Page 46

“Oh no,” Theo says, shaking her head with more force than necessary.

“Mother returned a few hundred years after she went missing.” She looks at Ryker, her eyes sad and her lips pulled down in a frown that seems out of place when she was so happy last I met her and even just earlier. “It broke her heart to leave you.”

“What?”

For a moment, Ryker looks like he’s going to run. If not for Serena holding him, I think he might have.

The room quiets as Ryker and Theo hold each other’s gaze, his mouth opening and closing a few times as he attempts to say something and fails.

It’s Serena who finally breaks the silence, asking the question I’m sure Ryker wants to know but is afraid to ask. “Why did she leave him?”

“She didn’t have a choice. Once she got free from Draven, she was weak.

He did terrible things to her and drained so much of her magic that she still can’t heal the forest, and it’s not from a lack of trying.

Draven broke something in her. If she didn’t have to leave to survive, she wouldn’t have.

” She shivers and drops her gaze to the floor.

“She’s never told anyone what happened, but I know it was bad.

Do you know what you have to do to hurt a goddess? ”

She looks around the room, meeting each of our gazes as if one of us might have the answer.

We don’t.

Her gaze finally circles back to Ryker, and I see her soften. Somehow, I know she isn’t going to give us details, and honestly, I’m not sure that I want them.

Damn, my brain hurts.

“She loves you, Ryker, even if it doesn’t feel like it. If she could, I know she would be back here with you. But she did give you that gift. She wasn’t supposed to do that, but Nyx allowed it because of everything that happened.”

Serena looks up at Ryker, and I don’t need to see her eyes to know they’re full of questions. How could they not be?

“What gift?” she asks, but he only shrugs in response.

Theo, of course, has the answer. “You know, your ability to shadow travel.”

Ryker pulls in a sharp breath, his jaw clenching and unclenching. “That voice in my head. Was that her?” His voice is low and shakes slightly, which makes Serena hold him tighter.

“Um, I can’t be sure, but I’d assume so.” The smile on Theo’s face is sad, and as much as I hate to admit it, I feel for Ryker.

Not enough to not hate him, but still.

“Looks like you couldn’t have taught me that trick even if you wanted to, huh?” Serena says, forcing a chuckle that isn’t fooling anyone.

“Oh, no, you could learn it!” Theo hops off the table and is in front of Serena in less than a second, looking at her like a kid who’s about to shift for the first time. “Nyx’s gifts are strong, and while Mother was able to give Ryker that, it’s not the same as if she bestowed it on him herself.”

“Nyx is the goddess who gives mortals the ability to use the shadows? The one whom the Salona would have worshiped before they were destroyed?” Sol sounds almost excited as he puts the pieces together, but even as Theo nods, I can’t help but think about everything that still doesn’t fit.

How the hell did Draven manage to hurt a goddess? Why did he need her to begin with? Why wouldn’t she be allowed back for Ryker?

How did everything get so complicated? To think, before I came here, my biggest issue was worrying about Serena being around Ryker. Turns out there was a lot more I should have been worried about, and I never would have guessed half of it.

I almost wish I could go back to that.

“Yes, Nyx is the goddess Salona worshiped, and Anolas worships Theia.”

That name I’ve heard of. “Theia is the one who blessed us with our tree.” I don’t know why I said it. The tree hardly feels relevant right now, but the words were out before I could put much thought into them.

“Yes!” Theo shouts, looking at me with a huge smile as if I just figured out something amazing and wasn’t simply stating a fact I learned from my mother as a child.

“Every kingdom was granted a gift from the god or goddess they worshiped.” Her smile falls, and she sticks out her bottom lip in a slight pout.

“Sadly, only the light kingdom’s gift remains.

The rest were killed.” She turns to look at Serena again, and something like awe passes over her features. “Or their powers called upon.”

What in the world does that mean?

“What?” Storm asks, seemingly just as lost as I am.

“The trees have powers?” Pike asks, his face screwing up like that’s the weirdest thing he’s ever heard. I know for a fact that’s not true.

"Yes, of course! That's how they live for so long and manage to stay alive in the castle. That's why they are so well guarded. How did you not know that?"

"There is no history on the trees, no books or knowledge passed down from one generation to the next. We worship the gods because those are the powers we have, and we know respect is required to keep our gifts, but I didn't know it had to do with the tree." I admit, watching Theo's eyes go wide.

"Nyx is not prayed to," Theo snaps, catching me off guard, but I can't argue with what she said.

Nobody worships Nyx. My grandfather forbade it after Salona fell, and now, well, everyone either hates or fears the dark element and its goddess.

I tell Theo as much, and that only seems to anger her more.

"Nyx is more than just the goddess of night and darkness. She's the primordial goddess. She's one of the first and most powerful gods ever!" Theo waves her arms around and huffs as if this is all stuff we should know.

To be fair, it probably is, but if I've never heard any of this, how can she expect the rest of them to know?

Most of them aren't from here. Serena doesn't remember shit from before she washed up on the shore, and Ryker…

well, I don't know what he does or doesn't know, but he seems sheltered and just as clueless as the rest of us.

“She is mother to the day and the reason mortals have the ability to shift into beasts!”

Theo seems to be upsetting herself the more she speaks as she realizes we don’t know any of this.

With a groan, she turns her attention back to Serena. “I suppose next you're going to tell me you don’t know where you came from?”

Serena stiffens, and everyone in the room notices; we all know Serena's past.

"I—"

Whatever Serena had been about to say is drowned out by Ryker as he groans and falls to his knees. He'd released Serena, but she's still holding him, and as a result, she also goes down. He manages to keep her from hitting the hard floor by moving her to sit on his knee.

He cradles his head in the hand that isn't keeping Serena upright, his face set in a grimace that screams pain, but he doesn't make another sound.

"Ryker." Serena's voice is full of concern as she presses a hand to his cheek. The rest of us move in, looking for what might have caused him to drop, but I don't see anything.

He doesn't answer her. She looks up, her eyes meeting mine, full of worry and...

Fuck.

She loves him.

I knew it was possible with the way she is around him, but I'd hoped it was one-sided, that he loved her and she only looked at him as a friend. Maybe that he wasn't even capable of the emotion.

It would seem even monsters can fall in love.

Without a word, Ryker lets his hand drop from his head, carefully grasping Serena's waist to move her off his knee.

Serena sinks her teeth into her bottom lip as she reaches for him.

He pulls away, pushing to stand once again without so much as looking at her, and I see the pain that flashes in her eyes.

I don't like the guy. Just a few days ago I would have rather him dead than close to my mate, but now, fuck, I hate to see her sad.

Ryker makes his way toward the door but doesn't make it far. I'm not the only one who can't stand to see Serena upset. He picked the wrong group of men to do that around.

Blair steps in his path, and Ryker attempts to step around him, only for Blair to mimic his movement.

"What are you doing? I wasn't aware this conversation was over," Blair says, his tone calm but his eyes blaze, and I know he's upset. The guy is usually hard to piss off, but Serena is his weakness. It's something we all have in common.

"It is now." Ryker grits out, and it seriously sounds like it pains him to speak.

"Ryker, what's wrong?" Serena demands, moving to stand between Ryker and Blair, her head held high so that he has no choice but to meet her eyes. In doing so, I see them for the first time since he hit the ground.

Cold, white, dead, just like—

Serena gasps, smacking a hand over her mouth as she takes an involuntary step back into Blair's chest. With a hand on her waist, he steadies her, silently offering her his support and strength.

"Ryker," Serena murmurs, her voice so full of emotion that Ryker looks away.

"I have to go, and you need to go back to the castle where you'll be safe," he growls. I hear the demand, the hint of order just below the surface. I don't think Ryker's ever demanded anything of anyone in his whole life, let alone a woman like Serena.

He'll learn eventually, though.

"No." That one word is full of so much sass that I can't stop the smile that pulls at my lips. Looking around at the others, I see I'm not the only one.

Serena doesn't do well with demands. I know that all too well.

"What do you mean, no? It's not safe. Draven is calling me.

I have to go, and you need to go back to the castle and stay safe," Ryker rambles, his words sounding panicked as he closes the distance between them.

"I need to know you're safe, Serena." His hands close around her biceps, pulling her face close to his, but she doesn't so much as flinch.

Growls and snarls fill the small space with his hands on her, but nobody moves.

Serena can handle herself. We all know that, but we don't have to like this. No, I don't think we could keep our beasts quiet even if we tried.

"I won't go running scared knowing he's going to make you do terrible things you don't want to do. Don't go, please."

Ryker flinches at her words, and I know she's hit a nerve, and so does he.

He grits his teeth as he takes a step forward, pressing Serena back into Blair's chest, and I hear the low rumble of his beast. It's kind of shocking he hasn't cracked a tooth already with the harsh set of his jaw.

"Fuck!" he groans, as he takes another step, his legs almost seemingly heavy, his steps dragging, and suddenly I understand.

"You can't stop..." I didn't mean to say it out loud, but the second I do, I know it's true, even before his shoulders sag in defeat.

For the first time since I stepped foot in his cabin, Ryker meets my gaze, and I see him as more than the monster I always believed he was.

He's trapped, unable to resist the call the same way the chimeras are, the same way Lyle is.

His own son, he turned him into a weapon and uses him with no remorse and no care for what it will do to him.

We could have killed him one of the many times we fought to stop him and the chimeras from destroying innocent lives.

The whole time I didn't even stop to consider the fact that he was a victim, too.

The pain in his eyes cuts through me, and I have to look away, but looking at Serena isn't much better as tears well in her eyes.

She knew.

She was able to see past the monster to the person, the one trapped in a life he never wanted. Hated by everyone...

"I don't have a choice. When he calls, I must answer the same as the rest of them." He doesn't meet anyone's eyes, instead looking down at the ground, his shoulders slumped forward as if ashamed, but he still holds Serena at arm’s length.

With a deep breath, he looks up and meets Blair's eyes. "Please, don't let her follow me. I couldn't live with myself if I hurt her."

Blair holds his gaze for a moment, and I know he's assessing him, looking for a lie in his words.

I know he doesn't find one when he shifts his lower half, and I watch Serena's face morph into anger as he coils around her, holding her in place as Ryker slips past them and out the front door.

He's gone so fast he doesn't even close the door, leaving the seven of us at his home as he goes to answer the call of the real monster.

His only request was for us to keep Serena safe. I want to say we can manage that, but I know we can't. Nobody has ever been able to make her do anything she doesn't want to, and now... I'm not sure anyone's powerful enough to stop her, not even Draven.