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Isla was still trembling, still holding onto Kai like he’d vanish, and shaking her head. “I won’t do it,” she whispered to him, to Fate. “I won’t.”
As if in answer, thunder crashed, and lightning streaked so brightly it cleaved the room. The world quaked. He felt itbreak.
Aneurin’s blood began flowing from red to black, darkness leaking from him like ink in water. His power, Kai’s power, spread through the palace floor like vines. Like veins of rot and destruction.
Kai held Isla, shielded her, when the world exploded. When the floors quaked, the glass shattered, and the hall itself collapsed.
He held her when he lifted his head and beheld his fate, her fate, the reason they’d been bound together, why they’d found each other on that terrace.
Kai still held her when he peered outside, quiet once again.
Quiet because nothing lay beyond but the Wilds.
EPILOGUE
CASSIUS
“What do you mean, he can’t be killed?”
Cassius sat back in his seat, swirling the glass of liquor in his hand. “Exactly as I say it. Alpha Kai cannot be killed. At least, not in a way that we know.” He didn’t avert his eyes from the Imperial City’s landscape to Malakai, finally returned from Charon, as he took a long drink. Though he could feel his Beta’s eyes on him, urging him to explain. “Back during the War of Realms in the height of the battles between us and the immortals, Alpha Kai’s ancestors turned on us. The Alpha of Ares made a bargain with the fae or a demon, those who wrote it did not know, but no one had been aware of it until the war concluded, and the alpha poised to make himself a god. He met his end, eventually. No one knows how, and the continent entered an age of relative peace until his power rose again, five hundred years later, with Alpha Aneurin of Phobos.”
He paused and finally turned to examine his lifelong friend’s expression. Malakai’s features had paled. He’d never been privy to any of this; tales such as these had been in diaries kept in the catacombs far, far below. The secrets of all Alphas past were meant for Cassius’s eyes and his eyes alone…until he was to pass them along to Adrien.
His eyes narrowed on the Valkeric Mountains in the distance, where his son had gone tonight. He’d been spotted by a guard Cassius had watching Raana’s cottage, awaiting her inevitable return. The guard had rushed back, clearly uneasy, as he relayed the message that he’d lost track of them, claiming they’d justvanishedinto the darkness, not understanding what she had been.
Cassius had dismissed him and then had needed to think, to plan. Adrien would simply have to learn for himself that Cassius was always right. Once he found out who Raana truly was—discovered what hunted her—he’d come to his senses…if he wasn’t killed first.
“Aneurin ruled during the age of the decimation,” Malakai said, drawing back Cassius’s attention.
“Yes,” he said. “That’s what’s believed to have killed him.”
“So, Kai can be killed by a witch.” His friend’s voice wavered, understandably. Even with all the Alpha of Deimos stood to take from them, it didn’t change that he was his daughter’s mate.
So, Cassius would have to give him a better reason to oppose the alpha. A greater desire of his heart. Hisgreatest desire,a long-forgotten dream, an impossibility.
He checked his watch, and that should’ve been arriving any minute now.
Cassius took another long sip. “A witch didn’t cause the decimation.”
Malakai jerked back. “That’s what’s been told.”
“It’s better that’s believed than a villain who can’t be slain by any understandable means. My ancestor, during Aneurin’s reign, spent most of his timehidingfrom him beneath the city.Hiding. He was a coward. At least with the tale that the decimation had been a witch, potentially orchestrated by his hand, it strikes fear. Better to be viewed as ruthless than weak.”
Malakai let out a long breath, falling silent as he stared down at his hands, thinking. “Locke has every intention of storming Deimos in the next few days. I tried to talk him down, but he’s adamant he has grounds to reclaim his pack members. Alpha Kai is going to kill him.”
Fool.
“Then let him die by his own ignorance. There’s nothing we can do. After that, you’ll likely take up the helm in Charon until we select someone better.”
“Do you think Isla’s in danger?” Desperation dripped from his voice. “Sebastian’s there, too. They’re all I have, Cas.”
For now, Cassius thought, and perfectly timed, a knock came at his office door. “Isla is the only thing buying us time if what I suspect of the dark moon is correct.” He leaned over and tapped his friend’s knee. “But enough of this. I have a surprise for you, brother.”
Malakai lifted his brows, his features uneasy. “Your surprises are typically hit-or-miss.”
“I think you’ll like this one,” he said before rising to his feet, plastering on a smile. “Come in, Ravona!”
The door eased open, and Ravona, Winslow’s assistant, entered, but she wasn’t where Malakai’s eyes fell. It was the woman behind her, freshly bathed and finely dressed, that had become the center of the world.
