But now that I remembered, I felt less worthy of the bond now pulsating between us. How could my mate—my brave, beautiful mate—want me after everything I’d done?
You fight for her, and you protect her, I thought, glancing down at the glowing light that was her and Dante. The great terrible battle we thought she would have to fight with him was happening silently, and there was nothing we could do to stop him—nothing we could do to help.
As I turned in the air, I spotted an all too familiar face. Without my memories, I might not have looked twice at him.
But as everything I’d been forced to forget rose to the surface, every terrible thing he’d done—that I’d somehow allowed him to do to my mate—flooded me. And there was no way I could let him get away again.
I remembered going to her isolation cell. I remembered him locking himself in there and hurting her.
I remembered not killing him for it, even though I should have.
Lark fucking Zephyr was here, and I would finally show him the real consequences of his betrayal.
He wasn’t just an agent of Phoenix who became a traitor to the crown. He wasmyfucking team member. He’d been undermywatch, and I hadn’t sniffed out his betrayal.
Everything he’d done was on me, and I refused to let him go again.
I dove towards him on the rocky shore of the lake. Before he could defend himself, I slammed the heels of my boots into his chest and watched with a grim smile as he flew through the air before hitting the barrier walls of the giant stone court overlooking the water.
Blood spilled from his lips as he struggled to stand, but I was on him before he could run, pounding my fist into his face. “You fucking traitor,” I snarled, grabbing him by the jaw and forcing him to meet my stare. “You hurt my mate.”
Something I couldn’t read flared across his red eyes, but instead of allowing him the chance to respond, I hit him again. The male beneath me coughed up blood onto the rocks, which the rain and churning water of the lake quickly washed away.
“You helped turn me into a fucking soldier forhim.” I punched him in the nose, smiling at the sickening crunch of bone and the blood that sprayed from it. “You helped me hurt my fucking mate.”
“You have no idea—” he wheezed, but I grabbed him by the throat and squeezed, cutting him off.
“I don’t fucking care,” I hissed, watching his eyeswiden with real fear. “You betrayed me. You got our fucking friendkilled. And all for…what? Because you feltthreatened? By who? Ivy?”
Zephyr made a strangled sound in the back of his throat, eyes flickering between fear and something that looked like relief. “You will never be able to give me a good enough reason for trying to kill my mate,” I hissed, grip tightening. I knew he couldn’t breathe, and it brought me too much fucking glee watching the life disappear from his eyes. “You will never, ever have a good enough reason for betraying me.”
With sick satisfaction, I watched his eyes roll into the back of his head. Not enough to kill him, unfortunately, but it would be enough to cuff him and make sure he faced whatever consequences were waiting for him.
As the water lapped at our feet, I pushed the male onto his stomach and made sure the cuffs were secure around his wrists before rising. Ivy and Dante, still locked in their battle over the skull, standing almost directly above me. The light surrounding them, cocooning them in their own bubble as she pulled her power from him while he tried to steal it, darkened.
And from it sparked lightning.
A bolt of it hit the ground near me, the smell of burning flesh and scorched earth quickly filling my lungs as I jumped back. Someone—a soldier from Dante’s army—had been hit, and the creature was barely alive, struggling for breath.
I made it to his side and cuffed him as I watched Ivy’s other mates surround her. One by one, they moved towards her, creating a barrier between her and her enemies. They had her back.
And I would, too.
103
Xerxes
The pain of the false king’s power forced me to shift. I lost my Primal form and slipped back into my male body, barely able to hold myself up as his magic, dark andwrong, rolled through me.
Where I stood with Adrian and Elias, I could see almost everything; the destruction of the battle, my own mess of upturned earth meant to slow his army, the bloodshed that would not cease. A spire of the palace had been lit on fire, the flames untouched by the storm. Bridges like the one we’d crossed upon our arrival crumbled beneath the force of magic.
Bile rose in my throat, my stomach churning as I looked around. All this death, and for what? A crown that didn’t belong to him? Dante was willing to risk everyone’s lives for power that could never be his simply because he knew something he shouldn’t, and that knowledge would destroy us all.
And all these creatures still willing to fight for him were prepared to die for the same.
Behind me, a flutter of air drew me to Hawk’s presence. The male took Dante’s back, finishing the mate circle. Blood splattered across his face as he landed, the knuckles of his right hand split open.
When he found my stare, he pulled a blade from his belt,clutching it between bloodied fingers. “He’s overpowering her.”
