“I'll be back. Can you try to find Jaxon for me? I have things I need to discuss with him.” My gut soured at the conversation I needed to have, but Gunnar nodded, and I turned my attention back to Soren, who remained unmoving. I reached for him with my shadows, and in less than a second, we were standing in my study. Soren hadn’t seemed phased, and his beady eyes scanned over the room.
Just weeks, or maybe even months ago, I couldn't have taken us that far. My magic has been changing, evolving somehow, because of Zara, our bond, and I knew I could have gone way further if I tested it.
I gestured for Soren to speak, and he squared his shoulders, his eyes locking with mine.
“I have a message from Caelan.”
My blood ran cold, and I straightened. “And?”
Soren reached into his pocket and pulled out a rolled-up piece of parchment, extending it to me. I eyed it nervously, but Soren spoke again.
“You can’t tell Jaxon about Flynn.”
Chapter 27
Zara
My eyes shot open, the thumping of my heart pounding against my ribs at a frantic rhythm. The pumping, thudding of it resounding in my ears, filling the empty silence of the cell.
Lana… It wasn’t right. It wasn’t fair. Her entire life she had been tortured, beaten. She never truly lived. She was fighting for a life with her mate that she wouldn’t be able to see.
Her fate and mine were the same… Morgana would either control us or her death would kill us. There was no escape from it.
The fear and sorrow I'd witnessed in Lana's eyes as she fled now haunted me. At least I'd always known my fate, come to terms with it. But Lana… she had hope. Hope for a better life with her mate.
A tear traced a path down my cheek, and I let it fall, followed by another and another, until the overwhelming emotions breached the dam I'd built my entire life. Fear, hopelessness, guilt, rage racing to the surface. It crashed overme like an icy wave, and I pulled my knees into my chest, my body convulsing as tremors raked through me.
The Fates had already shown me how this would end, and I was foolish to think it could be any different. In every vision they showed me, Morgana won, and everyone I knew or dared to care about had been dead. And this memory Xavier had shown me was only confirmation of that. There was no life after this, for any of us.
Knowing now the truth of who Morgana truly was. What she was capable of. This world, and all others, were doomed, and nothing and no one would be able to stop her.
*
Something silky caressed across my cheek, and my eyes fluttered open. I must have fallen asleep, and I yawned, my eyes breaking open, still swollen from crying. I blinked through my haze and realized I was standing.
Curved black marble surrounded me, a domed glass ceiling stretching high above. The moon shone through the glass, casting the ballroom in a dim light. The dark, empty room was silent except for the soft clinking of something near the dais.
I blinked again, my confusion washing away as my gaze settled on the reason I was here.
A wide, brooding figure slumped on one of the thrones and my gaze landed on Xavier. He sat with his legs spread wide, a crystal glass of amber liquid perched on his knee. He clutched it tightly as he swirled the glass, the soft chiming of the ice echoing in the room. His gaze was fixed on it, and his forehead was creased as if he were deep in thought.
Reaching through our bond, I slammed against that damn barrier again, but I could feel his grief, his anger flowing past it.
Dark, inky hair shadowed his face, which rested on a clenched fist. The silken shirt he wore was open, revealing the sculpted lines of his chest and the rippling edges of his abs. My gaze lingered there, and I frowned as I noticed the usual golden hue of his skin held no color, as if it had been sucked from him. The sleeves of his shirt were rolled up as usual, and in the dim light, his tattoo looked nearly black, winding around his arm like a snake.
The air was thick with his magic, and my mouth parted as I noticed his shadows seeping from him, falling onto the floor. They merged with the already twisting shadows the thrones cast, and they came alive as they slithered across the floor like vines. It gave the illusion the floor was cracking, splintering, and I swallowed thickly as I continued to stare at him, my gaze roaming over his taut muscles, his shadowed face. He wore no shoes, and his disheveled hair stuck out at odd angles, as if he had been pulling at it.
“This is your grand plan to defeat Morgana, then. Pouting in the dark?”
Xavier startled, his glass crashing to the floor as he stood from the throne, a dagger already in his palm. His emerald eyes locked onto mine, and the wild, gleaming violence that shone in them faded.
My body had been nothing but a silhouette of shadow, much like how he had appeared to me at Atticus’s mansion. I watched with a smirk as my body began to solidify, and I cut my gaze back to his. Xavier narrowed his eyes on me, and I had a sneaking suspicion he didn’t know he had summoned me.
“Thinking of me?” I purred, taking a cautious step forward.
Xavier let out a low growl from deep in his throat as he spat. “Go back to the dungeons.”
I shrugged. “I would, but unfortunately my hands are tied, or rather my ankle.”
