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Fuck.
There’s no way Ann would have just dropped this all here. Panic builds inside of me, and I want to deny what I know because it’s too painful.
But I can’t.
Someonetook Ann, and it isn’t a big stretch to figure out who. My gut aches, and nausea builds as my heart twists. This is… worse than anything I imagined. We kept Ann far away from the Void. We handled the Shadow King’s minions. Ann should have been safe.
I kneel down and gather the moon shards, then I collapse onto my knees and slowly pick up her dagger. Ann is…gone. Now, I can feel it deep inside. It’s like part of my soul is missing. I try to picture her in that dark world with Phantom, how he is now, and the Shadow King, but the idea makes me sick.
If I thought the smell of the grave trolls would make me vomit, I was wrong. Finding my Ann gone though… bile rises in the back of my throat.
I won’t rest until we have her back with us. Where she belongs.
And when Onyx and Dusk learn what happened, well, the king better be ready, because there’s no wrath that compares with the wrath of the three of us. That bastard is going to burn, and our Ann will be back safely with us again.
I swear it.
SEVEN
Ann
I’m warm, wrapped in a dream of sweet happiness, cradled in strong arms on a comfortable bed under a soft blanket. And it’s divine. I haven’t felt so safe or protected in… I can’t remember ever feeling so safe and protected.
If it’s a dream, I never want to wake up. I never want it to end.
But like all good things, it does end. And when I look behind me to see who’s holding me, my heart flips. I’m with Phantom, in a comfortable bed, with his arms and his scent wrapped around me. It’s intoxicating. Everything I’ve dreamed of and more.
It’s been so long since I’ve known comforts like these–a mattress, a blanket that doesn’t smell like soot and ash. Walls that aren’t made of earth and roots, a floor not made of packed dirt, but that’s not what matters to me now. I’m back with my stolen mate, and he looks like himself again as he smiles at me.
He’s wearing a pair of silk boxers and nothing else. His body is as perfect as I remember–smooth broad chest, wide shoulders, sinew and muscle–and my palm itches to run across the width of it. Instead, I spend a second staring my fill before I spot the small spot above his heart. Something crystal clear sticks an inch or so out of his skin.
A moon shard.
I reach for it, and he catches my hand. Slowly, I look up once more, and his smile widens.
“Good morning, my sweet Ann.” His gaze is everything. Everything I remember, everything I need. Although, I have no idea how I came to be here with him.
But right now, it only matters that I am. That I have him back.
“Phantom.” His name on my tongue is like a sweet berry. But I have so many questions I don’t know where to begin.
Where are we? How did we get him back?
Is he… Phantom again?
He kisses my temple then smiles. The evil I thought I would see isn’t visible. He’s genuine. “It’s me.” The voice is the same, the gentility of his touch, the reverence, even his eyes are right.
It’s really him.
I’ve missed him so much I’ve ached with it, felt like part of myself has been missing. And here he is–flesh and bone–holding me. No signs of the ghost of a man he’d become. No signs of the man who had sent shadow beasts, grave trolls, and rot moneys after us for weeks. It’s just… Phantom.
And I don’t know if I care how we got him back, only that my mate has returned to me.
Yet, I have to ask. And Ihatethat I have to ask. “What happened?” It’s logical to ask, coherent even in a time where my thoughts are terribly incoherent. I can’t understand how this is happening. He was lost to us. We’ve been fighting to get him back, but here he is, beside me. Gazing. Affectionate. Running his fingers through my hair.
The question isn’t specific enough, but I can’t think beyond it. My thoughts are slower here. I need to revise, but I’m still reeling, can’t think of exactly what to ask.
“You’ve all misunderstood. You and Onyx and Dusk.”
