When Dyna ignored him, it felt like dying.
Cassiel watched her sitting by the stream with Raiden, smiling about something. The sight made his stomach churn. She had been the first one to smile at him in both lifetimes.
When the lordling declared he would court Dyna, it had hit Cassiel like a hurricane. It took all of his will to keep his composure instead of enacting all the hundreds of ways he imagined killing the damn elf for uttering the words.
Lucenna walked past his tree and quickly spotted him. Noticing what he was looking at, she grinned wickedly and mouthed,“Suffer.”
Cassiel ignored her.
He had to win his mate back, no matter how impossible. It wasn’t too long ago that he had compared himself to a weed. The thing about weeds, they tended to be stubborn.
But Cassiel hesitated. He had faced impossible battles, rendered an entire Realm to ash, faced his enemies head on, and now commanded an entire legion of warriors. Yet he couldn’t find the courage to approach his mate who wanted nothing to do with him now.
“Dyna!”
The desperate shout for her name coming from the woods startled Cassiel out of his thoughts. Von came stumbling out of the bushes beneath him, holding his bleeding arm. Cassiel leaped to his feet, and Dyna was already running toward them.
“He’s turned!” Von shouted. “Everyone, flee now!”
Before Cassiel could react, the Other tore through the camp, roaring. The clouds parted, and Cassiel balked at the sight of the full moon. Silvery light filled the camp full of people like a waiting feast. Among them was his family. It was Zev’s greatest fear realized. If he killed someone he loved, it would destroy him.
The Guards immediately armed themselves and loaded their bows, and Eldred’s staff flared with magic.
“No, stay back!” Dyna told them, then to Raiden she said, “Take your mother away from here!”
Raiden hauled Lady Aerina onto a horse and rode away. Klyde grabbed Lucenna and Tavin, and they ran with those who fled.
The Other went after Von first.
Cassiel dove and intercepted, tackling the Other. They crashed on the ground. The beast snarled and snapped its teeth for the commander.
Cassiel wrapped his arms around his neck, holding him back. “You probably hate Von as much as you hate me, but he’s not for dinner tonight.”
The Other snarled and bit his shoulder.
Cassiel gritted his teeth, hot blood gushing down his back. “Yeah, I deserved that, but you won’t bite anyone else. Do you hear me, Zev?”
The beast tossed him aside, and he crashed into a tree. The force broke Cassiel’s arm, but he pushed himself up as his wounds instantly healed. He waved off Sowmya and the other Valkyrie.
“Stay out of this,” he ordered.
He spotted Dyna on the floor, grunting in pain and gripping her shoulder in the same spot he had been bitten. She glared at him, and Cassiel winced apologetically. Whatever wounds he earned, she could still feel it through the bond.
The Other leaped for Von again. He was snatched away in a blaze of green light and dragged to Dyna’s side. “Go, now,” she told him.
Von scrambled to his feet and backed away. “Dyna, he mentioned not having his chains.”
She exchanged a startled look with Cassiel. “All right. Go.”
That left her in the Other’s sights.
“Eyes on me,” Cassiel called, hitting it with a small fireball. Enough to singe its fur.
Furious, the Other snarled viciously and stalked toward him.
“We have no chains to contain you this time,” Cassiel said as he kept it in his sights. “I know you don’t want any more innocent blood on your hands, Zev, so you can have mine.”
The Other charged at him.
