Aris
“Are you okay? Dizzy?” Posey’s cheeks are warm and flushed between my gloved hands. She nods, but it’s short and sharp, and I can tell she’s lying about feeling anything but insanely nauseous and out-of-body.
I’ve jumped with her before, when I brought her mangled, bleeding body back to the castle and dosed her with so many healing drafts I wondered if I’d inadvertently killed her with them instead of healing her injuries, but unlike Brie and some of the other normal people in our family, she has powers, and she recovers within seconds of being torn between realms and stitched back together again.
It’s early evening in the Deadlands. Silverhide glows in the pale golden haze of the first light of sunset. The snow-covered landscape shines pink as the sun dips below the ridges, turning the sky a stunning violet, but we’re not here on a sightseeing tour.
“Come here,” I murmur, tugging her closer to fix her cloak, which tangled during the journey. She stands stunned, looking to the side at the village nearby. “Never been?”
“To the Deadlands? No. Of course not.” She blinks and meets my eyes. “Why are we here?”
“I have no idea, but my mom said it was urgent.” I didn’t give her much of a choice about coming with me. Her mark on my neck isn’t even an hour old, and no part of me was about to separate myself from my mate this soon.
I turn her toward a steep wooden staircase leading to the wide deck of the Alpha’s King’s house, the railing lined with frost covered garland and blinking Solstice lights. I’ve always loved Silverhide and Ryan’s simple, cozy home here, but tonight, the very second I open the door, it feels like the air has been removed from every room despite the Solstice decorations and the scent of cranberry and evergreen.
Dad turns at the same moment Uncle Ryan kicks off the wall in a fighting stance. I tuck Posey behind me on instinct as tension I can taste suffocates the room, and we’re only in the doorway as it stands.
But Ryan relaxes, running his fingers through his hair and cursing into the palm of his hand. Dad glances at him before moving in my direction and taking me by the shoulder to lead me back outside, and then he spots Posey.
“Oh,” Evander, my father and the head of the Ghost army, says in shock. “Posey?” He meets my eyes. “What–”
“Later. Where’s mom? She sent me a text and said it was urgent.”
Dad stares at Posey for several seconds. His deep green eyes are a kaleidoscope of colors against the Solstice lights.
“Dad?”
“She’s inside.”
“Aris.”
I take a breath and turn to the voice coming up the stairs behind me. Grandpa Ryatt is dressed in his usual black, the shadowsword strapped in a halter along his spine. Humming voices drift between us. My bracelets react to the sword's proximity. It calls out to me. It has for a very long time.
It’s mine.
I blink back the involuntary thought, tucking Posey against my side. Her fingers are like ice. “Is anyone going to explain what’s going on?” I look between my father and grandfather, but Grandpa Ryatt turns to Dad, tilting his head toward the door.
“Ryan needs to leave for a while. He’s upset, and his pack mates are catching on. This needs to be kept quiet until we know how to fix this.”
Posey’s fingers snake between mine and squeeze. I look uneasily through the door. Aunt Aviva comes into view looking like she’s been recently dragged through hell. She stops at Ryan’s side, her head bowed while talking in low tones, and he nods, eyes closed, before cursing under his breath and turning with her into one of the bedrooms on the main floor.
What the hell is going on?
“We haven’t formally met,” Ryatt says, and I snap back to the scene on the frosty exterior deck. He steps forward and extends a hand to Posey, who looks up at him slightly dumbfounded. “Posey Sapphire, correct? I know your father well.”
She lets go of my hand. Dad’s eyes slowly meet mine, one dark blond brow arched in a silent question, but I ignore him, fuming.
I want to be back home for once in my life. I want to lock myself away with Posey in my bedroom. I want to move all of her stuff there and never leave. Not for a while, at least. There’s only a week and a half left before Solstice, and once that’s over, my parents and grandparents will descend on the castle again, and nothing will be as quiet or as private as it is right now.
Before I realize what’s happening, Grandpa Ryatt unsheaths the shadowsword in one swift, practiced motion. The glint of metal against the Solstice lights is momentarily blinding, and before I can think, I’m standing between him and Posey.
“What are you doing?” I seethe, shoving Posey behind me, but she fights it, huffing under her breath before stepping to the side and accepting the sword’s hilt.
She smiles at Grandpa Ryatt.
I feel like I want to break something. I want to rip someone, possibly him, to shreds for even looking in her direction.
“Son?” Dad grips my shoulder firmly and drags me into the house. I jerk, trying to rip my arm out of his iron grip, but he shoves me against the wall in the kitchen, hard enough to rattle picture frames and pots hanging from the walls, his forearm pressed over my chest. He points out the window beside us. “She’s right there, see? She’s within sight.”
I shake my head, trying to rid myself of this weird, overwhelming fight or flight feeling.
Dad leans in, keeping his weight steady on my chest. “Mates?”
“How did you guess?”
“You were about to kill your own grandfather for speaking to her.”
I close my eyes for several seconds and take a breath. He lets up on the pressure against my lungs but doesn’t let me go. “He’s just showing her the sword. That’s all. Her family made it long ago.”
Posey’s soft laugh drifts from outside, and that urge to shred something fills me up again. Dad presses me to the wall with a sigh. “How long ago did you mark her?”
“Last night.”
“Fuck.” Dad grinds his teeth with a short nod. “All right.” He looks toward the hallway where muffled voices drift from the shadows. “We didn’t know. Otherwise, I would have told your mother not to reach out to you for a few days, at least.”
“Why,” I grind out, “am I here?”
Mom appears around the corner looking just as unnerved as Aviva had moments ago. She gasps, rushing toward me with her arms outstretched, but halts when she sees Grandpa Ryatt and Posey through the window.
Then, she notices Dad has me firmly pinned to the wall. She blinks, looks at each of us deeply for several seconds, and then smiles.
“You found your mate?” She looks from me to him, her worn expression brightening several shades.
Dad sighs and nods.
“Oh, my Goddess! It’s a Solstice miracle!”
“Why did you text me saying I needed to come to Silverhide immediately?” I snarl, losing my patience, but then Posey walks in, her cheeks burning pink when she notices me plastered against the wall and being held back by my father. Her lips pop open. I’m a single second away from head-butting my dad, shifting, and snatching my mate away when Misty steps around the corner with a long, defeated sigh.
The look on her face effectively evaporates the tension.
“There’s nothing I can do.”
Mom whirls to face her. “You’re sure?”
“It’s not a curse, Kenna. You’re right. Honestly, I have no idea. I’ve never seen anything like this before other than… Maeve.”
Dad straightens, letting me go. I step to the side, discreetly taking Posey by the arm, but her eyes are on Misty as well.
“Maeve was one when her powers began to show, right?” Misty asks, scratching her head.
“This is different, Misty,” Mom replies under her breath, befuddled.
“What’s the matter?” I step into the light of the kitchen, looking down at Mom and Misty.
Mom purses her lips and opens her mouth to explain, but Grandpa Ryatt, standing silently in the doorway, says, “Show him, Kenna. Let his shadows do their job.”
“Blake has already come and gone. You did the same. There’s nothing left to try,” Misty cuts in with a huff, but I’m already stepping past them. Posey’s fingers slip from mine. It takes only a matter of six determined steps to reach the small but cozy wood-lined bedroom on the first floor, which is packed as it stands.
Aviva spots me and smiles gravely. Ryan is too busy talking in low, serious tones to Kaleb in that strange, otherworldly language I haven’t bothered to learn. Cole is kneeling, his medical kit open on the ground beside him.
And Lexa sits on the bed with a bundle in her arms that… doesn’t look right.
Her exhausted dark blue eyes meet mine with a silent plea I can’t decipher.
“I came as soon as I could!” Maeve’s voice is like a shrill scream in my ear as she bustles into the room behind me, panting. “What’s the matter?” Her mouth falls open when Cole pulls back the blanket covering the baby in Lexa’s lap. Ian. He’s a cute little thing with curly dark hair, sharply pointed ears and large, hazel-blue eyes.
At least, he was.
“Goddess above,” I murmur, suddenly dizzy with shock.
Maeve gasps and doesn’t bother to hide her recoil, her long pointed nails gripping my upper arm for support.
Lexa forces herself to swallow and hugs the… wolf pup closer while Cole listens to his chest with his stethoscope.
“Lexa?” Maeve steps forward, her sea-glass eyes shining brighter than they ever have against the sudden paleness of her skin.
Kaleb looks like he’s on the verge of shouting at everyone to leave his mate and child alone. I take a step back, then another, until my back hits the closet door. Lexa shakes her head at Maeve while Cole continues a thorough examination of the tiny wolf pup. On Ian.
“It happened this morning, and then he shifted back,” Lexa tearfully explains. “He’s a quarter fae.” She looks at Kaleb, who immediately comes to her side and braces his hand on her shoulders. She speaks rapidly in his language for several sentences while he stands stoically at her side but I can feel it, that ice. That need to protect, to close Lexa off from everything bad and uncomfortable. His grip on her shoulder is like iron.
I get it now. Having a mate isn’t easy. It’s not supposed to be easy.
She turns her attention back to Maeve to continue, “During the last Trial in the arena, when Blake–” She takes a choked breath. “When everything started to fracture, I was struck right in the abdomen by the king's powers. It sliced through me, but I was unharmed on the outside. I thought he’d hurt the baby, that he knew about him, but Ian was fine throughout the pregnancy, and the birth was easy. He’s been fine. All of a sudden, when he overslept during his nap and I went to check on him, I found him like this. He was asleep. I couldn’t wake him up right away. And when he did wake up, he panicked and shifted back. Then, a few hours ago, when we came here for help.” She looks toward the doorway where Misty and Aviva are standing side by side in quiet solidarity. “It happened when he was in my mom's arms. He hasn’t been able to shift back. He’s barely six months old. He doesn’t know how, and there’s no way to teach him like this.”
“He’s stable, Lexa.” Cole tries to reassure her, but she screws her face into a pinched, furious frown.
“He’s cursed. The king did this. He had to have done this.” She drops back into the old tongue of the Deadlands. Kaleb whispers to her, easing onto his knees. Ryan, standing nearby, grits his teeth and mouths another gruff, silent curse, motioning for everyone to leave.
“I can help him.”
I turn toward Posey’s voice. Maeve whips around, and Posey blushes deeply under the gaze of several notable members of my family. The column of her throat bobs as she looks at Lexa, offering her a small, unsure smile.
She points halfheartedly at Maeve and says, “Just like Maeve’s old necklace. I can make something like that for him. To absorb these powers, for now. I can do it. I’m sure I can do it.”