Page 21

Aliya

M Y PULSE WAS POUNDING in my head even louder than the stomping of my feet beneath me. I ran faster than I’d ever run in my life, back toward the castle entrance. My legs ached, and my lungs burned, but neither could compare to the agony shredding my heart.

The day with Jax and Tannin had been so lovely, and I would cherish it forever.

So many times as we danced and laughed, I questioned whether or not to go through with my plan.

I had all but decided not to when Jax started asking about my parents.

Those questions had given me the perfect opportunity to get them out of the castle, and I knew I couldn’t let the chance slip away.

Despite their passionate declarations of love and devotion, it was clear to me Jax and Tannin’s allegiance to their pack went deeper than our mate bond. I couldn’t trust them to protect me, or what remained of my kingdom.

Standing in front of my parents’ graves had reminded me of the sacrifices they’d made for their people and for me. And although it had destroyed me to do it, I’d known that turning my back on the two men I loved was the best way to honor their memories.

So, I crept away and bolted.

My feet had barely touched the cobblestone paths when Tannin called my name. Panic had shot a jolt of energy through my limbs, propelling me even faster.

But they were chasing me now. I looked over my shoulder, and two massive black wolves were darting across the cemetery at a terrifying speed.

I screamed at the top of my lungs, pushing my legs harder. I had to get to the entrance before they did. Jax and Tannin loved me in their human forms, but the beasts they’d become didn’t look capable of love or anything other than brutal violence.

I didn’t want to know what would happen if they caught me before I sealed the ward.

The light spilling from the open castle doors got brighter and brighter the closer I got. Just a few more yards. Almost there!

Vicious snarls sounded behind me, claws scraping against the stones frighteningly close.

Please, let me make it!

I hurled myself over the last few steps across the perimeter I’d made, then frantically scrambled for the sage braid beneath the rock. They were getting closer. Any second, they’d reach me.

“Flamare!” I screamed at the end of the sage gripped in my hand.

It caught fire in a blaze of flames, and at this point, I didn’t care if the whole thing incinerated because its smoke was all I needed.

I waved it in front of me, the thick, dark gray cloud it emitted blocking out the charging figures of the wolves only a few feet from me.

“Parum nir alte tunak!” I cried.

The final section of the ward snapped into place, a pulse of energy radiating outward and blowing my hair back as the ephemeral wall flashed with every color of the rainbow for an instant before vanishing from sight.

The next second, the wolves leapt right at me, making me trip backward and fall hard on my ass. But they smacked into the invisible barrier with pained yelps, crumpling to the ground only inches from my feet.

The larger one rose back on its haunches, shaking its head and snarling at me.

“What is this?” Jax’s voice, though much deeper and more grisly.

“A ward,” I said shakily, staring at him with wide, horrified eyes. “I-it will only permit those I invite to cross it.”

The smaller wolf cocked its head at me as it stood up, narrowing its eyes at me as if I’d physically wounded it.

“Why would you do that?” Tannin asked in a wolfish whimper.

I hesitantly climbed to my feet, and though my legs wobbled with the exertion of my sprint, I stood tall and held my head high.

“I heard you both this morning,” I declared. “You’ve been lying to me ever since the moment we met.”

Tannin’s ears folded downward guiltily as he turned his head away.

Jax growled in frustration. “Then you know what’s coming. Our pack will soon be here, and we’re the only ones who can protect you from them.”

I shook my head firmly. “The ward will protect me from them. Let your pack have my village, but they will never have my castle.”

“That ward will not protect you for long,” he insisted. “They’ll find a way in eventually. Please, let us fucking help you!”

“Aliya, listen to us,” Tannin pleaded. “We swear on our mate bond, on everything we are, that we won’t let them hurt you. We’ll reason with them. But you must cooperate. They will view this barrier as a declaration of war, and we won’t be able to protect you from their wrath once that happens.”

Their words had doubt festering inside me. Could their pack really break the ward? Were Jax and Tannin being sincere, and even if they were, would their pack listen to them?

Seeing the desperation in their eyes tugged on my heart, the bond urging me to let them in, to hold them and reassure them that everything was okay.

But I’d made my decision, and I refused to go back on it now.

A raspy snarl rattled behind me, and my breathing halted as a shiver of deepest dread ran up my spine.

Slowly, I looked over my shoulder.

Not one but two hideous, ash-gray monsters were prowling slowly toward me from the ballroom.

Cusith.

“Aliya!” Jax roared as one of them charged at me.

“Zepheren!” I yelled on instinct as I thrust out both arms, palms out, and a gust of air exploded from my hands and blasted into the creature, sending it flying across the ground.

But the other one lunged for me in the next instant, and I narrowly jumped to my right before its claws could strike me, and it slammed into the invisible barrier.

I didn’t wait for it to recover, didn’t stick around to watch as Jax and Tannin clawed and rammed into the barrier in their attempts to get to it. I just ran.

My feet hit the ground with a pounding thud as I trailed the castle wall within the ward, desperate to put as much distance between myself and those nightmarish monsters.

But they were fast on my tail, one of them shredding the ground behind me, and the other one impossibly scaling the wall above me.

What was I going to do? There was nowhere to run. I had created the ward to keep monsters out, and I had inadvertently trapped two demonic beasts inside it that would stop at nothing to tear me limb from limb.

Why hadn’t I learned more defensive magic? Dammit, I was such a fool! And now I was going to die for it.

“Aliya! Let us in!” Tannin barked as he and Jax ran along the outside of the ward, continuing their attempts to force their way through it.

“Don’t make me watch you die!” Jax roared desperately.

But I couldn’t hear their pleas, couldn’t focus on anything but staying out of the cusith’s reach.

The chicken yard loomed around the corner, an obnoxious obstacle in my path. Kicking my feet faster, I rushed at it, then hurtled over the fence, wind whipping around me as I flew off the ground for two heart-stopping seconds.

The tip of my boot caught on the top of the fence, stopping my ascent and forcing me face-down onto the filthy ground of the yard. The hens slumbering in the coop exploded into a frenzy of wing flaps and startled clucks at my rude arrival, and I frantically scrambled to push myself up.

But I’d lost all momentum, and the cusith scaling the wall flung itself off, dropping straight for me.

“Aliya, please!” Jax bellowed.

There was no more time to think. My brief, pitiful life flashed before my eyes in an instant, and I did the only thing I could.

“I invite you in!” I screamed, shielding my face with my arms as the cusith dove closer.

Two large black forms shot over the fence above me, one of them tackling the falling cusith into the wall, and the other catching the second cusith as it broke through the fence.

For a moment, I was too terrified to move, petrified into a turtling position. Finally, I broke free of my paralysis and jackknifed upward, watching in morbid fascination as the two wolves crushed the two cusith between gnashing teeth and powerful claws.

Blood sprayed out from their mutilation, splattering the wall of the castle and staining the wood of what remained of the fence. But Jax and Tannin didn’t stop their savage assault until the beasts were nothing but pulp and shattered bone beneath them.

The two wolves backed away from their slain prey, panting and stumbling. Over the next few seconds, their forms shrank, their postures righting on two legs as their fur rescinded, and they once again became the two men I knew...and still loved.

Naked and covered in blood, they turned to face me, looking exactly as they had the night they’d come to me. Only this time, they had saved my life.

They both made a move toward me, and I ran to them without thought. They caught me as I threw my arms around each of their necks, wrapping their bodies around me and clutching me for dear life.

We held each other like that for a long time, and so many emotions were flooding over me that I couldn’t name a single one.

I loved them. I hated them. I needed them. I couldn’t trust them.

But right now, I didn’t care about any of that. I was just glad we were all safe, and I was so overwhelmingly grateful to them for saving my life.

It was Jax who finally pulled away. “Come on. Let’s get you inside.”

I nodded, letting them each slip a hand into mine and guiding me toward the castle entrance.

“Where do we go from here?” I asked softly as we went through the large pair of doors.

“I don’t know,” Jax said. “But we’ll figure it out together.”

“Together,” Tannin agreed.

They both looked down at me, and I could feel the love in those intense gazes. My fate was in their hands now, whether I liked it or not, and I had no choice but to have faith.

I nodded. “Together.”

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