Page 32

Callum

I stroked Archer's hair as he curled against me, his breathing evening out as exhaustion claimed him.

The weight of his body pressed against mine felt right in a way I'd never experienced before.

Sierra lay on his other side, her silver hair spilling across his chest, while Rowen completed our circle, his arm draped possessively over both Sierra and Archer.

For the first time in my centuries of existence, I didn't feel the urge to slip away once passion had been sated.

The thought of waking with these three still beside me filled me with unexpected warmth.

I'd always prided myself on needing no one, on maintaining my independence even in intimacy.

Yet here I was, reluctant to leave this tangle of limbs and shared breath.

Sierra's eyes fluttered open, meeting mine across Archer's sleeping form. Something passed between us. Understanding, acceptance, perhaps even affection. Without speaking, she reached across Archer's stomach, settling her delicate hand over mine where it rested on his abdomen.

Her touch conveyed what words couldn't—that she felt this strange new bond too, this connection that defied explanation. I turned my palm upward, allowing our fingers to intertwine. The simple gesture felt more intimate than the passionate acts we'd shared earlier.

I'd lived long enough to recognize the rarity of this moment.

Fae don't form attachments easily; we're too long-lived, too accustomed to watching others wither and fade.

Yet something about these three—my brother, our angel-demon, and this remarkable witch—had breached defenses I'd maintained for centuries.

Sierra's eyes drifted closed again, but her fingers remained locked with mine across Archer's stomach. Rowen's breathing had deepened into sleep, his usually guarded expression softened in repose. Even in slumber, he maintained his protective position, shielding Sierra with his body.

As sleep claimed me, my last conscious thought was anticipation. Not for battle or conquest or power, but for the simple pleasure of waking to find them still here.

Cold darkness pressed against my skin, yanking me from peaceful slumber. My eyes snapped open to find the warm bedroom gone, replaced by a barren landscape of shifting shadows. No stars overhead, no ground beneath. Just endless, oppressive darkness that seemed to pulse with malevolent awareness.

Sierra's hand still gripped mine, her fingers ice-cold but present. Her face was pale in the non-light, her silver hair almost luminous against the darkness.

"This is the shadow realm." Her voice was barely audible yet somehow echoing. "We've been pulled across."

I shifted to shield her instinctively, scanning our surroundings. Archer and Rowen were nowhere to be seen. We were alone in this lightless void. The absence of my brother and our shared mate left a physical ache, as though part of myself had been torn away.

"Welcome, welcome." The voice slithered around us, seeming to come from everywhere and nowhere. "How kind of you to join us."

The darkness coalesced before us, forming a vaguely humanoid shape that towered overhead, its edges constantly shifting and reforming. Where a face might be, only deeper darkness swirled.

"The Fae king and the necromancer witch," it continued, the words oily and wrong. "Such a delightful pairing. we've waited so long for a taste of pure Fae essence. The power of the throne runs strong in your veins, Callum Darkbane."

I pushed Sierra behind me, drawing on my power. "Show yourself properly, creature. If you know who I am, you know what I'm capable of."

Laughter rippled through the darkness, a sound like stones grinding together. "Oh, I know precisely what you're capable of. Why do you think we've brought you here? Your shadow abilities are useless in our domain. They're merely echoes of what we truly are."

The creature's arrogance ignited my anger.

With a thought, I summoned Lightsbane to my hand, the sword materializing from shadow as it had countless times before.

The blade had been my father's gift when I reached fifty, the age of maturity for Fae.

I remembered his solemn expression as he presented it to me, explaining its legacy and power.

"A king must be both light and shadow," he'd told me. "This blade understands both."

Lightsbane gleamed even in this lightless place, its edge hungry for battle. The runes etched along its length pulsed with power, drawing on my connection to the shadows.

"A pretty toy," the Shadow Beast mocked, tendrils of darkness reaching toward us. "But you bring a knife to a storm, Fae king. Your weapon cannot harm what has existed since before your realm was dreamed into being."

I shifted my stance, centuries of battle training taking over. "We'll see about that."

I lunged forward, Lightsbane cutting an arc through the darkness. The blade passed through the creature's form, meeting no resistance. The Shadow Beast's laughter intensified, maniacal and disturbing.

"Did we not tell you? Your weapons are meaningless here."

Tendrils of darkness whipped toward me, faster than thought. I blocked the first with Lightsbane, but three more wrapped around my legs, immobilizing me. Cold seeped into my bones where the darkness touched me, a bone-deep chill that seemed to drain my very essence.

"Yes," the creature purred. "Feed us with your struggle. Your power is exquisite. The concentrated magic of generations of Fae royalty. We have hungered for you since our first taste of your realm."

I fought against the tendrils, but more appeared, wrapping around my torso, my arms. Lightsbane grew heavy in my hand, its power seeming to dim as the darkness pressed in.

"Callum!" Sierra's voice cut through my growing despair. She hadn't fled as I'd hoped. Instead, she stepped forward, her eyes beginning to glow with an unearthly white light.

"You made a mistake bringing both of us." Her voice resonating with power I'd never heard from her before. "You should have separated us completely."

The Shadow Beast's form rippled, perhaps in surprise. "The witch thinks she has power here? How amusing."

Sierra ignored the taunt, placing her hand on Lightsbane's hilt alongside mine. Where our skin touched, warmth bloomed, pushing back against the cold darkness trying to devour me.

"I see the dead." Calmness spread through me from where our flesh touched. "I speak with them, channel them, command them. And do you know what I've learned about death, Shadow Beast?"

The creature's form contracted slightly, its tendrils loosening their grip on me.

"Death is not darkness," Sierra continued. "Death is transformation. Death is passage. Death is, in its own unique way, light."

As she spoke, her power flowed into Lightsbane through our joined hands.

The sword's runes shifted, changing from their usual deep blue to a brilliant white that illuminated the void around us.

But the shadows didn't disappear. Instead, they merged with the light, creating a blade that seemed to exist in two states simultaneously.

"Impossible," the Shadow Beast hissed, withdrawing slightly.

"You exist in shadow," Sierra said, her eyes now blazing so brightly I could barely look at her. "But I exist in the space between life and death. And Callum?" she squeezed my hand, "he exists in both light and shadow. Together, with our other mates, we will be your ending."

The power surging through Lightsbane intensified, the blade now wreathed in both shadow and light, neither canceling the other but existing in perfect balance. The weight of the sword lessened in my grip, becoming an extension of my arm once more.

"This cannot be," the Shadow Beast growled, its form losing cohesion as it backed away. "You cannot wield both! That is only possible for…”

But we could. With Sierra's hand still covering mine, I swung Lightsbane in a wide arc, interrupting the beast. This time, when the blade connected with the Shadow Beast's form, it met resistance.

The creature screamed, a sound like the void itself being torn open, as light and shadow cut through its essence.

"You fools!" it shrieked, lashing out with renewed fury. Tendrils of darkness shot toward us from all directions.

I pulled Sierra close with my free arm, continuing to wield Lightsbane with the other. The sword moved almost of its own accord now, slicing through each tendril before it could reach us. Where the blade cut, the darkness didn't reform.

"We need to find its center," Sierra whispered against my ear. "Every being has a core. Even this ancient thing."

I nodded, scanning the writhing mass of shadows before us. There. A deeper darkness, a stillness amidst the chaotic movement. "Hold tight," I murmured, then launched us forward, using my Fae strength to propel us toward the creature's heart.

The Shadow Beast sensed our intent, its form contracting defensively. "You cannot destroy us," it insisted, its voice no longer confident but shrill with fear. "We are eternal! We are the darkness that transcends realms!"

"Then consider us the dawn," I replied, driving Lightsbane directly into that central darkness.

Light and shadow exploded outward from the point of impact. The Shadow Beast's scream became deafening, the sound vibrating through my very bones. It was able to pull away just enough that we didn’t fully pierce its heart.

But we were able to wound it.

"This isn't the end," it howled as its form collapsed inward. "We will return and take what is rightfully ours!"

A concussive blast threw us backward as the beast retreated.

I wrapped myself around Sierra, taking the brunt of the impact as we tumbled through nothingness. For a terrifying moment, I thought we might fall forever through this void, but then solid ground materialized beneath us, and warmth replaced the bone-deep cold.

We landed hard on a familiar floor. Rowen's bedroom. Archer and Rowen jolted awake beside us, confusion and alarm on their faces.

"What happened?" Rowen demanded, reaching for Sierra. "You both disappeared. One moment you were here, the next gone."

Archer's hands moved over us, checking for injuries. "You're freezing," he murmured, pulling us both close.

Sierra shivered against me, her eyes no longer glowing but still wide with residual fear and power. "The Shadow Beast," she explained, her voice hoarse. "It pulled us into its realm."

"We fought it," I added, Lightsbane still clutched in my hand, though the blade had returned to its normal appearance. "Sierra found a way to combine our powers. Light and shadow together."

"You destroyed it?" Archer asked, hope and disbelief mingling in his voice. But there was something else there. A glimmer in his eye as his gaze lingered on Lightsbane.

Sierra shook her head, her lips pursed. "We banished it, I think. It said it would return."

I let Lightsbane dissolve back into shadow. There was a feeling deep within my gut that told me the sword was part of the puzzle and we'd be needing it desperately. Especially with how Archer was looking at it. "We wounded it. It will take time to recover, but I feel like it’ll be back."

Rowen pulled Sierra against his chest, his eyes meeting mine over her head. For once, there was no challenge in his gaze. Only a shared concern and something that might have been respect.

"How did you get back?" he asked.

I looked at Sierra, who was nestled between Archer and Rowen now, their warmth chasing away the chill of the shadow realm.

"I don't know," I admitted. "When we struck it, there was an explosion, and then... we were here. Fuck, I wasn’t able to fully pierce its heart. If I’d been able to, I might have destroyed it.”

"The bond," Archer suggested, one hand reaching out to grasp mine. "When you disappeared, we could still feel you. Distant, but there. Maybe that connection pulled you back."

The thought was both comforting and terrifying. That our lives were now so intertwined that not even separate realms could truly divide us. I'd spent centuries maintaining my independence, and now I was bound to these three in ways I was only beginning to understand.

Sierra's hand found mine again, squeezing gently. "We need to prepare." Her voice was stronger now. "It will come back, and next time it will be ready for us."

"Next time, we'll face it together," Rowen declared, his arm tightening around Sierra. "All four of us."

I nodded, looking at each of them in turn: my brother, our angel-demon, and the remarkable witch who had somehow brought us together. For the first time in my long life, I didn't feel alone in facing whatever darkness lay ahead.

"Together," I agreed, and felt the bond between us pulse in response, stronger than before.