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8
Onyx
The night isdark with an edge of chill. The moon is waning overhead, slowly stealing the light from the night, one day at a time. Looking up at it, I'm reminded of home. Our world was always like a bright night. Brighter than it is now, the sky streaked with grey, forever and always. And beneath the pale light of the moon that forever hung in the sky, we flourished. Shifting into our other form, we'd race through our lands, enjoying the different plants, chasing the different animals, and living in a world that was as much a part of our soul as our own hearts.
That world is gone now. After the king stole the moon from the sky and blanketed it all in darkness, the plants died, most of the animals died, and those that remained were dark creatures with dark souls. Except our fellow shadow beasts, the poor bastards, who were simply forced to remain in their other form, under their father's control. Working with the very creatures they once hated, once hunted for the protection of our people.
But I don't want to think about them now. I can't think about my friends, lost to an enemy I can't control.
Nights like tonight just make me miss our home. Make me miss the moon goddess in the sky. Even the smells are different here. Richer and fuller in many ways, but less herbal. In our world, flowers bloomed in the darkness, radiating with light. They also released a scent similar to caramel, only a touch less sweet. Any time I was walking around the palace back home, I would stop and breathe in that familiar scent.
It feels like we came to earth with nothing from our world, but at least, I have my brothers. And they're better than any light, or smell, or sound.
Dusk and Phantom walk beside me in silence, their backs curved, their strides slow. We're all still sore from the battle. And heartbroken from Ann. As easy as it would be to do, I don't blame her for all of this. Being homesick isn't her fault. Feeling lost and alone isn't her fault. But still, I can't push away the pain I feel every time I think of her. It's as if we were barely holding our heads above water before, and now someone has given us a stone to carry too.
It's too much. For all of us.
Not that I can let my brothers see how much this is hurting me. They need someone to be strong, so it might as well be me.
Even though we're all suffering together.
A patrol to protect Ann while she’s withhimseems a fitting punishment for whatever horrors we’ve inflicted on the world. Because, truly, this is a punishment. Maybe Rayne is having sex with Ann right now. It’s a thought that makes me want to punch my fist through every tree in this fucking forest. Maybe he's just holding her close. But it doesn't matter: we're out in the cold, and our mate is with another man. It's painful, to say the least, and easily one of the most miserable experiences of my life, and I've had a lot of miserable experiences.
My brothers aren’t any happier than I am and instead of making our way through the forest silently, they're almost stomping, I can see it in the way their feet fall. We're looking for anything out of place. Looking for shards of the moonstone that will make it easier for their father to expand the Void into this world and claim it as his own domain, killing everything inside except the dark beasts he controls. It's something we've done more times than I can count, minus the stomping, minus the silence and the tension in the air. Mostly, we've done this patrol like soldiers in a battle that will never end.
Now, we're like soldiers in a battle that will never endafterknowing our mate fucked another man.
Awful doesn't begin to explain the way we feel right now.
Dusk nudges my shoulder and points ahead at a shard in the grass a few feet beyond the path we’re walking. Beneath the light of the moon, it just barely glints, and could've been easily missed. It's good that Dusk saw it. Moon shards have always been difficult to find... well, until Ann showed up and made it all seem simple.
Ann.I sigh and slowly move toward the shard.
Logically, she should be here with us. Finding the shards is easier when she’s with us—her light is drawn to them. Or their light is sharper for her. I don’t know the science of it, only the fact that she’s a beacon. But with our relationship in shambles, it seems easier to only spot what we can rather than walk next to a woman who has rejected us, who has decided that she isn't our mate, no matter how much this connection between us says her belief is a lie.
I kneel down and pick up the shard, placing it in the pouch at my belt. I'm about to stand back up when I notice that the turned ground is fresh. Which means that one of their father's minions was here recently. I motion for Dusk to have a look and he kneels too, then touches the dirt.
“Fresh.” When I nod, he continues. That they learned to sign for me is not something I take for granted. "Apparently, even after everything, he's still on his mission."
"Father could be half-dead and still send someone to hide a shard, just to make a point that we'll never defeat him," Phantom signs, his mouth moving with each word, which tells me he's speaking aloud too.
I sign, "Did you see her destroy that dragon? Did you see the shadow king falling to ash? Your father would have to have a hell of an ego to still be so confident." I mean, that moment was incredible, one for the history books. With everything that's happened, it took away from that moment a bit, but now it's on my mind.
“I knew when all of this started that we were going to lose,” Phantom signs with a tight smile. “I don’t know that anymore.”
Dusk nods, his hands moving quickly. “He’s not as strong as we thought.”
And it’s a comfort. For so long, the shadow king has been alive and unstoppable in my nightmares. I'd see him standing, his cloak billowing behind him, his sword out and ready to strike. I'd feel that tip slicing into my throat. The scene would play over and over again, and I'd wake, a scream on my lips, then touch my face and the scar by my ear and know that it wasn't so much a nightmare as a memory.
Too many mornings I'd lie awake after, heart pounding, replaying the events of that day, the day when everything fell apart. I didn't know at the time what had happened to me. For one second there was just an explosion of pain, then a ringing in my ears that wouldn't go away... and finally, nothing. Every sound from the world was simply gone.
I was afraid. Confused. When I stepped in the way to save Phantom, I'd expected to die. I'd known that I couldn't let my friend, or the future king of our world, fall because he didn't see the truth in time. Didn't realize just how dark his father's soul was. Death I was ready for. This? Not so much. Continuing to live, feeling broken, it's not something a warrior is ever prepared for.
The only thing that kept me going were my brothers, and the idea that there was no other choice. It wasn't that I thought we would win. I never thought that. The king was just too powerful. It was that I had no other place to be than at the side of Dusk and Phantom.
Being taken by the fae, kept as prisoners, tortured and forced to do unspeakable things... that was just another delay. Another chapter in this fight between father and sons. We were always going to come back here. But with Ann, maybe, just maybe, we could win.
Not that we get any say in the matter.
