gods and we can remake this world, take it from the Vian king.

Wait, where is Onyx? I turn, trying to look for him, and finally I sense him a few blocks over now that his Nexus is back.

I have to get to him. I want to stay and fight with my mates, to help them, but something’s very wrong with Onyx, and he might need help.

The Vian king is more likely to go after Onyx than he is to go after the others when they are like this.

I can protect Onyx and bring him back here.

Then we can all leave. There will be another way to save Finnegan’s family.

I run straight through alleyways, through the building, turning around corners as I go, just using my mating bond to find Onyx.

The city is loud again, but not in a good way; the screams echo far and wide.

Finally, I know I’m close and I rush out of an alleyway, only to come to a stop under a streetlight.

On the other side of the empty road is another streetlight, flickering on and off, and Onyx is collapsed on the floor under it.

The Vian king is standing over him with his foot resting on Onyx’s hip. He smiles.

“What did you do to my mate?” I snarl, but I don’t dare walk closer.

“Nothing, this is on you. Your little trick ruined my suit.” He waves at the suit, which is now ripped and dirty. “Now, your mate is weak, and the God’s hold on him is slipping. If he lets go, both die.”

“Which God?” I snap.

“Well, that’s the question, isn’t it?” He cocks his head to the side.

“You don’t want to know what happens if you try to mess with my mate. Georgina’s not here to protect you this time,” I snap, taking a step off the curb. “You’re alone, and I want you dead.”

“I never needed Georgina to protect me.” He laughs like the idea is funny.

He doesn’t move, and I’m not sure I could stop him from killing Onyx before I got to him.

Onyx’s eyes blink open. He tries to lift his head off the floor, only to collapse down with a groan that sounds like my name.

Onyx. “I’m going to tell you a story, and when I’m done, we will decide what to do with your mate. ”

“Honestly, I’m not in the mood to listen to you drone on about yourself.” I take another step closer.

“You are very impertinent.” He lifts Onyx up in the air with his powers, and he wraps his hand around his neck and holds him still like a doll. My heart freezes. “Not another step. Are you going to listen now?”