Dove was never my friend. He never existed.
Yet how did this illusion trick me? Lazarus is the one with the dreamer’s heart. Have I truly become my twin because I allowed myself to love?
Is that what has destroyed me?
I howl, dropping to my knees.
Shadow and Devil bound to stand on either side of me. Their shadows snake out, transforming the hall into night.
Heka slides his curved, iron knife back to the fae’s throat. “I offer the ultimate blood sacrifice for the Night of the Shades, as well as a wedding gift for tomorrow.”
Behind me, I hear a wolf’s howl, as if in answer to my own.
Shocked, I turn to look.
Freya has transformed into a giant, scarlet wolf. She attempts to bound toward the altar — a glorious streak of fanged fury — but Shadow and Devil leap up and block her.
Freya throws her head back and howls again.
She flattens her ears, before she crouches with a snarl. Shadows spiral out of her, as she faces both demonic lions at once.
Seeing Freya’s shifter side emerge publicly for the first time to protect her soulmate is bittersweet.
I unleashed this side of her with the Power.
She is fierce and beautiful.But she isn’t mine.
I thought that she was my Omega.
But have I been wrong about everything from the start? Outplayed?
Freya’s muscles bunch. Her lips peel back in a fanged snarl.
I stare at her, longingly.
Freya would make an outstanding warrior in battle. I would ride Shadow, while she stalked proudly in shifter form next to me.
Yet is my marriage even going ahead now?
I wish that my nest mates had just killed me.
“This Night of the Shades, I have a worthy blood sacrifice to offer the spirits of your family and ancestors.” Heka presses the knife harder against the fae’s skin, and I flinch, when crimson blood beads along its length. “I don’t need to remove the mask to know that this is your greatest enemy: The Shadow Queen Slayer, your mother’s killer.King Daire.”
Daire.
One word, and our marriage has blackened and withered in front of me.
One word, and I can no longer pretend not to know who is hiding behind the mask.
One word, and there is no way to save the fae.
My future with my royal nest mates has been poisoned by the truth of the fae’s identity.
Daire, instead of Dove.
War, not peace.
Why did I allow my emotions to overrule my instincts that my King and Queen weren’t who they said they were? Were hiding something from me?
