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Ann
My shadow beastsare battling an enemy they can't possibly defeat. I know it in my heart. There was no other reason for them to send me away, except that they wanted to protect me and no longer felt they could. They've gone into this fight believing that they won't survive it, and I can't let that happen.
No matter what it costs me.
I stare at my mate, my heart aching. Even though he's in Adrik's body, there's no denying that it's him. Not just because only Rayne could kiss me like that, not just because I see Rayne in this man's eyes, but because I would know the man who stole my heart anywhere.
My mate. Dead and now somehow back with me.
It hurts me more than I ever imagined that I have to turn away from him now. That in one direction is freedom, the two of us escaping back to our fae brethren and leaving behind all the danger that comes with the Void and the shadow king, and yet I can't go in that direction with him. Instead, I have to go toward the battle. Toward almost certain death.
"They're not going to survive," I tell Rayne, hoping he sees it in my face, sees what I want to do.
He frowns at me, his brows drawing together. "Maybe not, but this isn't our battle."
Maybe it wasn't... once upon a time. It wasn’t when the shadow beasts first took me from the Royal Fae Academy, but things have changed. If the shadow beasts fail, the world will fall. What's more, Phantom, Onyx, and Dusk aren't just random beasts to me any longer... I care for them. And I'll never forgive myself if I walk away now and leave them to their fate.
"I have to go back."
A stubborn kind of anger falls over Rayne's face. "No."
I almost laugh. "You can't tell meno."
"Ann, this isn't our fight. What's more, there's nothing you can do against enemies like that." I know he doesn't mean to sound like he finds me weak and useless, but that's exactly how it comes across.
Irritation blossoms inside of me. "I saved your sister. I protected her from the light fae who wanted her dead. I risked my life for others. Just because you... weren't around, that doesn't mean it didn't happen." He's about to interrupt, but I hear the roar of a creature so large I can only imagine what it could be in the distance. Where the battle is taking place. My pulse picks up, and I try to push aside the images of what my shadow beasts might be facing right now while I’m wasting time arguing. "I'm going back. Because whether you believe it or not, I can help."
"I'm alive," he tells me, his voice tense. "You and I can finally have the life we always imagined."
His words are like a knife shoved straight into my chest, because if it was only just him and I, he'd be right, but now something has changed.I'vechanged. "I need to go."
Rayne puts his arms out like the barricade of his arms is enough to discourage me. It isn’t. Nothing is going to stop me from getting to the men who need me. And yet, Rayne only remembers me as the young light fae who followed him around, curious about the world. He doesn't know who I've become now.
But he's about to find out.
"Move."
"No," he says, his tone leaving no room for argument.
The sounds of evening — chirps of crickets, leaves fluttering, the whistle of dragonflies moving around us — aren’t enough to overpower the sounds of battle, to suppress my urgency. Fires rage in the forest, somewhere far up ahead, but I can see the light, even from here. The shadow beasts are burning grave trolls, or maybe some new creature that burns has escaped the Void. I don't know which, and I don't care.
I have a purpose, a need, a force driving me, even if I don’t understand it or how I know it.
I darting one way, but Rayne is suddenly there, his huge frame dwarfing my own. "Stop this nonsense. These men took you. All you have to do is use this distraction to leave with me. To return to the Royal Fae Academy and our lives. We'll finish our classes. We'll get married. It'll be like none of this ever happened."
That's not how the world works."Okay."
His hands drop, and he gives me a tentative smile. "One day you'll see this was the right choice."
Yes, it is.
I race around Rayne, only seeing the shock in his eyes for a moment before I'm leaving him far behind. The battle, the click and clack punctuated by the grunting of men fighting and the groans of men in pain, calls to me. I swear the forest flies by me, almost like when the shadow beasts had carried me on their backs and stolen me. It's like in just a short time I changed from the girl at the academy to a woman of the woods, and I like the change.
Behind me, I hear Rayne shouting my name, but I just keep going, closer and closer to the battle, the flames, the sounds of pain. My heart is racing. Sweat is running down my back. When I reach the battle, I know things are going to be bad. I know there are better people than me to be running into battle, but I will do whatever is in my power to protect the three men who have taken root in my heart.
My mind moves, not to saving the world, not to the battle, but tothem. Dusk and Phantom, tall and dark with long tangled hair, and Onyx, sweet, silent Onyx, with his blonde hair and huge body. All three of them are big, strong, and powerful. And all three of them have a softness inside of them that is so unexpected, and so perfect. My heart aches at just the thought of them. The thought of them getting hurt.
