“I will find you,”came the steadfast reply, as he continued carving into bodies. “You are mine and I will not be parted from you. I will find you.”
The bodies poured in between us as shadows pooled and oozed around the hall, eventually converging into the shape of a man. He stepped over, around, and through the bodies, in a quest to reach me. My veins turned to ice as he approached and extended a shadowy hand.
“Come to me, my queen.” His haunting voice could have been beautiful, if it hadn’t been for the cruelty. “Take my hand and it will all be over. Whatever you want, we can bring to pass.”
I ignored his words, never ceasing my struggle against the shadows that gripped me. Fighting to get back to Griff. To my mate. To my love.
“Ah yes, love.” The shadowy form chuckled as it solidified, becoming almost human. “I can give you what love truly means. Devotion without limits. Power without consequences. Take my hand and I’ll show you what it means to be cherished.”
As I continued fighting, the voice changed, carrying centuries of longing in the cruel whisper, “Come to me, my queen.”
I wokeup with a start and sat straight up. I was in my room. Next to my mate.
“Lexa?” Griff asked, blearily opening his eyes, his hand finding mine in the dim light.
“Just a dream,” I told him, but we both knew it was more thanthat. I repeated that mantra to myself as I tried to even out my breathing, clinging to this reality where my love was warm and alive beside me.
I ran my fingers through his sandy hair and he sighed in contentment. He opened his arm, holding up the blanket, and I tucked myself into the opening, cuddling against his chest, savoring every point of contact.
“I’m sorry I keep waking you. I would understand if you chose to sleep elsewhere, to actually get some sleep.”
His arm tightened around me. “You’re my mate, my heart. Where else would I go?”
Through our bond, I could feel his contentment at simply holding me.
It felt like dawn should be on us at any moment, but it was still dark out. Too late to try to sleep again, but that gave us more time for this. I settled more firmly against him, basking in this quiet moment where it was just the two of us, before we would have to face what could be our last day.
“You meant it, right?” I asked him, letting vulnerability color my voice and our mental link.
“Meant what, Princess?”
“What you said yesterday. That you love me. That we can survive this. That whatever comes, we’ll face it together.”
“Every word. I love you, Lexa Andrever. Nothing, not war, not darkness, not the end of the world, will ever change that.”
I raised up on my elbow to kiss him, feeling the bond, the connection between us. He wrapped me in his arms and flipped us over so that I was nestled into the crook of his arm.
“Lexa!”The scream ripped through the quiet solace of our room. That was Finn’s voice in my head.
I scrambled out of Griff’s arms and began throwing on clothes. From his actions, he had heard it too.
Since when did Finn call me “Lexa”?
Something was horribly, horribly wrong.
As soon as we were dressed, Griff grabbed my hand and took us straight to Finn, straight into chaos in the Great Hall. People were shrieking, crying, clamoring over each other. Voices shouted, screamed. Finn was directly in front of us, his face taut and sweat beading on his forehead. Zachariah stood on a table, his voice cracking as he attempted to be heard over the racket. Tables and chairs were overturned, the food that had been laid out for breakfast abandoned and trampled on the floor.
Before we could figure out what was happening, the room began to dim, the sun hiding behind a cloud, casting shadows over the Great Hall. I looked up at the skylights as it continued to get darker, the temperature in the room dropping. My eyes widened as I took in the scene above me. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky. I had seen this before, fifty years ago. And my memory of it paled in comparison to Violet’s.
Darkness to block out the sun.
Griff, sensing my terror, looked up a fraction of a second after I did, and drew his swords. Anamlae was in my hand before I realized it.
It was then that I realized we had teleported directly to the Great Hall. The wards were down. The Veil had failed.
We were out of time.
Chapter
