“It is not.
“Well, I hate it.”
Nick almost laughed.Almost.Instead he tightened his grip on her hand and pressed the side of his face against hers, anchoring himself to her breathing.
The Troll King fought like an avalanche given flesh, his massive sword cleaving through darkness while troll warriors defended the outer ledges in tight, disciplined ranks.Rachel’s healing light flickered through the chamber beside bursts of fae magic and wolf snarls, weaving across the wounded like a thread of stubborn gold.
But everything kept circling back here.To Kara.To the child.To the foundations pulsing beneath them in desperate rhythm, matching her breath beat for beat.
Verna pressed both hands against Kara’s stomach suddenly, her face tightening in concentration, her lips moving in something that was not quite words.
Then the elder female looked directly at Nick.
“When the child comes,” she said quietly, the words pitched low enough that only he and Kara could hear, “do not let fear sever the bond between them.”
Nick stared at her, his mouth dry.“What does that mean?”
“Honestly, you old bat,” Kara seethed through gritted teeth.“Why do you constantly talk in freaking riddles?”
Verna’s expression turned grim, her gaze sliding past him toward the writhing dark.“The foundations are no longer only listening.”
The chamber shook violently.
The corruption surged one final time, rising like a wave above the ledges, every shadow leaning toward the platform where Kara lay glowing.
And somewhere deep beneath the roots of the realms, far below stone and silver and song, something ancient woke fully at last.
Nick felt it before anyone said a word.The hair lifted along his arms.His wolf went silent inside him, not from peace, but from the kind of stillness that prey felt in the half second before the hunter moved.
He bent low over Kara, lips against her temple, and held on.
CHAPTER22
“Creation survives because, over and over again, someone chooses to love another person more than they love themselves.”~The Great Luna
Gerick staredat the book waiting.He knew what was coming the moment the Great Luna had told him that the foundations had started shaking.It was as if she’d poured into his mind exactly what was coming without actually telling him.
“Why are we staring at the book?”Peri asked.But Gerick just held up his hand.The high fae huffed but didn’t say anything more.
He counted under his breath, grounding himself, preparing himself for whatever it was he must do.Great Luna help him; he hoped he had the strength to do it.Then ...
The Nushtonia screamed.
The sound tore through the Draheim Realm hard enough to split stone beneath Gerick’s boots.
Every draheim in the forest rose at once, ancient shadows shifting between the trees as silver mist exploded outward from the mountainside where the book rested atop the altar stone.Lucian swore sharply beside him while Lilly’s magic flared instinctively around her hands.
Just as he thought, the foundations were collapsing.And Myanin was at the center of it.
The Nushtonia pulsed violently again.Then split open.Not physically.
The air above it fractured instead, gold light ripping through the clearing in jagged lines as ancient magic poured outward hard enough to bend the surrounding trees.
Inside the tear ...
Gerick saw her.
Myanin stood in a corridor of burning parchment while Shade fought creatures made from living shadow around her.The book itself had begun unraveling, pages ripping loose into the air like dying birds, as the corruption surging through the foundations reached upward into the Nushtonia.
