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Onyx shakes his head, Dusk glares, but Phantom is the one who speaks. “No.”
The king sighs through a smile and shakes his head. It’s as if he might actually be enjoying this. "And here I thought we could have a nice family reunion." Then, he looks at the other men. "Someone is missing."
Flame goes pale. "The girl ran away. We couldn't find her."
The king's gaze narrows into slits.
Another man says, "She was mated to your sons anyway, so she wasn't needed."
The king gestures to the man, and a minute later a rot troll tears his head right off his body. The troll throws the head toward the trees, which sends the monkeys screeching even louder, and the shadow beast’s headless body hits the floor.
If the men were tense before, the tension is strong enough to cut with a knife now.
"I decide whether something is needed or not," the king says slowly, then smiles, a creepy smile. "Now, my men, shift into your beast forms. Your battle is over. You've won the war. You can relax. You can let me take control. There's nothing for you to worry about any longer."
"Don't listen to him!" Dusk shouts. "Look around you. Look what waits for you."
Flame turns away from the king and looks my men in the eyes. "I'm sorry."
And then he shifts. It happens over the course of a few seconds. Where once there was a man, now there's a massive creature, like a wolf, but it's pure black, and its fur seems to be made of smoke rather than fur. When he opens his eyes, they glow red, and he moves in a robotic way, joining the other wolves that surround the men.
One by one, the shadow beasts shift until there's no one left in the center. No one but my three men.
Terror throbs through my heart and I wish we could go back. I wish we’d left the forest instead of going back to the cave. But wishing won’t do me any good now. I have to save them because without them, my soul is incomplete.
My heart races.Please let me be able to use the light. Please let me use my powers to save my men.And then, I whisper, "Please give me the power to use the light within me."
But I feel nothing. Nothing at all.
Was Rayne wrong?I close my eyes, even though the sound of the shadow beasts howling shakes the air.Please.
EIGHTEEN
Phantom
My father standsbefore his subjects, before the beasts who pace around us, who wait for us to make a wrong move so they can pounce on his command. And hewillcommand it. I know that deep in my heart. If we don't shift, if we don't allow him to control us, our friends will shred us to pieces.
I also know that neither I nor my brothers will shift. We'll never allow ourselves to become his slaves. If this man wants us out of his way, he'll have to kill us.
"Shift," he commands us again, then he gestures to someone.
A rot troll moves forward with a sword and strikes, but rather than attacking us, he cuts our ropes away. Not that having our hands free will do much good. Without weapons, surrounded by our enemies, we're as good as bound still, and our father knows it.
Today, we're going to die. My only peace comes from knowing Rayne and Ann are safe. At least until our world swallows their own. And that has to be enough for me right now. Something to cling to as I experience my last moments of life.
"Phantom." He says my name softly, like I'm a child breaking a rule. "You've always been too stubborn for your own good. Do what you should now. Do what's right."
It's strange. He looks like the man I once knew, the one who loved my mother, the one who cared for me and for Dusk when we were children, even with the damage from Ann's light still visible. But the shell of him doesn’t tell the true tale. Not what I see underneath all the familiar things. His eyes are dead. His voice is flat. The father I knew is gone.
“Is there nothing left of the man who loved our mother, who loved his children?” I don’t expect the words to have an effect on him, to make him consider his behavior, but I try anyway, for Dusk and Onyx.
I watch his face for any change, but his gaze doesn’t even flicker at the mention of my mother. “Love is for the weak." There’s no emotion left in him.
And I realize,wearen't going to make it out of here, but maybe Onyx and Dusk can.
A plan forms in my mind, and it's strange. For one moment the world seems to stand still around me. The shadow realm is dark, but I don't focus on that. Instead, happy images fill my mind. Ann’s face when she agreed to complete the mating bond with us, the way her eyes looked, the way I sensed her heart connecting with mine. The way she moved when I touched her. The sound of her laugh and the way she brought joy and wonder to us all.
"It's time," my father says.
