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I shake my head as tears flow rapidly down my cheeks.

The grey light moves, floating up to Draven’s face. “He offered a name because he knew the truth you did not. Your life cannot be taken, the key bearer cannot be the price, but the price must be dear. You have little you love, Prince of the Shadowlands, but her.” Draven’s roar shakes the very world as the grey light flies straight to me and slams into my chest. “We will take your mate.”

Chapter

Twenty-One

The shadow wolves growl before they go crashing towards the remaining two lights, which fade away before the wolves can get close. The room is silent. Time stops for a second as I look down at my chest, seeing Draven running for me from the corner of my eye. Hot blood pours out of a dozen wounds on my chest, and the shock holds me in place, freezes the feeling of pain, for only a second more. I scream as the pain bursts across my body, and I cry out as Draven gets to me, picking me up and ripping the binds off my hands, off my mouth.

“It’s cold.” I don’t know why it’s important, but it’s all I can think about; all I can focus on is that it is so, so cold.

“COME BACK!” Draven screams at the room, like the gods would come because he demanded them to save a mortal. To save me. I’m going to die and I’m never going to see Rowe again…I’ve failed him. “No, fucking curse them, no.” He presses his hands on my chest, but the blood pours through his hands, through his fingers like water. He can’t stop it, and he can’t save my life. “No! This wasn’t the plan, mate. They were meant to kill me! Not you! Fucking bastards!” He shakes his head, his eyes finally meeting mine, and I don’t care how broken he looks. I hope my death shatters him and breaks him—because I can’t. This is his fault. “My people would have been back. This wasn’t…”

“You betraying bastard! You stole it! You stole his only chance…” I want to slap him, I want to hit him, but I can’t find the strength to even lift my hand. My brother is going to die, and this has all been for nothing. The god called me Draven’s mate, and I don’t know if that is even possible, but I want to know everything if I’m going to die. “I deserve the t-truth.”

“Let me explain, please.” He leans down, kissing the top of my head. “The Shadowlands is my home, and I was born as the only son to the king and queen, who ruled this world for over a thousand years. I had an adopted brother, but he died…and there was just me. My people, the witches, lived in the continent of this world. The Shadowlands…and all the magic in the witches’ blood is linked to the land. My mother is the queen, and my father is gone, but he was the king, and they ruled this world fairly. There wasn’t suffering—not when they were here.

“When the wish came, my best friend came to me and showed me the map on his skin. He told me about the fire rock falling from the sky and the map burning onto his skin. No one knew about it—other than my mother. She warned me of it and that the gods do not interfere with our world unless they wish to make it worse for their entertainment. She was right, but I was young, reckless, and didn’t believe her.”

Draven is shaking as he holds me, as he tells me everything he has lied about to win. “We traveled together, my best friend and I, we did all of the trials. They were different from yours.” Pain echoes through my bones, and I feel so tired. “I grew up with my friend, and he was a brother to me. He told me that he wanted to make a better life for the rest of the people in the world—the mortals. That we could take the wish, we could help people, we could restore magic to the world so that everyone could have it, and I believed him. I left my home, the millions of people that I was meant to rule, and went with him and his younger sister, who had no one else, and a small crew of people we trusted.” My body is weak, but my mind knows who instantly—Freckles, Tracker, Clark, and Chaos.

“When we got here, he betrayed me, and he asked for the Shadowlands to be put into a deep sleep and hidden from the world, cloaked from memory. Anyone on that island was gone instantly. The only people left were the people who came on the ship with me, my crew. We were the only witches left in the world.” His voice breaks. “The price he chose was his younger sister’s life, and she was only eleven years old.”

“What was his name?” I whisper.

“I called him Kav, and he is better known to you as King Kavehn.” What is left of me to be shocked still is. “He used his own immortality to rule for hundreds of years, and I couldn’t stop him. I can’t even fucking see the bastard because part of his wish was that I could never touch him, never see him, and never send someone to kill him. No witch bound to Shadowlands island from my bloodline could ever lay a hand on him. My crew are all blood bound to me, and he knew this. He became untouchable, immortal, and the smug bastard won. I was betrayed, millions of my people were just gone, and he destroyed what was left of this world for his own power.”

Draven touches my cheek. “When I heard the trials were coming once more, I came back to the island. I was pulled back there a million times and never knew why, but I thought it was because the king was there and I wanted him dead. Then I saw you standing in that crater, ash and fire all around you, and you were perfect. You were my mate, and you were painfully mortal and hurt.” He smiles softly. “I wanted to run to you, take you in my arms and thank the gods for finally giving me a mate after waiting hundreds of years…but then I saw the map. You had the cursed map all over your skin, and it was like the gods had given me exactly what I wanted and feared all in the same breath.”

A tear falls from his face onto my hand. “I’m sorry, I’m so fucking sorry. I never wanted to use you, and the more we grew close, the more I doubted what I had to do. I knew there must have been a reason why you went for the map that wasn’t money or power—but I thought my best friend wasn’t like that either, and he was. I tried to hate you, and I fucking failed at every chance.”

It’s a lot to process all at once, but I know I don’t forgive him for it. I won’t ever forgive him for this moment.

“I hate you now,” I whisper. “Is that what you always wanted? I thought…I thought it was more between us.”

“It was. We are. I just… You just wanted to save your brother, and I tried to keep you at a distance.” He gulps. “I tried everything, because to take this wish from you is to save millions of lives, a million people’s brothers, sisters, children, and it gives people a chance to fight back against the king…but your life was never part of my plan. I won’t let them take you.”

“Oh, Draven.” I push his hand off my cheek with all the strength I have left. “You made me feel like I had something. Power. Love. That I was more than the girl born to one life, destined to watch her brother die, and pray to die herself when he was gone. You made me feel all of that, and then”—my voice breaks—“and then you betrayed me. The awful part is, if you had just told me, I might have given you the wish to save your people and hated myself instead of you. You didn’t have to make me love you. You didn’t have to take my heart as well as my brother’s life!”

Pain shoots across his face, and he looks pale, so pale. “I vow it to everything I am, what is left, that I will help Rowe.”

“You betrayed me,” I hiss. “And I’m going to die. Are you going to face him and tell him you killed his sister?”

“You’re not going to die.” His eyes sharpen like a knife, and he stares at me like I am his—like he has a claim on me now. He doesn’t because I am going to die and leave him. I just wish I could see Rowe one more time. “I’ll find a way because you are my mate and I fucking love you. This world? We are in it together and we leave it together. There isn’t any other option for us!”

My heart pounds as shadows darken the room. He means it…he just can’t change this.

“Give her to me,” Clark demands, running down the steps and across the room to us. “Chaos heard what happened. I am her healer, and it is my duty. Now give me your mate.”

Draven looks up at Clark. “You know what⁠—”

“Yes, and I came here. Give her to me. I’ve made my peace with my choice.” He holds out his hands. Draven kisses the top of my head before putting me into Clark’s arms. Clark carries me to the middle of the room and sits down. “Don’t cry. I’m your friend and I don’t like to see you cry.”

“You kn-new,” I groggily whisper.

Guilt flashes in the depths of his eyes. “Yes, and magic has returned to the world, like it always was meant to be. I’m sorry I lied to you, but I am not sorry this happened. I will heal your wounds, Miry, and I need one last favor from you. I am not as strong or brave like you. In fact, this is the only brave moment of my long life. I hope you remember me as brave for a time.”

Draven touches his shoulder. “We will not forget.”