*Ella*
I sit up, rubbing sleep from my eyes.
“Get up, get dressed–”
“It’s four in the morning–”
Ryatt pulls the sheets from my body and yanks me out of bed. His fingers dig into my arm as I’m hauled to my feet. “What the hell is the matter with you?”
I can barely see a thing. Lightning crackles, briefly illuminating the room around us. I shake him off and cross my arms under my breasts, my stomach twisting as his face comes into view. Ryatt looks… he looks like something is seriously wrong. His eyes are dark and absolutely murderous, and for a moment I can almost taste the unburdened rage oozing from him as he turns from me, giving me his back.
“Ryatt, what happened?”
“What aren’t you telling me about your brother?”
“My brother?” I edge toward him, my brow pinched as I grab the robe I keep draped over one of the arm chairs near the now dormant hearth and pull it on.
Ryatt toys with his leather chest armor, refusing to face me. He smooths his fingers over the daggers lining his belt like he’s counting each one. “His powers.”
“I know as much as you do!”
“Is he working against me?”
“What?” I breathe, my voice lifted in shock. I pinch myself to make sure I’m not still asleep, that this isn’t some crazy nightmare. “What are you talking about, Ryatt?” I move in front of him so he’s forced to look at me. A horrible feeling settles in my belly, twisting and coiling like a venomous snake. “What’s going on? Did you–did you kill Cassian?”
Ryatt’s eyes go a steely black. “No.”
“This is about Cassian coming here, isn’t it? Do you think I had something to do with it?”
“He did so by jumping through your painting. Your painting of me.” He pulls his teeth back in a snarl. “Your brother’s powers allowed it to happen.”
“You think I planned this, don’t you?” I hit back, resisting the urge to shove him. Goddess, I knew something like this was coming. Ryatt and I were passionate, sometimes too passionate, I’d come to realize. The past month had been far too quiet and easy between us, lacking that usual spark.
I don’t like fighting with Ryatt.
We just do it so well.
“You’re an asshole!” I scowl, tightening my robe. “You really think I invited him here? That I somehow called him over, used my powers–”
“No, that’s not what I think at all–”
“Then tell me what the hell is going on!”
“Thorne is dead.”
The air is sucked right out of the room. I inhale sharply, my eyes locked on Ryatt’s stone cold expression. A single glimmer of emotion shows behind his eyes before his blinks–pain, undeniable grief, untethered rage. “W-what?”
“Your brother’s Beta broke through the veil, and it was felt all over Eastonia. My father’s forces attacked several pack territories along the border of Rifthold last night in response. Hacksaw Gorge, Ivory Mountain, Clover Row… among others.” He runs his hands through his hair and curses under his breath. “They’re gone. Every man, woman, and child.”
My heart plummets into my stomach. “Ryatt–”
“Thorne,” he continues, a bitter edge to his voice, “died when warriors from Rifthold attacked Granite Rise.”
I can't find the words I need to ask what he means. I can’t breathe, can’t form a rational thought.
“Amanda–”
“Is mourning the death of her parents, her brothers, and her pack.” His words are laced with an anger I can’t even begin to describe. “Granger has likely just told her the news.”
My knees go weak. I steady myself by clutching a high-backed chair, the only thing keeping me upright. Ryatt just stands there, stone-faced and brutal, his expression carefully guarded.
“How–How did this happen?”
He ignores my question and says, “You will leave for the Moonrise Coven immediately with Amanda, and the Beta of Crescent Falls. Cassian is to be treated like the prisoner he is.”
I furrow my brow at him. Ryatt’s tone is unlike anything he’s ever used with me before. There’s nothing behind it; it’s empty. Void, and cold, and as dark as the room we’re standing in. “Ryatt–”
“Once there,” he cuts in coldly, taking a step toward me, “Amanda is to be delivered to the Mystics, immediately. Cassian will be taken to his mate, and you will confer with Queen Ravenna about the necessary steps–”
“Ryatt!”
“You,” he hisses, pointing a finger at me, “will leave this kingdom and return to your people, to your family.”
“We talked about this, you said we’d fight together–”
“You vowed to leave the second I told you it was time, and that time has come.”
“No,” I say, digging in my heels. “Absolutely not. Fuck you, first of all. You promised me–”
“I’m doing this to protect you and the child–”
“This has nothing to do with our baby, and you know it. You are mad at me, aren’t you? You seriously believe–” I choke on a bitter laugh. “You believe I had something to do with this.”
“I don’t–”
“Then what?”
It’s a standoff now. Ryatt crosses his arms and looks down his nose at me. “Cassian told me you destroyed your studio, that everything inside was completely torn apart except for one painting. A portrait he believes is of me.”
“I missed one,” I growl, but unease ripples over my skin. Is he serious right now?
“You put a spell on the studio to keep people out.” Ryatt takes a step toward me, casting me in his shadow. “But for whatever reason, the spell lifted recently.”
I shrug, glaring up at him as he closes the distance between us. “So? Are you accusing me of something?”
He flexes his jaw. “Why are you here right now? Did you conspire with your brother to come here? To knowingly weaken me? Did you plan out the situation with your maid knowing she’d nearly lose her life and use that as a catalyst to get her mate, the Beta of the Alpha King of Crescent Falls, here to undermine–”
“You’ve entirely lost your mind–”
“My people are dying!” he shouts, his eyes wild and demanding. “Tell me this instant–”
I back away from him, shaking my head. “Who the fuck do you think I am?”
“I don’t know,” he replies with such venom it makes me want to shrink into myself. “You tell me.”
Silence falls between us, heavy and bitter cold. “Whatever Cassian said to you–it’s not true. He’s absolutely furious with me, Ryatt! You heard what he said to me last night, didn’t you? Were you not there threatening to flay him open in front of Hannah for calling me a bitch? Do you really think I premeditated all of this? Can you honestly look me in the eyes and say you believe that?” I back up another step as my power suddenly prickles to attention. Heat flares through me, around me, like my own powers are igniting to protect me from some unseen threat.
But the threat isn’t unseen. It’s in front of me, staring right at me.
My own mate.
I wrap my hands protectively around my belly, a motion Ryatt notices and scowls, “I’m not going to hurt you or the baby–”
“I don’t believe you.”
His nostrils flare as he says in a low, menacing tone, “I would never–”
“You told me once that you could hurt me more than anyone else. I didn’t understand what you meant then, but I do now. Get out.”
He stands perfect still, his hands clenched into fists at his sides.
“GET OUT!” I screech, letting some of my power flow through me, setting my skin glowing crimson. Thunder booms overhead, but I can’t tell if it’s the accompanying lightning crackling in the distance that sends a tremor through the castle or if it’s my own power bursting to life.
“Is your brother working with my father?” he asks, raising his voice above mine.
“Of course not, you monster!” I refuse to cry but my throat tightens around the words. “How could you even think that?”
“I have to ask–”
“No, you don’t. I am your mate. I left everything behind to come here. I left my family and my kingdom in the dark to come to your realm and be with you despite everything. Despite you being my family’s enemy. Despite my people dying in a bloody, horrific war with your father. I came here for you, and you think–you seriously think I’m–I’m–” Pain settles deep in my chest, curling around that sacred, silver thread binding our fates together. “I came here to be your weapon. I came here knowing that your father wanted me for something, for my power. I came here knowing you’d not only keep me, but my family, safe. Was I wrong?”
“Ella–”
“Was I wrong?” I repeat, my heart rate spiking as my power continues to thrum in my veins. When Ryatt doesn’t immediately respond, my voice cracks in a desperate, bitter laugh. “I hate you. I hate you more than I’ve hated anything. All of this has been a game to you, hasn’t it? You’ve toyed with my emotions, you’ve strung me along. You relished in the way I melted in your hands and gave everything that I am over to you without a second thought, without a moment’s hesitation. And what have you done?”
Another blank, emotionless stare.
I can do little but nod. “You don’t trust me, do you?”
“I never said that.”
“Then what are you saying, Ryatt? Because it’s not that we need to go to battle, together, to avenge the death of your people, or Thorne, and kill your father like you promised we’d do together.”
His face tightens, his eyes softening as if he’s already anticipating my next words.
“It’s not that you love me,” I say gently, but the words shatter between us. “You’ve never said it, because you don’t, and I don’t think you're capable of it. I don’t think you’ve ever trusted me, either. Get out.”
More suffocating silence.
“Get out–”
“Listen to me–”
“You’ve said absolutely nothing,” I tell him sharply, my eyes locked on his own.
“You are going to leave, and you will take Cassian, Hannah, and Amanda with you. You’re stronger now. You’ll be able to create a tear through the rift on your own, whether by creating another painting or–”
“I’m not going anywhere.”
“Then they die. Is that what you want?”
The door to our bedroom swings open and slams against the wall, sending an echo through the charged air in the room. Amanda’s figure hovers in the doorway, her eyes shining with tears.
My powers immediately die out and go dormant at the sight of her desperate, grief stricken face.
“Get out,” I whisper to Ryatt before pushing past him and running toward Amanda, who falls into my arms the second I outstretch them. I shove my own grief aside and curl my arms around my friend, holding her tight, letting her unravel. Her parents are dead. Her brothers are dead. Her people have been murdered in cold blood.
It could have easily been my family, my brother, my people. Ryatt put a stop to that last summer by risking his own life and people to save us, to save me.
I still hate him, probably because I have no idea what his fucking problem is with me right now.
I barely register two more people entering the room. Ryatt’s voice is calm and steady as he says to Granger and Commander Westfall, “What news from Twin Rivers?”
“They’re in the dark,” Westfall says quietly. “The power went out a few hours ago.”
I clutch Amanda harder as she sobs against my shoulder, but my attention is fixed on the conversation taking place across the room.
“Other packs are reporting loss of power, which means–” Granger tapers off.
Ryatt’s magic powers the Roguelands. It’s hard to wrap my mind around how immensely powerful he truly is until a moment like this.
“They will travel on foot to the coven,” he says, and he means me, Amanda, and Cassian. “Pull our forces back, send refugees to the Deadlands–”
“Alpha,” Granger warns, “Rifthold will take Twin Cities, and then every single pack in the Roguelands will be at King Kane’s mercy–”
“You will escort Ella and Amanda to the coven,” Ryatt cuts in. “Once they are safely in Crescent Falls with the maid and her mate, I will open the shields around the coven and allow refugees to seek shelter there. If Ravenna protests, you will kill her. Do you understand?”
Granger is unnervingly silent. Amanda, upon hearing Ryatt’s last words, lifts her head from my shoulder to look at him directly. “I’m not leaving Gra–”
Granger looks at Amanda with so much pain in his eyes it nearly forces me to my knees. He shakes his head to silence her.
Ryatt can’t be serious. He’s separating all of us–
“Westfall and I are going to Rifthold,” he says, his eyes briefly meeting mine. “To end this.”