*Ella*
At first I think I’m standing in front of Ryatt in a cold, stone-lined bedroom with nothing but a small bed and dresser to furnish the space. But, it’s not Ryatt. Glacier blue eyes look past me as the man turns around, his face drawn and brow pinched in an expression I know belongs to one man, and one man alone.
But Commander Westfall is so much younger. He can’t be much older than Ryatt in this–this vision. This dream. Westfall stalks forward, brushing past me. I turn, following his movements.
“This is madness,” Westfall says to the beautiful young woman sitting on the edge of the bed with a child sleeping in her lap. She combs her bruised and swollen fingers through the boy’s thick, dark curls, his own face peppered with fresh bruises. “You’re leaving, tonight!”
“You know I can’t.” Silver manacles on each wrist gleam in the light of the several candles, the skin beneath them scarred from years of burns from the silver. “You know he’d find me in a second, Adrien. I cannot leave. But you–you can take him. You could take him with you and the rest who are escaping–”
“I’m not leaving without you–”
“You have to,” she pleads, tears welling in her sea-green eyes. “You must, and you have to take him. He’ll kill him, Adrien. He’s becoming so violent with Ryatt, and there’s nothing I can do to stop him anymore. Please?”
“Do you realize what will happen if we’re caught in those tunnels?” Westfall kneels in front of her, his hand resting on her thigh. He places his other hand on the boy’s–Ryatt’s–back.
“What choice do we have?” Her tone shatters my heart. There’s so much fear there, but also resignation. I realize quite suddenly that this is the moment Ryatt left the castle. This was the moment he escaped.
And it wasn’t his mother who brought him to the coven when he was barely five years old.
It was Commander Westfall.
“Remember my vision,” she says in a desperately pinched voice. “I know what I saw, Adrien. He has a mate born across the veil. She is the one we’ve been waiting for, the savior of our people. Together, they have a chance to end this torture!” She clutches Ryatt close, her eyes spilling with tears. “Kane hasn’t drained me in a while. I have enough power to shield you and cause a distraction. But you have to take him, Adrien. Please–”
“I’m not leaving you behind!” Westfall’s eyes fill with tears. “I can’t.”
She reaches for him, caressing his cheek and resting her forehead against his as she closes her eyes. “This is the only way we can keep him safe. Our son.”
The vision blurs, and I choke on a strangled sob as I’m suddenly ripped through space and time. I see fragmented images of Ryatt’s mother using her powers, screaming as the silver manacles try to keep her subdued, but she breaks through them. I see Westfall carrying a panicked Ryatt in his arms as they run through underground tunnels, surrounded by people that are wholly unfamiliar. Westfall looks desperate as the tunnel trembles, rocks caving in behind them. And then I’m sitting on my mother’s lap in our throne room in Crescent Falls as Ryatt’s mother appears, her eyes wide and full of hope. She points to me, her mouth moving but her words are silent as she collapses.
She broke through the veil to find me, to confirm that I existed and her vision was true. Her son had a future as long as I was in it.
I open my eyes to dusty darkness. The night sky is fully visible overhead, stars shining through drifting clouds. It’s a full moon, and the moonlight touches my skin and awakes some semblance of the powers I still have in my blood. But my body feels heavy and broken. My fingers twitch, and I feel someone beneath me.
I snap back to reality just as a figure looms overhead, a mask of moonstone shining in the moonlight.
A dagger gleams as it’s brought down, hard, and then Ryatt’s grunt of pain pierces the air, cutting straight to my soul. “NO!” I scream, fighting to stand, but the ground beneath me is uneven, and I’m tangled with Ryatt and Commander Westfall. Ryatt grunts again as Kane stabs him, over and over, and I can do nothing but lie there, my legs pinned by stone.
My powers toppled the castle. We shouldn’t be alive. We should have all died.
But I’m alive. I’m alive.
When the dagger gleams again, I dig deep. I pull from the powers of my wolf and the powers gifted by my father and his ancestors. I find those powers buried, as if in hiding from the king, and yank them free. I raise my hand as his dagger comes down and send my power forward like a ray of pure, unapologetic steel. The blade turns to ash, as does Kane’s arm.
He screams and staggers backward, tripping over a toppled column. A grunt of surprise fills the air as I claw my way to my feet, refusing to look at what’s left of Ryatt and Westfall. Not yet. Not until I do what must be done. I crawl over the debris of the fortress Kane built. The fortress where generations of people like me, like Ryatt and Westfall, were used as slaves and breeders to fulfill the king’s sick urges. My fingernails tear into his legs as I crawl on top of the Alpha King of Eastonia and straddle him.
Blood seeps from a mortal injury to the back of his head where he’s fallen, but this is no mortal man. Not while he wears the mask, at least.
“This is for my parents,” I say, and punch him in the jaw. “This is for my brother.” I take his face between my hands and smash his head against the stone. “This is for my people your warriors killed.” My voice breaks as I pick up a stone and drive it down onto his chest, his ribs splintering from the impact. “This is for my mate, and for me,” I brush the words over his bloodied jaw as he tries to speak, but his voice is a gurgle of blood.
With steady hands, I rip the mask from his face. He screams with what’s left of his life, and withers away into nothing. Just ash, and the clothing he wore.
I look down at the mask. I hear the soft flurry of whispered voices coming from it. It thrums with power–my power–power of the Firestone Queen. This mask… it’s mine.
“E-Ella–”
I turn and gasp, then hurry back to Ryatt. He’s trapped beneath the stones, his legs pinned. Blood seeps from his chest and coats my hands as I desperately try to stop the bleeding. “Look at me, Ryatt–”
“Ella,” Westfall chokes nearby.
I take a frantic breath and tear my eyes from Ryatt’s pale, graying face and look at Westfall, who is in even worse shape. I move toward him. His body is crushed by stones. I can’t get him out. I know I can’t. “What am I supposed to do?” I ask, my voice cracking with a sob. “Westfall, what do I do? He’s dying!”
“Look at me,” he says, reaching an arm toward me. “This wasn’t your fault. It had to be done. You–You saved him. He had happiness, even for a short time. That’s all we wanted for him.”
“You’re his father, aren’t you?”
Westfall’s eyes crease as he smiles, his eyes full of tears. “I am.”
“I am so sorry this happened to you. That your mate–”
“I’m not sorry,” he says. “The time I had with her was heaven, and she gave the greatest gift with her sacrifice, and that was time with our son.” Westfall’s eyes begin to dim. “He loves you.”
“West–”
He says something so quietly that I miss it, and his eyes go dark. Commander Westfall dies looking at his son, my mate, his arm outstretched toward the child given to him by the love of his life.
I turn back to Ryatt with new found desperation and a glimmer of hope. “Please,” I whisper, gripping the mask as I crawl to him. “Please, Ryatt, you have to wake up. You have to live. I can’t–I can’t be here without you.”
“Ella?”
“I’m here–”
I knit my fingers in his and lie down beside him. Cold air bites into my skin as the stars glimmer overhead. What do I do? Goddess, what do I do?
“I love you,” he says, and it completely breaks my heart. “From the moment I saw you at the ball, I loved you.”
He takes a ragged breath that rattles with impending death.
“Ryatt, please!” Will my tears heal him? It’s a fruitless thought. I know they can’t. I have all of this power, but there’s nothing I can do to save his life. Nothing. I lower my face to his so we’re nose to nose. His hand comes up to hold me there, his fingers tangling in my hair as he cups the back of my head.
“I’ll find you in another life, in another body,” he whispers. “We’ll have time, Ella. I promise. Nothing can keep me from you. I promise–I promise I will find you–I love you–”
“Please,” I beg. “Please stay with me!”
“Our daughter–” he sucks in a pained breath. “I hope she looks like you.”
I begin to sob, begging him to stay awake, to stay with me. The wound on my thigh throbs where Kane cut out Ryatt’s mark in his attempt to sever our bond. “I love you,” I cry. “Ryatt, I love you so much.”
His touch slackens, his hand falling to the side.
“NO!” I scream. “NO! NO! NO! NO!”
Something snaps deep in my chest, a fury I didn’t know I’m capable of. I take the mask and put it on, my hair standing on end and floating toward the sky as my powers meld with the mask of my ancestors. I’ve toppled the fortress. I’ve flattened Rifthold. I’ve killed the king.
But I can’t save my mate.
There’s only one person I know who can.
I gather Ryatt’s body in my arms, my powers igniting with so much force it sends tremors over my skin. I look to the sky as I grip Ryatt tight, my nails digging into his skin.
I scream, the mask turning a bright crimson, as I puncture that ancient veil.
It feels like being slowly pulled apart and put together again. I take Ryatt with me into the nothingness, keeping my eyes open as the world splits and spirals, fracturing around me.
Home. Home. Home. Take me home.
The air is stolen from my lungs, and my eardrums burst as the nothingness turns to noise–the crackling of a fire, the sound of wood splintering and glass shattering.
I gather Ryatt to my chest. He’s not breathing. He’s totally, utterly limp in my arms.
“Wake up,” I tell him. “W-wake up. It’s going to be better now. I’m getting help. I’m getting–I’m getting help, I–” I choke on the words as I rock back and forth, holding him in my arms, his blood seeping into pristine, white carpet.
The smoke clears as someone runs into view, stopping short of where I’m kneeling.
I can’t catch my breath. I can barely breath, but a scream forces its way up my throat and explodes from my lips, shattering the remaining in the windows. “HELP ME! PLEASE, HELP!”