Page 188

A bridge of darkness forms underneath our feet as the temperature drops. Shadows shriek all around us, and Cain roars as Arwan loses control of him.

Except, he doesn’t come after me. He slams into King Njord, who has recovered enough to try to stop me.

“Breaking our contract will make your soul mine!” King Njord bellows.

Cain chuckles. “Read the fine print. Monsters Night is when territory is in flux. I’m allowed to be here.” His words come out slurred as if his massive tongue can barely form them around his row of sharp teeth. They stretch out into a terrifying grin. “I can’t kill you. But I can bite.” He smirks before he sinks his teeth into King Njord’s neck.

The Undertaker beast shrieks, and thousands of souls rise up from the ground.

Arwan whips his chain in circles and hooks it around Edward’s wrist. “Go!” he shouts at us as he buys time for Godric to get me away.

Destroying my precious tonics seems to have temporarily released my mates from King Njord’s dark influence, but I know it’s not going to last for long.

Please be okay, I think, hoping my sister hasn’t been sent to a horrible place just to punish me.

The tower is shaking as if it’s going to split apart. I have to get to it.

Maybe she’s in there?

I don’t know why.

I don’t know what’s going to happen.

But I just know only I can stop what’s coming.

Arwan gives me a pleading look, one that registers a deep-seated memory from when he had guided me in his realm.

Somatic memory, he had called it.

Ze’ev takes my other side, hoisting me up as he and Godric limp toward the dark structure.

When we finally reach it, I squirm out of their arms and slide to my knees.

I stare up at the impossibly tall tower, seeing how it disappears into the clouds.

Then I look down at its glossy, volcanic surface. Obsidian is a rock built underneath incredible pressure and heat, according to my studies.

It doesn’t surprise me that this is where Arwan housed all of his nightmares.

“You don’t have to hold this alone anymore,” I whisper, slowly reaching out my palm to rest it on the jagged surface.

Pain shoots through my flesh when I make contact. Flashes of my entire life blink behind my eyes.

And then time stops.

CHAPTER 43

Emotions rampage through my system as a thousand screams rip through my skull.

Loss.

Suffering.

Death.

Years of isolation, of yearning, of craving a life that couldn’t be had was the key foundation that had linked Arwan and me from the very beginning.

My spirit shreds as it travels to the interior of the tower, leaving me desolate until I’m nothing but the pain.