Page 50 of The Never List (Never List #1)

Rylee

“People either desperately want you dead or desperately want you alive,” the goddess Evaluna says.

“That’s not really a new concept to me,” I say, but I bow to show her I mean no disrespect.

“The choice is yours now,” the goddess Neph tells me, her voice ever kinder. “You can stay here, in a place of eternal peace and quiet, or you can return to the chaos and the Legends you claim to love so much.”

The choice is simple for me, as every instinct in my soul is still battling to try to get back to them.

“Know this,” she continues. “You will have full control of all their powers. Not the small dregs that you saw in Lumathyst, but the full force of their infinite possibilities. That, matched with your own powers blessed by me, can be damaging to the mind.”

Apprehension crawls up my throat.

“Will it change me?” I ask, my hand sliding over my chest, where my heart should be beating.

“Does it matter?” Evaluna asks.

I swallow hard, contemplating how to better phrase my question. “Will I hurt them? Be a danger to them?”

If my mind is at risk due to the powers…I don’t want a slip in sanity to result in harm to them.

“That will depend on you,” Neph says.

Fuck, so there’s a chance.

I suck in a deep breath. I’ve endured so much—the harsh conditions in the mountains in the Ashlands, my parents going on the Never List, enforcers like Turner treating me like garbage, and my sister disappearing. If I can survive that, I can survive my mates’ powers.

“How do I give it back to them?”

“How does water roll down the side of a mountain?” Tareena asks.

“It’s not so easy to explain,” Neph adds.

“Time is running out,” Evaluna says. “Make your choice.”

“I choose them,” I say confidently despite the uncertainty wavering in my soul.

Evaluna steps closer to me, and I bow low, doing my best not to drop to my knees from her sheer power. “Hurry,” she says. “They’re in danger of meeting us again, but on fate’s terms, not their own.”

“Be wary of who wanted you dead,” Neph says, only adding to the adrenaline racing through my body. “We did not craft that elixir to kill you.”

Tareena and Eirdis nod to me, and then all four of them give me a singular wave, and my entire body rips into a million pieces—

I struggle for breath, swimming up from a pitch black so deep and dark, it’s heavier than anything imaginable.

Sounds hit me all at once.

Chaotic, rage-fueled thoughts echo inside my mind—Axl’s voice and Kal’s. Pierce’s and Jax’s. I can’t distinguish between the words, only the guttural sounds as they fill me from the inside out.

I pry my eyes open, cringing against the onslaught of thoughts storming my mind and the weight of the emotions accompanying them.

Grief.

I’m drowning in it, but it doesn’t belong to me.

I can’t breathe around the anger, the rage, the unmistakable pain of loss.

I roll to my side, immediately emptying the contents of my stomach onto the marble floor. The violent action pushes the powers back, allowing my mind to clear enough to blink the fog from my eyes.

I’m behind Evaluna’s obsidian statue, the sounds of a fight happening just beyond it. I crawl, my legs feeling too wobbly to stand—

Goddess, my mates… They’re fighting off a handful of Faders, powerless.

They have nothing beyond Jax’s small blades, and they’re losing .

Kal has a cut along his right arm, Axl has one above his left eye, Pierce is on one knee as he gasps for breath, and Jax…he looks like a nightmare, chaotic and terrifying as he thrashes despite being severely outnumbered.

I have to get to them.

I will my muscles to work, try to lift myself under the weight of all the new powers prowling beneath my skin.

This wasn’t supposed to happen.

This…this is too much.

I close my eyes, desperately trying to catch each power, to grip it and mentally wrap it around the bonds I can feel snapping inside me.

Sun .

I feel the warmth of the sun first, and I leap atop it, grabbing it with one mental hand and Kal’s bond with the other—

“Rylee?” Kal’s voice is drenched in hope as he yells my name, as I feel his power zap down that bond and return to him, making me feel lighter—stronger, somehow, despite surrendering his power.

Sweat dots my brow, but I stay right where I am, doing my best to send Axl his power. His is so damn slippery, his water strong and vast and mischievous. Instead of trying to catch it, I will it to swirl around Axl’s bond—

“Fuck yes, kitten!” I hear him yell, followed by the sounds of water crashing inside the temple.

Good. Good .

Two to go.

I might pass out again. No. I need to push on. I take a deep breath and focus.

Pierce’s emerald ribbons flutter in the recesses of my mind, searing hot as I grab them and throw them like a spear at his bond.

And then Jax’s… Of course his is the most elusive, like shadows and smoke. I internally search for it, swimming through my own mind and power.

There—the shadows, they curl at my mental attention, and I direct them to spiral around Jax’s bond.

A growl rumbles from Jax, not too far away, and relief snaps through me so quickly, I would’ve fallen over if I wasn’t already on the ground.

My mates have their powers again, and they’re using them to push the Faders back.

“What do we do, boss?” a man calls from somewhere below, and I spot a Fader in the corner of the balcony as they do some sort of hand signal over the railing, followed by that same whistle I heard during the attack at Sapphire Cove.

The boss then disappears behind the statue, likely leaping over the railing to the stairs below.

Shit. I need to move, to go after them, but my legs are so damn heavy. All I manage to do is peer over the railing nearest me.

All the Faders are retreating.

“Rylee!” Kal flies toward me, landing softly at my side. His arms are immediately around me, helping me sit up properly.

My head rushes from the movement, but I cling to him.

“You’re okay,” he says on a released breath, eyes scanning me. “You’re okay?”

I nod. “I’m all right, Kal.”

“Kitten.” Axl’s voice is rough and low as he rushes toward me. “Fuck me, we thought we lost you.”

“I’m here,” I say, reaching out to him, each embrace from him and Kal giving me strength.

“Darling.” Pierce says the word inside my mind, the bond between us trembling at the mental closeness as he propels himself up and over the balcony railing with his emerald green energy. He drops next to me, hands on my face. “Are you harmed?”

I shake my head, giving him a reassuring smile before I wrap my arms around his neck. My strength is slowly returning.

“I’m not harmed. Exhausted. Confused. But I’ll be okay.” I hope I’m telling the truth, but with the way I felt when I held all of their powers? I’m not so certain.

“Butterfly.” Jax’s voice is broken and raw as he climbs the stairs, his indigo eyes practically glowing as he stalks toward me.

Kal, Pierce, and Axl move away only enough so Jax can wrap me in his arms, drawing me up to my feet and holding me tight against him.

I grasp him with a desperate grip, my legs trembling but supporting me enough in his embrace.

Jax shifts to look down at me, cupping my cheeks. “Do you still want to choose us?” he asks, his voice broken. “Do you still want this life? After everything?”

I furrow my brow. “How can you ask me that?”

He leans his forehead against mine. “You died…Rylee…” His voice cracks, and I can feel the bond between us tightening, shaking.

“I would do it again,” I say, turning to look at each of my mates. “I would do it all again.” I glance at Jax. “Tell me, mate—am I lying?”

Jax visibly swallows and shakes his head.

“I love you,” I say to him, then to Axl and Kal and Pierce. “My love is not so wavering that a little thing like death would weaken it.”

“But the powers,” Pierce says. “Darling, I felt what they did to you.”

I nod, blowing out a breath. “I’m not saying I don’t have a learning curve ahead. We all do.”

Kal steps closer to Jax and me, and Axl and Pierce follow until I’m surrounded by my mates.

“I love you,” Kal says, smoothing a hand over my cheek. “Whatever you need, you know we’ll help you.”

I lean into his touch, smiling gratefully at him.

“As long as you’re with us,” Axl says, reaching out to gently squeeze my hand, “I don’t care what the cost is.”

My heart swells at that, at the knowledge that they gave up everything to save me.

“Your mind is a brilliant thing,” Pierce says, mentally caressing me and turning my insides warm. “We will solve this new problem. You will not be left alone to find answers.”

“That means everything to me,” I admit, since in the beginning of all this…losing my sister, not finding answers…I felt utterly alone.

Until them.

Until my mates.

Jax’s hand smooths along my lower back. “Whatever comes,” he says, looking down at me, “we’ll face it together.”

Those words slide along all four of the newly solidified bonds inside me, the bands of light connecting me to my mates pulsing with love and relief and hope.

“Together,” I say, eyeing each of them and allowing that hope to wash away everything else until there is nothing but one certainty.

I love them and they love me and there is nothing we can’t face together.