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Do you see now? the Shriek hissed, and his voice had returned to that unnatural whisper of a sound it’d been when we’d first run into each other. It was like it was in my head without ever having passed through my ears, and it made me sick. Truly ill. I’ve been moving the pieces since before you were born.
At that, he sent another spell slicing toward me—one where I could feel the malevolence even from where I was struggling to right myself. I tried to bring up a barrier, some defense, but my magic was so wrapped up in purifying his, I couldn’t so much as summon the tiniest of shields.
Ayla! I heard Kai’s shifter-voice yell within my head, and abruptly, he was in front of me, howling at the Shrouded Shriek with all the challenge an alpha could muster. I tried to push him out of the way. There was no reason for either of us to die, and if I did indeed perish, then I would be forever out of the Shriek’s reach.
The spell hit Kai straight on, and for a moment, I saw his two forms separate. There was the wolf in front of me, then the human form of my mate as he flew through the air. It only lasted for a breath or two before his wolf form was completely obliterated, and my mate slammed into the wall with an impossible hole in his chest.
“Kai!” I screamed, my voice cracking. I needed my magic to save him, and I needed it now, but it was too busy trying to purge every bit of darkness in the Shriek. I wished I could cut it off, and I cursed my foolishness for delving so deep into the ancient evil without any recourse, but I knew stopping now would let the Shriek consume me exactly how he wanted to. Then he’d finally have that piece of the blessed bloodline he’d been refused all those millennia ago.
The Shriek began to cut through the air toward Kai’s crumpled body. Yvonne threw up her own barrier, but the Shriek just apparated around it.
No. I wouldn't let him hurt my mate any more than he already had.
I fought my way back to my feet and pushed all the magic I could into my tether connecting me to the Shriek, yet he was moving far too quickly, and with so much power. I knew I wouldn't be able to stop him in time.
It was like time moved in slow motion, forcing me to take in every excruciating detail as I failed the man I loved in the worst way possible. I shoved my magic outward, knowing that it wouldn't reach my target in time, but having no other choice. I saw the dark, violent magic forming in the Shriek’s hands, and I saw how he was reaching for Kai’s head.
What was he going to do? Rip my lover’s skull clear off his body? Explode him like an overripe cherry? All of those options were too horrible to even comprehend, yet it was certain that something truly terrible was about to happen.
Except the Shrouded Shriek never quite made it. Impossibly large teeth suddenly grabbed his arm. Once more, I saw a physical attack that shouldn’t have been able to harm the Shriek’s ephemeral form actually sink in, and a black, viscous blood began to well up from his immediately rancid wound.
For a breath, I was so shocked at the injury, I didn't realize what happened. But a beat later, I fully comprehended that it was Kai's father, in his wolf form, who’d latched on to the Shriek’s arm, and it was as he held the malevolent entity there that I heard his true voice for the first time.
Your time here is over.
With that, his eyes looked over at me—eyes so much like Kai’s—and in that moment, I knew exactly what I had to do. I saw the opportunity King Nathaniel had given me after finally wresting his freedom away from the Shriek.
I channeled all of the energy I’d shoved out of myself into our bond, sending that boiling, resplendent purification into every cell of the Shriek’s body. Spines shot out of him, a last defense, impaling the king through dozens of places, but he held the wailing, smoking Shriek in place as I burned through every bit of him.
I couldn't say how long it lasted: a second, a minute, an hour? All I knew was that I drained every single ounce of energy I could, all the pain, all the doubt, everything I'd learned, into expunging my enemy through his unnatural power. It felt like I was scraping myself raw, exposing myself to the endless void of the night sky, and drowning myself all at once.
But I didn't let go. Not until there was nothing left to cleanse, and my magic surged in a dazzling display of light before disappearing entirely. That was it.
The Shriek was gone.
I wanted to collapse, but I couldn't quite yet. I had something to do. Stumbling to Kai, I pressed my hands against him and closed my eyes in a prayer. I had no energy left to give him, having just ripped everything out of my core, but upon touching him, I felt myself able to tap into the tiniest tendril of his own life force. It was tiny, barely there, but it was present.
I gripped it gently, coaxing it to respond, to grow. I encouraged it and wheeled it back on itself until it could feed its own growth, and it worked. Despite everything, it worked, and I saw my love's brows knit together, and his eyes flutter open.
“Son?”
Head spinning, I looked behind me to see none other than King Nathaniel, collapsed on the floor in a pool of blood. His wolf form was lost, too, which wasn't surprising given the amount of damage he'd sustained.
This time, it was Kai who rushed over to him, taking his father into his arms.
“My son,” the alpha said, his voice low, barely a rasping whisper. “You’ve made me so proud.”
“Is it you, Dad? It’s really, actually you?”
“As far as I can tell.” The king sounded like he tried to let out a laugh, but it emerged as a choking sound. “You did it. I’d always hoped you would. I thought it would be your teeth at my throat, but I suppose you’ve always had to do things your own way.”
“Stop talking like that. We can heal you.” Kai looked up to me, and I saw such pain in his gaze that I was ready to try anything, even though I didn’t feel a drop of magic remaining in my body. “You can heal him, right, Ayla?”
“No, she can’t,” the king said, his voice growing ever quieter as I knelt beside him. I did try to push something, anything into him, but as far as my senses were telling me, he was already dead. But…that didn’t make any sense. “I’ve already been carved out years ago by that Shriek, meant to die by a poison in my food. That’s how he took over my body, trapping me in this cage of his, unable to stop his march toward the slow destruction of all of our people.”
“I just got you back. All these years of hatred between us, and it wasn’t even you.” I could hear Kai’s voice cracking, and it broke my heart. Of all our fates, his had to be one of the cruelest. He’d thought his father was evil for so long, had been prepared to end him to save the people, only for Nathaniel to be the one to save us all.
“It wasn’t… but know I have always loved you, and now you’ve given me the peace I never thought I would have again. You’ve saved everyone I love and the country I was meant to care for from a monster.” The king managed one last rattling breath, and although I tried my hardest not to sob, tears were most certainly pouring down my cheeks. “You must burn me, my son. Burn me and send me to our ancestors so I might rest. Promise me.”
