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Ann
I can’t pullit back in, I can’t aim it or control it, but I can turn it, so that's what I do. I shift my focus so I’m looking at the king until he moves Phantom to stand between us. I would love to annihilate that bastard, to incinerate his ass with my power, but I’m afraid to hurt Phantom. My heart would never survive that. So I let my light fall over the grave trolls and watch as they fade away to ash, and I do the same when the rot monkeys descend on us from the trees. But in truth I'm barely paying attention to them. I'm watching the king and Phantom, waiting for my chance to reach the bastard who hurt my men.
As the rot monkeys seem to realize they have no chance against me and fall back, I slowly move my light toward the king. Phantom looks back at me as I do so, and my heart races. I want him away from that dangerous man. I want him back on earth, safe with me, and I'll do anything in my power to make that happen.
A movement catches my eye. The king’s hand is spindly, thin, and looks brittle, but it’s clawed and reaching inside the black box. I don’t know what’s in there, but I want to scream for Phantom to pay attention, to watch the king. But as I have the thought, the words die.
It’s a shard.
“Phantom!” I scream a second too late, and the king plunges the shard into Phantom’s chest.
The light inside of me dims, fades, and I can’t do more than watch as the king takes Phantom away, disappearing in a puff of darkness.
“No!”
I need the light back. I need to find Phantom. I need to save him.I run from the crowd of shadow beasts left behind, probably filled with the order to kill me, but before I can get to the spot where the king disappeared with Phantom, Onyx grabs me by one arm and Dusk grabs me by the other while Rayne clears a path out of the realm with a sword he’s lifted from one of the trolls who are now crowding into the space, embattled, ready.
Our enemies outnumber us by the hundred and I can’t focus enough to make my light shine again, so I leave, running out behind Rayne as Onyx and Dusk pull me along. I instinctually fight, even though I know that staying behind is foolish, because I have to get back to Phantom. I have to find him!
“Phantom!” I look at Dusk. “He’s there still. Somewhere! Let me go. We have to find him, before it's too late.”
But I'm not fighting them. I just feel overwhelmed by a need to find my mate, and at the same time, there’s the lingering knowledge that if we stay in the shadow realm, we'll die. We can't save Phantom if we're dead, so why does it feel so wrong to leave him behind?
And then we're at the edge of the shadow realm, staring at the dark wall that leads to our world. My men don't hesitate; they drag me through. And a moment later, we're back on earth. But they don't slow. Not yet. When we reach the edge of the trees around the clearing near the Void and realize no one is following us, we stop, although they don’t let me go. Dusk and Onyx keep their fingers curled into my biceps like I'm mad and will dive right back into the shadow realm.
Which, to be fair, I just might. My head knows what's smart, but my heart is pulling me back, commanding me to return for the man I love.
“Let me go!” I yank and struggle, but these aren’t mortal men. These are hulks who have muscles on top of their muscles and they’re using them to hold me. My struggle does little more than wears me out.
“Please!” The terror is real. I shift to look at Rayne. “Goddammit! Make them let me go!”
He cocks his head and considers me. “So you can run back in there? So the king can take you? So you can die?” His lips purse and he looks at me, eyes dark, expression hard. “No.”
It’s a flat answer, one he has no right to speak. I jerk my body hard enough Onyx’s hold tightens and the futility of it burns through me. But I can’t let Phantom go. I just can’t.
“Please, Dusk. Let’s go back for him. He's your brother! He's my mate!”
He shakes his head, looking down and away, but continues holding onto me. “My father has him now.”
It isn’t an answer I can accept. “Please.” My voice is weaker now because the fight is gone. The light is gone. Phantom is gone. And I don’t know that I’ll ever be able to get him back.
“He sacrificed himself to save us,” Dusk tells me softly. “We can’t let his sacrifice be in vain.”
His words echo through me, and when they finally let me go, I collapse.
TWENTY
Ann
It’s been days,weeks, and I have nothing to show for it but the few hundred moon shards we’ve collected. Yes, that's an accomplishment, but I'd trade them all in to get Phantom back. To even see him for a moment.
There's no doubt in my heart that these men are all my mates. Now, I have no idea how I was able to fight the pull to my shadow beasts for so long. Because now that I have Onyx and Dusk, they are like Rayne to me. They've buried themselves so deep in my heart that it isn't me and them, it'sus.
And the loss of Phantom... it's like losing a piece of my soul. My entire chest aches all the time. It throbs like the shadow king ripped my heart from my chest when he took Phantom. The only reason I'm eating or drinking is because my men make me. The only way I can sleep is with them wrapped around me, with them holding me and comforting me every time I dream of Phantom and wake up sobbing.
Still, I continue on, because I'll never get him back if I give up. And I'll never be complete until I have Phantom with me once more.
I turn my head from one side to the other and roll my shoulders. “You should get some rest.” Rayne lays his hand at the small of my back, his thumb caressing my skin lightly under the hem of my shirt. The touch is meant to console, to ease my thoughts. But there won’t be any sort of consolation until Phantom is back with me. Where he belongs. Where I need him to be.
