Page 25 of Owned by Four Alphas (Silverthorn Alphas #2)

She was racing through the forest now, tripping and stumbling over the branches, cutting her limbs on the whipping branches. Ignoring the stinging pain she forced herself onwards, commanded her limbs to move faster.

She had to reach him. She didn’t know why. All she knew was that she was in danger, and she had to reach him.

The lazy stream was a torrent, crashing and churning against the rocks, deep and dark and angry with the promise of drowning. The normally smooth rocks were jagged and misshapen. The trees reached like claws into the sky, devoid of any life, twisting and sharp.

And her father. He was there, on the other side of the river. His expression was twisted into something cruel, something fierce.

“Father!” she screamed, reaching out over the water. It was no use, she could not cross. “Father!”

The Forest God grinned, cracking his face in two, inhumane and terrifying. “Soon, my child,” he promised darkly, “soon.”

The visage broke, and then there was nothing but fire and fury and pain, pain, PAIN—

Selena woke with a scream caught in her throat, her limbs numb, her throat aching.

Her stomach muscles contracted, and she doubled over with a gasp, cramping pain shooting down her legs and up her back.

“No, no, no, no, no no !” she begged, rocking her stomach, her breaths coming out in gasps.

Not here. Not now. She couldn’t be going into labor now .

The seismic pain eased for a moment, and she staggered onto all fours, her skin scraping against the rough stone beneath her. With wincing care, she looked around.

She was in some form of cavern, huge and gaping, easily five times the size of any hall in Elian’s palace.

And it was hot . Swelteringly so, the very rocks warmer than her skin. Not quite hot enough to burn, but enough to catch in her throat and choke her lungs, leaving her gasping for air.

Another contraction hit and she wailed, gripping her stomach, her forehead falling forward to rest on her hands.

“I’m truly sorry, Selena.”

She looked up. Sitting a few paces away, face contorted into abject misery, was Castien.

“You!” she hissed, grunting as more pain shook through her, “H-how could you do this? I thought you were my friend !”

Castien nodded, chewing his lip. Behind him, she could make out the shadows of others passing through the hall, their murmuring voices quiet but excited, their faces shrouded in hoods.

“W-who are those people? Who are you ? Where am I?”

Castien rose, reaching towards her, but she flinched away from him. His hands stopped, suspended in mid-air, true regret twisting his features.

“Some part of me had hoped it wouldn’t be me that succeeded,” he said ruefully, his hands falling to his sides.

“There was more than one of you after me?”

“Oh yes,” he nodded, “we weren’t about to leave it up to only one of us. That would have been foolish. We had at least five operatives looking for an angle. I didn’t know who the others were, of course—part of the whole protection plan in case one of us got caught—but there were others.”

Selena tried to cast her mind back, her brain addled with fear and pain. “Egais?” she guessed, legs trembling.

“The dragon lord? Wouldn’t surprise me, but that hardly matters now,” Castien said. “The point is, we succeeded. And here you are.”

“You were never trying to help me find my father,” she spat. “What, are you a member of the Order of Theldir? Is that it? You were tricking me! My father…my father…” The rest of her sentence turned into a strained groan as she doubled over, clutching her stomach.

Castien took a hesitant step forward. “Can I get you anything? Some blankets…or maybe some water? I confess I don’t know that much about childbirth.”

“Don’t come near me,” she snarled. “Malek will have returned. He’ll know you took me. He’ll have signaled the others by now. They rescued me once, they’ll do it again. They’ll rip you limb from limb.”

Castien sighed, turning away. “They won’t get here in time. Not before…not before we free him.”

“What?” Selena asked, but Castien was walking away, leaving her alone and quivering on the heated floor.

A quiet, rumbling roar started beneath her hands, and she sucked in a gasp. It only got louder, more aggressive, and she turned, fear choking her throat.

Behind her, one tremendous wall of the cavern rumbled and groaned. Not a wall, she realized with sinking dread.

It was a door. A great door, as tall as an oak tree, as wide as a warship, carved into the rock. Against it, heavy iron chains as thick as the pillars of the Marble Halls swung and groaned as some great force battered on the other side of the door.

Fire, molten liquid fire , seeped from the cracks, hissing against the stone and pooling at the floor. Selena whimpered, trying to push herself further away from it, further away from what lay beyond .

Then, she realized with a start that she knew exactly what lay beyond. She had seen it in her dreams.

The woodland, peaceful and calm, would always crack apart. Would always reveal the fire hidden beneath. At first, she had thought it a manifestation of her father’s pain, of the tempest of her magic, but now…

Now she knew she had gotten it the wrong way around. The woods were a visage. The stream, the trees, the rocks, all of it.

Even her father.

The fire had been the truth. The fire, and the god that commanded it.

It was Theldir. It had always been Theldir.

She sobbed, tears falling down her skin, her stomach cramping with wave upon wave of agony.

“Here.” Someone offered her a cup and she took it, greedily drinking the blessedly clear water. It only offered a momentary respite.

“Why?” she sobbed again, “why trick me? Why do all of this?”

Castien—because it was Castien holding the cup—glanced up at the door, his eyebrows drawn together.

“Because you had to believe it was really your father. We watched others attempt to take you away from your mates, to steal your power for their own. We saw exactly what would happen to them. Even with the power of a god, they failed. Your mates…they are too powerful. We knew the only way to get you here would be if you came willingly.”

“But how?” she choked. “The prophecy? My dreams? All of it!”

“My lord is a Dreamwalker,” said Castien, his voice taking on a reverent tone. “He can command the minds of others as they sleep. All they need is a connection. And my lord is bound by the Forest God’s power, the very same power that now flows through you. He waited until you came into it, and then struck.”

Selena gasped out a ragged breath, her knuckles turning white where she gripped the cup.

“As for the prophecy…it’s not true. I made it up.”

“You made it up ?”

“Why do you think I wouldn’t let you translate it? I had noticed the particular book you found was decorated with various maps and illustrations of the Realm. I simply picked a page that showed the right territory, then pretended to find a book that could translate the actual text. For all I know, it could actually be a recipe for roast mutton.”

Selena snarled, hurtling the cup towards Castien’s face. It whizzed past him, clattering to the floor, and she groaned and doubled over as another contraction hit her.

“As for the wording…I needed something that would panic you. Something that would drive a wedge between you and your mates. Something that would destabilize the political situation. I needed you desperate enough to seek your father, out even in your state. A threat about Theldir, and about your unborn child, satisfied all those needs.”

“You fucking bastard— ”

“If it’s any consolation,” Castien said, crouching next to her, “there is a real prophecy.”

“I don’t care,” snarled Selena. “I don’t trust anything that comes out of your mouth!”

“You might care about this one; it’s why you’re here.”

She glared at him, feeling inwards, trying to find her strands of magic. But with her birthing, with her pain, with her panic…she simply had nothing left.

“ Theldir will be undone by a child of fire, earth, shadow, magic, and forest. All his ambitions will crumble to dust, and his purpose destroyed.”

“That’s it?” Selena spat. “You want my child so it doesn’t throw Theldir off his goals? How do you even know it’s even talking about my baby?”

“Come on, Selena,” Castien said, rising to his feet, “of course it’s talking about your child. It’s wrapped up in about a hundred other prophecies about you, about your mates, about your child, your father, Theldir, all of you. And when it says Theldir’s purpose will be destroyed, it means him . Gods never truly die, they just…pass on. Change. All they are is their purpose.”

Despite her fear, her pain, her fury, his words ignited something inside of her. She felt like a child, broken and weak, as she stuttered out, “So…my father…”

“Your father is gone, Selena,” Castien said, his voice strangely full of sympathy. “I’m sorry, I know you hoped he would have all the answers. But he’s gone. Maybe he’s now part of the forest, maybe he left the Realm altogether. There’s an argument to be made that he is you now. It never happens the same way, whenever a god moves on. But the being that fathered you is no more.”

She choked on a sob, covering her mouth with her hand, tears splattering against the stone below her.

“It will be fast,” Castien said, turning away from her again, “but your child needs to die for Theldir to rise. He will change everything, Selena. I wish you would be able to see it. It will be…truly beautiful.”

“You’re mad!” she spat, her heart wrenching, “Utterly, completely mad!”

“Maybe,” Castien said with a small smile. “It won’t be long now. I really am sorry.”

With that, he picked up the cup and walked away again, leaving her with nothing but pain, despair, and the burning heat of a wrathful god.