Tears filled my eyes, making my vision blurry. “But … I only just met you.”
He brushed the tears away. “I know. And I need every single day of that time to train you.”
My nerves tightened at his words. “Train me?”
He nodded. “When I die, the high spirit magic will seek a new master. If you aren’t strong enough to hold it and bind it to you … it’ll filter out into Kian and the other high mage masters, giving each of them two elements to wield. Thiscannothappen.”
Chills prickled my arms and danced down my spine. No way should Kian or the others have more power. And if they could all raise the dead? However, that didn’t mean I wanted the job.
“But my aunt … can’t she become the high mage master?”
He shook his head. “I had her before your mother … with a human. She’s not strong enough to hold that amount of magic.”
Oh mage.
“Okay … well, yeah, I’ll try my hardest. I can delay taking my Alpha Academy classes, and we can just work together here, and—”
He shook his head. “I need you to come with me to High Mage Academy.Right now.Today is the last day to declare my heir. You need to start training. It’s why I sent the summons for you early.”
Shock ripped through me for multiple reasons. “Leavetoday? Go to a new school?” I shook my head as I continued to absorb his words. “Yousent the summons?”
He nodded. “I did. I wasn’t one hundred percent sure you were my granddaughter. Your mother told me in the Realm of the Dead that she left you with the Crescent alpha, but I’d never seen you at that point. I only knew that Nathan had a daughter the same age as the girl I was looking to find. So I sent a summons early. The second I saw you, I knew you were mine. But we’re running out of time.”
Tears rolled down my cheeks.
“I … have to leave? Leave Rage? My pack…” My mind whirred with this information. “For how long.”
He sighed. “I don’t know … maybe … forever.”
For—what?Shock gave way to panic at the thought of not seeing my mate again. Surely, he wasn’t asking me to give up my fated mate. Right?
Sadness crossed his face. “Forgive me. It’s too much for you. I can see that.”
“No,” I growled. I’d be damned before I let Kian and the other high mages steal my grandfather’s magic. They’d already tried to rob me of my mate. I wouldn’t let them steal his magic too. Mage knows what untold evils they would do if they became that powerful.
“Rage will understand. We’ll … work it out.”
Right?
I had to believe fated mates meant our love was strong enough to cross worlds. “How much time do we have?”
“A couple hours. If I haven’t penned your name in the master scrolls before midnight, you’ll need to fight to earn your right as heir.”
Shaking my head, I helped him stand. “Not to sound like a whiner, but I’m kinda over fighting. At least for right now.”
“I understand.” Grandpa took a few steadying breaths. “Shall we go and talk to your mate together?”
There was no way in hell Rage would let me go to another school, to live in another place. Especially not now that he was king.
I shook my head, letting a single tear fall down my cheek. “No,” I whispered. “I’ll send word to him. Let’s go now before he notices I’m gone.”
After Gramps signed the scrolls, I’d ask him to bring me back to explain. I’d rather ask forgiveness than permission. Not that I needed to do either, but I knew Rage well enough to know he wasn’t going to let me go without a fight, and I wanted to avoid that.
We slipped out of the door and snaked along the back wall of the room toward a side door, and I caught one last look at my fated mate. Justice and my Dad held Rage on their shoulders, and the crowd chanted, “Long live the king!”
Rage’s grin stretched from ear to ear, his green eyes shining like emeralds, and he radiated joy. If this was going to be my last memory of him, I told myself I should be glad it was this one. He had his family, his people. He was safe.
I swallowed hard and turned away, clenching my teeth and fists as I stepped out of the throne room and into the night.I’ll find a way to return to him.
