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It takes all my willpower not to drink in the sight of him. Now is not the time to remind myself we’re all naked and they’re all gorgeous.
“The world is dust and rubble,” I say softly, my gaze going unfocused as I recall the images that appeared in my mind by magic when Gwen whispered in my ear. They’re still as clear and sharp as they were on that day, unfaded by the passage of time. “A red haze hangs on the air, making the sun look like a dead, bloody disc. Nothing grows. No leaves on the trees, no grass on the ground. There are these horrible black chasms everywhere that billow with dark smoke. And these huge shadows roam the earth, killing anything they come across…” I trail off and swallow hard, clenching and unclenching my frozen fingers to keep my blood flowing. Returning my gaze to them where they stand so stoically across from me, I add, “I didn’t understand the shadows in the vision at first. What they were or where they came from. Not until I learned what you are, and what your goal is.”
Frost tilts his head, his blue eyes glittering. “Are we a part of this vision?”
Startled by the question, I furrow my brows. “Well… no. Not as action players. It’s just the shadow monsters.”
He nods, as if he expected that answer. “Then how can you be certain this apocalyptic wasteland is because of our actions?”
“Because Gwen told me so,” I snap. “At the same moment I received the vision, she told me I have three mates who are going to destroy the world if I don’t destroy them first.”
Kian shrugs. “We aren’t your mates.”
Frost ignores him and adds, “Correlation does not equal causation.”
Exasperation makes me feel stabby. I briefly consider yanking a branch off the tree and using it to slap some sense into every one of them. “You’re literally trying to tear open a portal between the shadow realm and this one to bring the shadows to earth, and you’re going to argue cause and effect with me?”
Kian crosses his arms over his chest, lifting his chin in a way that looks almost like a challenge. “Quinton’s goal is the same as ours. Perhaps he’s the one who brings about this doomsday.”
The reminder of the alpha’s name sends a wave of fury through me. That asshole has ruined these three men—taken away their autonomy and forced them to become nothing more than pawns in his game. They’re so wrapped up in his manipulation that they’re barely shadows of themselves. Of the men they should be.
“Regardless of whether you open the portal or he does, doing so will end life as we know it,” I bite out, still trying to rein in the need to wipe the forest floor with his face. “Everyone in this realm, human or otherwise, will have to fight to survive. Most will be tortured, eaten, and killed by the shadows, or they’ll die from starvation when the natural world around them withers into ash. Is that what you want? Could you live with yourselves if you bring that kind of devastation here? If you wreak that kind of destruction on earth and the human race?”
Kian’s expression hardens even more. His voice is stiff as he says, “Even if we stopped working for Quinton, he’d find another way. You do realize that, don’t you?”
Malix, who’s been uncharacteristically quiet so far, finally speaks. “He’s already threatened to make more of us.”
Kian snarls at his brother, clearly lashing out at the wrong guy. “There should have only been me.”
“What do you mean?” I ask.
His gaze drops to the ground, his brows pinching together and drawing attention to the scar that cuts through one. Not for the first time, I find myself wondering how he got it—who hurt him so badly.
My gut tells me it was probably Quinton.
Fucker. As if it isn’t bad enough that he scarred their emotions, their psyches, he left physical marks on them too.
There’s a pained tightness in Kian’s tone as he replies. “When Quinton created me, I was supposed to be the only one. I was a few years old when it became clear I wouldn’t be strong enough. That’s when he made two more shadow shifters. If it weren’t for me—if it weren’t for my weakness—my brothers wouldn’t be cursed with this existence.”
Malix rolls his eyes. “We wouldn’t be here at all, and you’d be even more of a little bitch without us.”
“It isn’t your fault that Quinton is a monster,” I say simply. “You are not his puppet, and you’re not responsible for the shitty things he’s done.” When none of them reply, I add, “You don’t have to do this anymore. You don’t have to serve him. And you don’t have to just walk away and let him pass the job on to someone else, either.”
Kian laughs bitterly. “What would you suggest we do, then?”
“You can stand up to him,” I point out. “You can change sides. If you think destroying the world by bringing the shadow realm here is wrong, like I do, then we can stop him. Together.” I let those words settle between us for a moment, then add, “Or if you don’t agree, then I’ll just keep trying to stop you, mate bond or no mate bond. Even if entwining my fate with yours means I die.”
Silence falls over our little treehouse meeting, and it’s loaded as fuck.
The bark behind my bare back digs painfully into my muscles. My body aches. All the running, the accidents and injuries, nearly dying... everything is adding up, and I’m exhausted. I don’t want to be standing naked on a chilly mountain having this conversation. I don’t want to have to make decisions that could affect other people or be a matter of life and death.
Yet here I am.
Kian breaks the stillness, lifting his chin as he turns his head and gazes into the distance. His expression has gone as cool and blank as Frost’s usually is.
“We need to find a place to stay for the night. Somewhere out of the elements.”
With that pronouncement, he shoves back the low-hanging branches and vanishes into the rapidly fading sunlight, effectively ending the conversation.
With no answer—and no accord—between us.
