by G. Bailey
Winter’s back is covered in marks. My mark is a tree with large roots. The tree is made of swirls that match the other guys’ marks. Winter hasn’t seen my mark as it’s on my back, but it looks so much better on her. The tree takes over my whole back, but it fits just right on hers.
Jaxson’s wolf is near her lovely bottom and there are twirls that rise to join with the phoenix in the middle. The two angel wings are just below her neck. My tree is in the middle and they are all connected with swirls. The mark moves gently, like it’s alive.
"What does it look like?" she asks me. My lips part with no words as I run my hand over the marks, feeling the slight power from each of them. We are finally all together, like it’s always meant to be.
"Complete," I say and I lean down to kiss her. I spend the night with my queen and “complete” is the only word to describe it.
Seventy
Winter
"Winter, my baby girl," I open my eyes to a frozen field, there’s a large willow tree on top of the hill, its long branches blowing in the cold wind. Elissa is standing next to a woman I know, but it’s still a big shock.
My mother stands in front of me, in the same white dress as Elissa. Her long, brown hair sways in the cold wind like Elissa's black hair does. When they are next to each other, I can see the similarities. They look so alike, but my mother’s gaze is filled with love and tears. I want to run to her, but I can’t. My heart pounds against my chest as I meet her blue eyes, just like mine.
"It's not safe, and he’ll do what he did to me. You need to wake up and run," she pleads with me, her words desperate.
"You’re dead?" I ask, and she nods. I knew it, but I had to hear it.
"Yes, many years ago, when my father called me to him. My father can call his own blood, it’s like your dream-calling power, but he can control you. He didn't expect his demons to want to feed on me when he sent them to take me through a portal. They did and killed me, but that was a blessing because he couldn't find you. My father has to be close to you for him to have control, you have to run," she says. The wind blows snow against my cheeks, and I blink the cold away as I focus on her words.
She steps close to me.
"How can I call the dead?" I ask.
"Because our spirits never left you. I will never leave you, my child. War is coming, and your heart will break, I only wish I could hold you as it does," she says, making me worry; her words can’t be true. I refuse to believe them.
I realise she can’t touch me when she hovers her impossibly pale hand over my shoulder; we are exactly the same height as she stands so close to me.
“I dream-called your friend, Lily, she is going to help me win the war,” I say, looking over every detail of her face. How she has freckles, but I don’t. How her nose is slightly different from mine, but we have the same lips.
“She is no friend; that was a grave mistake, Winter. The price is too high for the promise,” she tells me, and I feel sick. What have I done?
“I don’t–” I say, and my mother cuts me off.
"You can fight him; your mates can save you.”
“Only her mates can stop her from the destruction of all,” Elissa says as she moves next to my mother. Her bright blue eyes meet mine.
“Remember that, remember the words," Elissa says, and the sky turns black slowly as I turn my head to watch. The cold air becomes painful to breathe in as my mother and Elissa disappear. I can’t see their faces as the cold wind pushes me over into the snow. I stand up shakily and watch as the demon king walks over the hill.
"Thank you for accepting my call," he says and laughs.
I wake up and jump in the bed, nearly falling off the side.
I glance at the empty bed, and I wonder where Atti is. A shaking fills the castle, and the bed slides on the floor. The window blasts open near the bed. I scream and pull the sheets closer around myself.
What’s happening?
I didn’t expect to wake up from finally mating with Atti to this. I blush when I think of the night with Atti, but the shaking castle soon snaps me back to reality.
I need to find Atti and tell him about the dream; I need to make sure he’s alright. I get up in the dark bedroom and pull Atti’s shirt off the floor and over my head, it hits my knees with how large it is. The castle shakes again, and I fall to the ground. I think a witch or several must be using their earth powers. It’s not Jaxson, he went back to the pack with Wyatt after the fight.
The door is slammed open, and I scramble back as the demon king walks in. He smirks down at me, a look of pure evil on his pale face. The demon king’s face is covered in blue veins, but they are nothing on his glowing, dark-red eyes. They’re nothing like mine when they glow; no, they are scary. The demon king has a long, black cloak over his clothes and the vampire crown on his head. He looks so much like Wyatt’s father, but everything is harder and lost because of the demon controlling his body.
"Time to come with me, my princess," he says and holds out a hand. I hold my throat as something takes over me. I can’t move, and I fall to my knees as pain takes over my body in a wave.
Suddenly, I feel nothing.
My mind screams “no” as my body ignores me and stands up. I walk over to the demon king and place my hand in his with a large smile spreading over my face. Why am I smiling?
The demon king leads me over to an older witch with long, black hair. The dark witch bows, and looks at the demon king with clear desire. I try to scream in my head, I try to move my body as I feel darkness slipping over my mind.
"Time to destroy the world, my princess," the demon king laughs. I don't refuse him as the witch takes us away, and darkness turns everything black.
Winter’s War
The blue-sided human will choose a side.
When four princes are born on the same day, they will rule true.
Her saviour will die when the choice is made.
If she chooses wrong, she will fall.
If she chooses right, then she will rule.
Only her mates can stop her from the destruction of all.
If the fates allow, no one need fall.
For only the true kings hold her fate, and they will be her mates.
The prophecy is true, the war is here, and her saviour will die.
**Reverse harem series**
Seventy-One
Atticus
Wake her up, wake her up, new king. For the crown will fall, the crown will fall. The crown will fall . . . .
The shaking of the ground wakes me up from my deep sleep and the strange dream. I can’t remember anything other than words about waking someone up and the child-like voice that sang them. I glance over at Winter, who is pressed to my side, her arms wrapped around a pillow. The room is still dark, the stars lighting up the sky outside, and it’s cold. Colder than I remember it being when we fell asleep. Winter moves slightly, rolling onto her stomach, her soft, dark hair spreading across the pillow. My mate.
I smile when I see the marks on her back, a beautiful reminder of last night. I’ve waited so long to be mated to her, to my Winter. We finally have everything, and even with her grandfather causing issues, I know we will make it through this. I didn’t wait this long to mate with her only to lose her. That is never happening.
The room shakes again, and this time, I know it’s not a dream that woke me up. I sit up and pull myself out of bed, careful not to wake Winter up. The room shakes again as I throw on some jeans and a shirt. What the fuck is going on?
I storm out of the bedroom, and there’s a dark witch outside, her head covered by her cloak hood, so I can’t speak into her mind. When she lowers her hood, I see that she is an older woman I don’t know, but she bows to me. Where are the guards?
“Watch Winter, and do not let anyone in this room. If she wakes up, tell her to stay inside,” I say, knowing full well Winter wouldn’t stay inside, but I hope that she doesn’t wake up. At least, this witch will be able to tell her where I am. The witch st
raightens up, and her dark grey eyes watch me closely before looking at the door behind me.
“Yes, your highness,” she says in my mind. I pull on my power to lead me to the throne room and hope I can find some answers there, if nowhere else. The room is in chaos when I appear in the middle of it. There are at least fifty demons in the room attacking my witches. One runs straight at me, with a large silver sword and an emotionless look in his eyes. The demons look worse than the last time I saw any of them; the grey skin is peeling off their faces in places, and the smell from them is overwhelming. They smell like death. I quickly pull on my fire power and throw a line of fire towards him with my hand. The demon-possessed man doesn’t even move out of the way as the flames head towards him and burn him into nothing. There was no scream, and that’s the weird part. It’s like he didn’t feel anything. How can you fight against demons that don’t care if you hurt them? A loud growl gets my attention, and I look over to see my familiars, Mags and Jewels, jumping onto demons and using their large teeth to rip the heads right off them. I kill more demons as I make my way over to them.
“They want the queen,” a witch runs over to me. I cover her from the two demons following her by using my wind power to throw them through the glass windows, smashing the windows to pieces. Witches with the air gift start to copy what I did and start throwing them through the windows rather than trying to kill them in here. I look over at the witch, who has a deep cut down her face and black ash covering her, mixed with blue dust from the dead demons.
“How do you know that?” I ask, lowering my hands a little but keeping an eye on the enemies around us. The castle shakes once more, followed by a loud howl that I recognise as Jaxson’s. I forgot he was staying at the castle tonight. Everyone else went back to the goddess’s castle.
“The demon king let Taliana’s parents out from the dungeons. I was there, and the he said he wants Winter,” the woman pleads. She looks familiar, but I don’t know her. She clearly cares about Winter, and that’s enough for me to believe her. I pull on my power to try and find her, it doesn’t work. I can’t feel her, only darkness. No.
I use my power to take me to my bedroom and find our bed empty, a feeling of dread fills my stomach. I pull the door open to find the older, dark witch is gone. The castle shakes again, and I use my power to find Jaxson. There isn’t a witch strong enough to move the ground like this, and knowing Jaxson, he would be outside. The whole castle is shaking as I disappear, and I know it’s lucky the castle doesn’t fall. I appear in the gardens. What was once a beautiful place is a disaster. The trees are on fire, and a dead witch looks up at the sky from beside my feet. My mind goes to Winter when I look down at the dark witch’s hair, which is only a little darker than my Winter’s. I cannot lose her. I stand straighter when two demons run at me, their grey skin giving them away, as well as the empty look in their eyes. They have big, silver swords raised at their sides, and I use wind to divert the fire in the trees towards them. They don’t stop running as they burn, the awful smell filling the night, but I bet they are better off dead than having a demon in their bodies. I lean down and close the witch’s eyes. She is so young, and it’s a shame her life ended like this. A growl gets my attention, and I look to my right, seeing Jaxson.
Jaxson has split a hole down the middle of the royal gardens that you can’t miss, and it’s smart, as my witches are pushing demons into the hole. Jaxson is in wolf form and is ripping the heads off demons as he runs past. He is massive like this, taller than a human and at the right level to kill them easily. His black fur is covered in blood and blue dust, and I know he must have been fighting since the start of the attack. Two witches run up to me, and I use my air power to push three demons following them into the hole.
“There are too many, Your Highness,” one witch says, and she must only be sixteen by her looks.
“Go to the goddess’s castle,” I tell them both and send an image of the castle into their minds.
“Thank you,” she says and disappears with her silent friend. I look over to see some are using wind, and most are using fire; I’m proud of how they are working together. I try to find Winter again, finding I can’t. There’s nothing, but I’m not giving up. I will find her.
“Jaxson!” I roar into his mind when a demon runs at him from behind with a large, silver sword aimed at his head. I pull my power and lift the demon off the ground, throwing him into the hole, but it gets Jaxson’s attention as his glowing, green eyes lock onto mine across the fire and death that surrounds us.
“Winter is gone!”
Even over the witches’ screams, the distance between us, and the noise from the shaking ground, Jaxson’s threatening growl fills the night; a growl that speaks of pain, revenge, and a promise. We will find our queen.
Seventy-Two
Jaxson
“Where is she?” I growl out when Atti gets to me through the demons he kills on the way. A demon runs at me, and I grab him by the neck, lift him up in the air, and watch as he dies. The clothes he was wearing fall to the ground, and I look down. I shake the blue dust off the jeans he was wearing and pull them on, thankful they fit at all. Atti stops walking toward me to throw a demon into the hole. I pick up a silver sword off the ground by the leather handle and quickly run, swinging it down on the head of a demon that leans over a dead witch. Atti lifts his hands, using air to throw two more demons into the hole, and then ducks when another witch does the same and throws a demon over his head. I woke up to this madness when five demons came into my room. They got a shock when I shifted and killed them all, or they would have if they didn’t fight like emotionless zombies. It took me a long time to even get to the gardens, killing countless demons that I came across. I tried to help the witches in the gardens, but there were, and still are, so many demons here. So, I made a hole for them to throw the demons in. Otherwise, the ones without the fire power had no defence and no weapons. If there are this many in the castle, then the screams I can hear from the city tell me there are just as many out there. They are dying, and all I can think of is what Atti said, that Winter is gone. He has to be wrong.
“I can’t find her, I can’t sense her, Jax,” he says, his words filling me with panic. She can’t be dead, I would know. Our mate isn’t dead. Yet I can’t feel her like I would usually be able to. I can’t sense her around, and Atti wouldn’t just say this.
A demon runs at us, and Atti shoots a fireball at him, burning a hole in his chest, and the demon collapses into blue dust. I stomp over to a demon who is holding a young witch on the ground. She is struggling to hold him off with her air power.
“The whole city is under attack. Atti, you’re their king. You need to tell them to go to the castle!” I shout as I pull the demon off the witch on the ground, throwing him into the hole. Winter would never forgive us if we let our feelings cloud our minds over the responsibility we have to these witches. We can’t just leave them. Atti closes his eyes, his body glowing a yellow colour as he tells the whole city to leave:
“Everyone leave and go to the goddess’s castle. It’s safe. I’m showing you the image now. Everyone go, leave the city, and you will be safe.”
I hear the same thing that the witches do, and they start disappearing. Atti stumbles a little, his hands going to his knees as he takes a deep breath. That must have been a fucking lot of power. I grab Atti’s arm, shaking him a little, and he nods at me. This isn’t the time to give up. We need to find Winter, and we can’t do that here. He straightens up and flashes us back to the goddess’s castle, straight to Wyatt and Dabriel, who are pacing Winter’s bedroom.
“Winter feels gone, where is she?” Wyatt shouts, walking over to us, and Dabriel follows. They both look as panicked as we feel. A feeling of sickness is spreading all over me, and I don’t know what to do. I can’t fucking do anything.
“I can’t feel her,” Dabriel says, and I nod, feeling the same. I feel empty, the place inside me where she was is hollow now. I can’t sense her.
> Fucking hell, she’d best be alive, or I’m going to destroy the world until I find her or kill myself doing so. There isn’t a life without Winter. I can’t lose her, not now. The only person that could have taken her is her grandfather–the demon king. It wouldn’t surprise me because I have a feeling he needs her for something.
“The demon king has her, doesn’t he?” I ask, and there’s silence from all of them.
“You remember that witch, the one that poisoned Winter and a demon killed her?” I ask them all.
Dabriel replies, “I remember. You think the demon king was protecting her?”
“Yes. He needs her for something, so that means he won’t kill her. We would all know if she were dead.”
“We have to find her. Whatever he wants her for is nothing good,” Wyatt says and then mutters a string of curses to the room. We all feel the same way.
“Wait, I feel her,” Atti says and grabs our arms.
I feel a flicker of something just before Atti takes us to Winter. To our mate.
Seventy-Three
Wyatt
“Winter,” I breathe out when Atti bring us near her, but there’s a massive blue barrier between us. She is standing next to the huge crystal that keeps the witches’ island protected from the world. There are dozens of little cracks in the crystal that shouldn’t be there, and the shaking ground is making more sense now. He is trying to drop the ward on the city, but why? It makes no sense as his demons can clearly walk straight through wards. I guess it would make the witches vulnerable, but we were right, he has her.
