AllFreeNovel
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‘I’m going to die.’
I’m almost positive she didn’t mean to share that with me, but Serena has always struggled with the bond. At first, she couldn’t quite understand how to talk to me, but once she got the hang of it, it was as if she didn’t know how to stop.
“Garrett, stop! It’s not safe out there,” my mother shouts as I run for the garden. She stands in the doorway as if she intends to stop me, but I can’t let that happen. I don’t want to hurt her, but I will go through her if I have to.
Serena needs me, and I won’t let her down.
Something changes on my mother’s face, and she moves out of the way at the last second. I fly past her and feel her presence behind me as she follows me out into the garden and down the trail to the gates.
Darkness fills the sky, swallowing the light of the late afternoon sun as if someone had laid a blanket over it. It should be terrifying, but instead, I find comfort in it. Something about it feels familiar, and I know in my bones that it’s Rena. She’s still fighting.
A howl sounds so loud that it rattles the wall as I run through the gate.
‘I can’t.’
I see her the second I round the wall. She’s down on her knees in the center of the path, her back facing me. The beast is nowhere in sight, but her shadow continues to grow, reaching out around her.
I’m so close.
‘I’m coming, Rena.’
Just a little farther.
A strong arm wraps around my waist just before I reach her, hauling me back against a solid form. I thrash and fight, but I’m too small and can’t break the hold.
‘Calm down, Garrett!’ Father’s voice is stern as he continues to hold me. I don’t care who he is, though. Serena needs me.
Being this close only to be stopped pushes me over my limit, and my hold slips. Fire blazes in my hands, and the wind slashes around me, trying to help me get free. But even with the help of my elements, I’m no match for my father.
‘I’m so sorry, my dear,’
I watch in horror as my father uses air to hit Serena with a dart, not once but twice. Her shadows move around the castle wall. Every creature they come into contact with vanishes, gone as if it had never been there to begin with.
‘Don’t leave me,’ Serena begs me through the bond, and I feel her slowly slipping away.
‘Never,’ I blurt my response aloud, needing her to hear me before she falls to whatever it is my father did to her. I have no idea if she hears me or not, though, as he sticks me with the same thing, and I follow her into the darkness.
I’m pulled from the memory as one of the creatures makes a sound that’s half between a howl and a growl.
I’d tried not to like him. In the beginning, it was easy when I thought he was taking Serena away from us, but that doesn’t seem to be the case anymore. He cares about her as much as we do, and he’s spent his life looking for her. If anything, we took her from him; she was his mate before we found her. She came to us already bonded to him, even if none of us knew that. Yet through all of it, he’s been nothing but accepting of us, far more than we deserve when you think about it.
Somehow, the shared memory with Garrett seems almost normal, and I hate to admit it, but he feels like part of our group, like we all belong together. I might be bonded with Serena, but it’s not just her I feel closer to. It’s almost as if we’re all connected. It’s strange to think about, but it somehow feels right. I’d felt it when her and Blair’s bond snapped into place, and while it scared the hell out of me at first, it felt right.
Lyle growls beside me but doesn’t comment, and I ignore him. I know the others can hear my thoughts, but I don’t really understand how to stop sharing when I’m shifted. It’s not the same as sharing when we’re in our human form. Like that, I can only talk to Garrett and Blair, and I have to work to push my thoughts to them, but like this, it’s as if every thought goes off to them the moment it pops into my mind.
It’s fucking annoying.
When I awoke, she was gone. Draven hadn’t expected a shadow user, but this kingdom still stands because of her. Draven was there that day, in one of the other villages. The townspeople reported that he left ecstatic, going on and on about the ultimate power of darkness, hardly even worried that his beasts had been wiped out. I understand why my father sent her away. It was safest for her. We’ve had scattered attacks over the years, but nothing of this scale, not since she’s left and now that she’s back…
He doesn’t need to finish his sentence. We can all put the pieces together.
Whatever reason Draven has for attacking now has something to do with Serena. Lyle was more right to leave her behind than we knew.
If we had more time, I’d have us sit down and share everything.
Something about not knowing Serena’s whole past doesn’t sit well with me, and I can only assume the others feel the same. I file the idea away for later when we’re not busy dealing with killing machines or are needed to help save the kingdom.
The chimeras are no longer human. They don’t respond to communication, don’t know who or what they were or are, and as far as we can tell, they can’t be saved. They only know what Draven tells them, whether that be kill, attack, or destroy.
