*Ryatt*
“You have a fucking death wish!” Granger shouts from across the room. I’m still in my bedroom. Ella rushed Amanda out less than a minute ago, her eyes full of rage and absolute heartbreak.
I heave a breath as I stare down my Beta. Despair and frustration clouds his eyes, his face shadowed but unexplainable grief.
“I’m not sending my mate and child away,” he grinds out, and for the first time in my life, I see true, raw emotion flashing behind his eyes. His mate. Amanda is his mate.
“What you’re feeling now is what I have lived with for weeks, Granger. You had to know this was coming.”
“This was never the plan!”
“The Alpha King of Crescent Falls sends his Beta breaking through the veil. That has changed everything,” I snarl. “Amanda’s pack is gone. Her parents are dead. King Kane knows someone pierced the veil, and now he’s waging an all-out war, the war I was trying to avoid!” Now thousands of people are dead in less than a day, and all of their blood is on my hands. “I have to act!”
Granger’s nostrils flare, his hands curling into fists at his side. “I won’t allow you to send Amanda away.”
“Then she’ll stay here and die if I fail.” As will everyone else. This is more than a war. My powers are dwindling with every passing second as I try to keep my wards locked around every pack, as I try to keep the lights on, but I’m nothing against my father. I’ve never been anything compared to him.
Ella was my only hope at ever defeating him. Fate is to blame. She is my mate because I need her to restore peace to this kingdom, but I can’t sacrifice her life in order to accomplish it. I’d rather she hate me for the rest of what I hope is a long, peaceful life than tell her we were both going to die in the end, that we’d use every ounce of our powers together to defeat a man whose power is stolen and manipulated to be comparable to a god.
I knew all along, and I still allowed her to come here. The mystics read me my fate, and saw our deaths. Her death, my death, the death of our unborn child.
All to save a kingdom I’m not sure can be saved at this point.
I let her come to me. I should have refused, but over the course of the last few months I’ve learned the mate bond is stronger than any magic and force in this world. I let it blind me, and I fell in love with the person I’m supposed to die beside.
I got her pregnant, igniting those dormant powers that ripple through her veins despite knowing what we’d lose in the end.
“Ryatt,” Granger shouts, his voice cracking with desperation. “There has to be another way–”
“It’s been decided. Everything is already in motion. You will take the women to the coven, and wait for my command.”
“How is Ella even supposed to get home?”
“She’s been able to break through the veil all along,” I admit, meeting his gaze. “This entire time, she could have sent her maid home. She could have ripped the veil into ribbons.”
Granger stares at me in shock.
“Westfall had been told not to tell her during their training.”
“You bastard–”
“You will go with the woman to Crescent Falls,” I continue, taking several steps forward. “You will warn the Alpha King of Crescent Falls of the threat coming his way if I fail–”
“What are you planning to do?”
I can only smile, but there’s no joy in it. I let go of any hope I had and say, “Promise me you won’t tell my daughter who I am, and what I’ve done.”
* * *
Commander Westfall watches me as our small group edges through the back garden. I glance over my shoulder at him, noticing how dark his eyes are right now. Granger and Amanda are arguing about something ahead of me. I block them out, my fingertips grazing over the outer seam of my cloak.
Rain falls in a shimmering drizzle over my shoulders as I stare back at Westfall, narrowing my eyes. “You’ll protect him, won’t you? You won’t let him do anything stupid. Please,” I say, trying as hard as I can not to beg.
I haven’t spoken to Ryatt since earlier this morning, since he came to our room totally and utterly changed. I can’t explain it. I can’t explain the grief weighing me down. The only reason I’m upright is for Amanda, who has lost everything in the last hours. Her family, her pack. Everyone but her mate.
“I’ll do what I can.”
“Promise me,” I whisper.
Westfall’s eyes undergo a great change. They soften, his expressions shifting to something so pained it nearly takes my breath away. “He loves you, Luna. You should know that. Everything he’s doing right now is to give you a chance–”
“No,” I breathe. “He lied to me, and believes I’m his enemy.”
“You know that’s not true–”
“We need to move out. It’ll take us a full day to get to the coven,” Granger barks nearby.
Cassian stands in the rain, his gaze lowered to the ground, refusing to look at any of us. Refusing to speak. I tear my eyes from Westfall and begin to turn from him, but he says, “Luna?”
I look at him, letting the pain show clearly behind my eyes.
“He never had a chance at the life he deserved, the life his mother wanted for him. You have a chance to live, and that’s his reasoning for all of this. For everything he’s ever done.”
I don’t reply. I turn toward the group that’s leaving for the coven. Beyond the garden and Ryatt’s beautiful castle, the city of Veiled Valley is preparing for war, for an invasion. Boats full of our citizens are actively sailing away down the river, toward the ocean, and the islands that are scattered leagues away.
If anything, I should be going with them, but I now know Ryatt never truly considered me as his Luna. These were never my people; this was never my home.
I was never truly safe here. Everywhere I go, bloodshed follows. Innocent people like Thorne die in my name.
This is for the best.
“Let’s go,” I say and lead the group out of the garden through an archway of tangled vines, into the densely forested mountains.
It takes us two days to reach the coven. Two days where none of us spoke a single word to each other. All of us shifted, running as a pack, but Amanda’s short legs and small form made the journey slower than anticipated. Even charged with my powers, she tired quickly, and we stopped several times to eat and rest.
Even in my wolf form, my early pregnancy symptoms plagued me with nausea and a horrific headache that kept my senses blurred.
Or, it was just grief. Ryatt hadn’t said goodbye, but he never did. He disappeared the day of the ball all of those years ago. He left me at the castle in Veiled Valley for ten days after our fight, and now?
I wrap my cloak around my waist against the bite of the bitter chill in the air. Snow crunches under my boots, and my belt is heavy with daggers–all of which came from clothing caches hidden along the unmarked trail we followed to the coven.
I don’t stop walking as two vicious hellhounds come into view, their mouths open in a hellish snarl. I simply wave a hand and turn them to mist, walking through them, ignoring Cassian’s grunt of shock.
I know he’s only thinking of Hannah right now.
Two furious witches meet our group at the base of the mountain as Moonrise comes into view. I ignore their shouts telling us to halt. They know who I am, anyway. I ignore everyone who stops to gawk at us as I lead my group through the village and toward the castle. People peer out of shops and homes, and more witches gather as we ascend the crystal stairs leading to the castle entrance.
Petra is waiting for me when I reach the sweeping balcony overlooking the village below, the lake now glistening with a thin sheen of ice. It feels like just yesterday that I was here last, but that was… months ago. Spring is on the horizon, but the air is cold and cutting as I look into Petra’s eyes.
“Why are you here?” she growls. “Where is your Alpha?”
“I’m not here for you, witch. Get out of my way.”
Instead of moving aside, she talks toward me. “Where–”
I catch her by the throat and throw her on the ground in front of her sisters. A few stifled cries of shock ring through the air, but no one moves to help her. I look around at the witches surrounding us and their hounds, none of which seem too keen to get in my way right now. “I am here to see the queen and her mystics.” When no one immediately moves to fetch them for me, I let my powers flow through my body, setting my blue-green eyes aflame with silver fire. “Do I need to repeat myself?”
A very young woman, no more than a teenager, breaks from the group and runs into the castle. I follow her, ignoring how the crowd of witches part to allow us to move forward. Petra chokes and gags on the ground as the doors close behind us.
Queen Ravenna stands on the staircase looking regal, doing her best to look surprised. I find that odd, given the circumstances. Surely, Ryatt would have alerted her somehow that we were on our way. Surely, her witches and hellhounds picked up our scents as we traveled through the outskirts of her territory or a mystic foretold of our arrival
“Luna,” she says with a graceful curtsey. “What a pleasure it is to see you again. I was not expecting you.”
“You were,” I say dryly and start up the stairs, beckoning for Cassian to follow. “We’re here to see Hannah.”
“She’s… unavailable.”
“Make her available,” I say with no emotion in my words whatsoever. I don’t recognize my own voice, or actions, for that matter. I left my heart in the bedroom I’d shared with Ryatt. I’d left it behind because I didn’t need it anymore. I didn’t care. I didn’t care about anything. I didn’t care if I died. All I needed to do now was to reunite Cassian and Hannah and get Amanda to safety.
Because Granger and I are not going with them back to Crescent Falls.
All of my senses go on high alert as shadowy figures come into view at the top of the staircase. I slowly look behind me to where Granger is now drawing his sword, stepping in front of Amanda.
Royal warriors step out of the shadows, baring the emblem I recognize from the war in Crescent Falls.
King Kane’s men and his wolves march in wearing their magic collars.
This is a trap, and I’ve walked right into it with my friends.
But Queen Ravenna looks surprised as she backs up the staircase toward me. She clutches my wrist. “Go, your maid is her room, with the healers. Go now, get them out of here.” The sudden fear in her voice makes me realize she had nothing to do with this. How did she not know they were here?
She hurries down the steps. “What is the meaning of this?”
The door to the castle opens, and Petra walks in, followed by a dozen guards, their eyes blank and totally black.
“Ravenna!” I shout, but it’s too late. Ravenna stops in front of Petra, her lips parting to question her second in command.
Petra slashes a blade of pure crystal across Ravenna’s throat, then turns her merciless eyes to me.