CHAPTER 2
Sage
Someone screamed, and I struggled to clear my vision. Wells had turned away from me, his body tense, the green light around his biceps pulsing in time with my pounding heart. Then he roared and pointed at?—
Lord Quill?
I strained to focus through the pain and growing darkness.
It was Lord Quill. He had a sword and was fighting the shortest of my unwanted would-be mates.
A few feet beside him was Talon. He fought with two more of my unwanted would-be mates, Impatient Guy and a slightly taller man with black hair. Talon fought with a longsword as well as his shadow magic — or was that his shadow?
The shadow lashed out at Impatient Guy, and he slashed through it with his dagger and lunged at Talon, who had just blocked a strike from Black Hair.
Before I could open my mouth to warn him, he sidestepped the strike as if he had eyes in the back of his head and adjusted his position so that they were both in front of him.
Behind Talon and Quill, by the shallow steps at the entrance, was an enormous wolf almost the size of a horse. It snarled and charged at Addax, but the large fae punched the air in front of him with both hands. Two fist-sized rocks shot from the wall beside me, showering me with water, and flew toward the wolf.
The wolf leaped out of the way, the movement unnatural for the beast, and its form turned smoky as if it were about to vanish. But instead of disappearing like Rider had when I’d asked him to show me around the Garden, the smoky wolf changed into Rider.
He barreled toward Addax and drew his sword, the movement fluid with no hesitation between wolf-form and fae-form.
Addax punched the air again and more rock exploded from the wall and shot toward Rider. He dodged one, but let the other skim his arm, choosing to take the glancing blow in order to close the distance between them.
Wells hissed another word in the language I didn’t understand andwrenched back to face me, his eyes wild.
The pressure and power inside me surged again, and I heaved and twisted.
I. Would. Not. Be. His. Mate.
I wasn’t going to be anyone’s mate. Ever.
My feet scrabbled on the smooth rock and my dress tangled around my legs as Wells said the word over and over again as if that would speed up the process.
The heat and pressure in my chest grew, and I fought to keep breathing. Something hard and heavy tangled around my heart, binding me to Wells, and I knew if I didn’t stop it, didn’t break free, I’d be stuck with him forever.
Another of my unwanted would-be mates screamed, drawing my wavering attention to the statues at the pool’s edge. A man with loose, shoulder-length brown hair who I didn’t recognize — and couldn’t get a good look at because his back was turned to me — fought against two more men while another lay bleeding on the ground a few feet away.
The man deftly dodged sword strikes and punches, as if he were dancing, and lashed out, drawing screams and blood even though it didn’t look like he had anything in his hands… which meant he was armed with knives and knew how to use them.
More chunks of rock shot from the wall behind me, one slicing across my cheek with stinging pain that helped clear some of the darkness threatening to overwhelm me. Part of the waterfall now poured over me, pushing me down, threatening to drown me, and making my shoulders scream with the unwanted stretch.
I sputtered and gasped, fighting to get my head out of the water, but couldn’t lean far enough.
Another scream andWells snarled and jerked back to the fight.
I twisted my wrists, praying the water would help me slip free, but the rope only cut deeper into my skin.
Then another chunk of rock tore from the wall behind me, and the piece I’d been hanging off broke free.
I fell forward into the pool and out of the stream of the waterfall. Fire and pressure squeezed my insides and from the pulsing, radiating glow around Wells’s biceps and the solidity of the magic wrapped around my heart, the spell creating the fake bond between us was about to be complete.
“No!” I screamed and I threw myself at Wells.
I rammed my fists into his kidney with as much force as I could muster — which wasn’t as much as I wanted with my sore body and the spell threatening my consciousness.
Wells wrenched around, unmoved by my strike. Surprise flashed across his expression when he realized I’d broken free but was quickly replaced with a satisfied sneer. “You can’t stop this. The spell’s already done.”
“It won’t work if you’re dead,” I spat back at him.
He threw his head back and laughed. “And how are you going to do that? Do you have a powerful magic or something?”
Light flickered from his fingers and for a second I was blinded, surrounded by a brilliant white light. A large hand wrapped around my throat and hauled me off my feet, and the light vanished.
“Let’s see your magic,” Wells laughed, his face a breath from mine.
His fingers squeezed, blocking off my air, and I clawed at his hand and wrist. My feet were still in water so I couldn’t kick him, and punching him in the face wouldn’t do anything.
But that didn’t mean I couldn’t strike a vital point.
“I don’t need magic,” I gasped, and I rammed my fist into his throat.
He reared back and stumbled up the steps farther out of the water.
“You Goddess damned bitch,” he snarled, and he tossed me away.
I rolled through the shallow water, my shoulder scraping against the rock, and landed face down at the platform’s edge.
With a groan, I heaved myself to my feet. I couldn’t stay lying down, as much as my aching body begged for it. I was still about to be soul bonded with a monster, and I refused to just accept my fate.
My experience in the Black Tower had been horrible, but I’d still gotten a taste of freedom. I’d been able to fight like I wanted and could look a man in the eyes without fear of reprisal.
I refused to go back to what I was before.
Talon’s shadows latched onto Wells, turning him away from me. But more brilliant light flared from Wells’s hands, burning through the darkness, and then whips of light wrapped around Talon as Wells stalked toward him, the ritual dagger raised to strike.
I lurched forward as Wells’s hand darted forward, aiming for Talon’s gut. Talon’s shadow wrenched the blade out of Wells’s grip, tossing the weapon a few inches away from me as Wells’s light slammed into Talon and threw him across the chamber.
More light blazed from Wells’s palms, and I could sense the power building to a dangerous level. I had no idea how I knew that, perhaps it was our unwanted connection, but I knew if the light hit Talon he’d be seriously hurt.
With a scream, I seized the magical dagger and lunged at Wells.
I wrapped one arm around his throat and slammed the blade into his back, grateful that the rope that had made me helpless hanging in the waterfall now gave me enough range of motion to strike with my full strength.
Wells roared with pain and heaved forward, but I hung on tight, refusing to let go.
I was not going to be bound to him. I’d rather die first.
Which meant I had to die, or he did. And I was damn well going to make sure it was him.
He straightened, grabbed a handful of my hair, and yanked, hard. Pain bit into my scalp and I gritted my teeth.
The pressure and heat from the bonding spell burned so hot I feared I was going to burn up, and the light around Wells’s new marks flared. The certainty of the bond locked into place around my heart, and I screamed.
No!
Shadows, no!
With a wail, I jerked the dagger free and plunged it back into Wells. I did it again and again, aiming for his heart. I refused to be his. I refused to be any man’s possession.
Blood poured from Wells’s back and he screamed in agony.
Then the light from the glowing green bands around Wells’s biceps exploded outward, ripped my grip free from his neck and the dagger, and I flew through the air away from him.
The soul bond squeezing my heart vanished, and the bands around Wells’s arms disappeared. I hit the back wall of the cavern, the force smashing my head against the rock and stealing my breath, and dark spots flooded my vision.
With a splash, I tumbled into the pool, sinking lower and lower and lower. Above me, through my wavering vision, light rippled over the top of the water. Everything grew muffled and far away, and all the fight I’d had within me, all the anger and fear and determination to not become Wells’s mate, rushed out of me, leaving me weak and exhausted.
I tried to kick up, tried to swim to the surface, but I couldn’t make my arms or legs move. Everything hurt too much. Just thinking about moving hurt, probably because my head roared with agony.
The spots in my vision grew, turning the flickering illumination above me into a narrow strip of light. This was it. I wasn’t going to die in the Gray. I was going to die in some pool in the fae’s magical garden.
Except I was in my spirit form here, trapped in this form by the magical bracelet Wells had snapped around my wrist. Which meant technically, I was also going to die in the Gray, in my bed.
I wonder how long it will take for someone to find me?
I prayed it was after the two days of lieu time. But that was still too soon. Sawyer needed more time.
The water swirled around me and my eyes flickered open for a moment. Above me, the most beautiful, heartbreaking angel, swam toward me, his face split between fae beauty and horrible scars. His shoulder-length dark hair billowed around him while fear filled his eyes and I reached for him, welcoming him to my embrace.
If I was going to die, it was fitting the angel who’d come to take me to the heavens was a mix of the divine and sorrow.
I wanted the divine so desperately, wanted to find peace and acceptance for who I really was.
And yet who I was spelled sorrow for me in the world I lived in. According to everything I’d been taught, what I wanted was an abomination, an ugly red scar on my soul, just like the scar on my angel’s face.