His deep voice rumbles through the clearing. “Be careful when you go in there. Our daughter has suffered enough loss. Don’t add to it by getting yourselves killed.”
The ground feels like it tilts beneath me as his words crash over me again and again.
He’s not just tolerating and accepting their presence as supportive humans…he’s recognizing openly what these men have become to me, and supporting it.
My lungs fight for air and my head swings to glance at Elias, Callum, and Dante, catching the mirrored looks of shock flickering across their faces. Slowly their disbelief shifts into something warmer, steadier as their parted mouths close and their eyes soften. All that’s left is admiration and open relief, and all of it is suddenly focused on me.
Callum’s lips curve into the faintest smirk, Elias’s dark blue eyes are alight with a fierce desire, and Dante looks at me like he’s been waiting for this permission his entire life.
It’s too much. My heart slams against my ribs, my hands twitch at my sides, and I can’t decide if I want to laugh, cry, or scream at the sky.
Papa breaks the moment with a groan, and I pull my head back to see him rubbing at his face. “Ugh, spare us. Just because we decided not to kill you doesn’t mean we want to see you look at her like that.”
Dad flips a knife between his fingers, his tone flat and edged. “You’ve got three seconds before you each lose your ability to see her. Move along into your assigned units.”
They linger long enough to give me one last look. Silent vows, etched in their eyes and carved into my chest, before they finally peel off with their assigned teams.
Nervous energy rolls through me as I watch them disappear into the treeline. The forest swallows their shapes until there’s nothing left but the echo and crunch of boots shifting across fallen leaves and branches.
It’s beginning.
My chest feels too tight, breath snagging as the weight of what’s coming presses in on me.
Every thought circles back to Terrance. To what he did to me. To what he could be doing to my mother inside those walls. To Elias, Callum, and Dante–how he broke them down until obedience was all they had left. Then my thoughts turn to how many other supernaturals he’s hunted relentlessly and tortured for his sick, twisted games.
We may never truly know the extent of his murderous network, but I do know it ends now.
My jaw clenches tightly until it aches, blood rushing like fire throughout my body. Rage floods in, drowning out the last trace of hesitation.
I don’t fight it when my fangs lengthen. I let the bloodlust rise. I want it. I need it.
“Lyra. Kael.” Their names slip through my teeth like a vow as I call them forward with my palms open.
They answer instantly, their familiar weight sliding into my palms.
Lyra thrums low and steady,“Let’s finish this, Briar.”
“We’ll become the monster they truly fear,”Kael growls in my mind as the edge of his black blade catches the light that filters through the trees.
Both of them pulse with the same need coiling in my chest–vengeance, clean and absolute.
For once, the three of us are in perfect unison and I feel something twist in my mind, like a lock has been turned. A soft gasp falls from my lips as warmth flares in my palms, like the runes are searing into my skin.
“Finally,”they purr simultaneously.“We are one now that you know yourself.”
I unwrap my hands enough to inspect them and my eyes widen with shock as I read the runes that have evaded my endless research.
Lyra’s hilt reads in glowing red words,“Born of your soul, I shield.”
My eyes flick toward Kael and find,“Born of your rage, I end.”
I wrap my hands firmly around them once more, feeling the balance settle within my soul. Their familiar energy grounds me even as they push me higher in my thirst for justice.
Their etched words encapsulate me perfectly. I will shield those who deserve it, and I will end those who don’t. This is who I was born to be.
“Born of your soul, I shield; born of your rage, I end.”
“This ends tonight,” I whisper.
