by Kimber White
The fire mages blasted a column of flame toward Olen.
“No!” I shouted. “You’ll hurt her.”
Zendra screamed as Olen dug his blade into her skin. A thin, bright line of blood opened up. My wolf raged. Payne tried to hold me back.
“Zendra doesn’t belong to you,” I growled.
“She does,” Olen said. “Hasn’t she bothered to tell you? She’s my wife.”
His words cut through me. I met Zendra’s eyes. She mouthed two words. “I’m sorry.”
Then, it was as if a wall of lightning burst forth from the ground. I fell into space, hurtling down the mountain.
As soon as I landed, I vaulted upward. But Zendra and Olen were gone.
Chapter Nineteen
Edward
“Stop!” Payne had a hold of me, shouting in my ear. Roy, the tiger shifter, backed him up. Gentry held a length of Dragonsteel chain, ready to step in.
“I don’t want to hurt you,” I said through gritted teeth. “But if you don’t get out of my way, I will. Witch, if you take another step toward me with that chain, I’m going to rip your damn arm off!”
“We’re trying to help you!” Payne shouted. “You’re no good to Zendra if you shift into your wolf and stay locked there. Trust me, man. You’re headed that way.”
I knew he was right. I could feel the primal chaos fighting to take over. I wanted to kill. To hunt. To die. Anything but go another second feeling Zendra’s fear and being unable to stop it.
I relented. A little. Payne felt the change in my posture and loosened his grip. His eyes met mine and he didn’t have to give voice to what he was thinking. Would I come quietly?
The truth was, against Roy, Payne and the two other wolf shifters he’d brought along, there was a damn good chance they’d get that Dragonsteel around me before I could fight them all off. So, we were at a standoff.
“Fine,” I said. The only reason I agreed to go with them was I knew Zendra was gone from this place. Olen had taken her somewhere far away from Kilauea. We were wasting time standing here.
So, we went back down the cliff face and drove to the safehouse in town. Three new SUVs were parked out front when we arrived. Payne had already called for reinforcements.
I felt warring emotions when I saw who it was. My cousins Milo and Leo were here along with our uncle Valentin, who was just ten years older. The only one missing was my twin brother, Erik. He’d gone on an extended honeymoon to Russia with his new mate and bride, Nova.
I stormed into the house. The others followed behind, forming a solid wall of muscle. They were afraid of what I might do. They should have been.
“We’re so sorry,” Milo said. “Payne filled us in.”
It was getting harder to keep my wolf under wraps. I paced in the living room, ready to tear the walls down.
Zendra. When I squeezed my eyes shut, I could feel her panicked heartbeat. She was still out there somewhere. She was alive. But, for how long?
“Is she gone?” Payne asked. “Can you tell that much?”
“No,” I said. “She’s not gone. She is still...in this realm, if that’s what you mean.”
“Edward,” Payne said. “You know what we have to do. There’s no other choice.”
I stopped. “No,” I said. “I don’t know anything.”
“It doesn’t matter if she’s still here,” Payne said.
Milo stepped forward. He had a grim look on his face. “Edward,” he said. “We have some intel on this Olen. Nadia’s been working with covens around the world. This guy’s dangerous.”
“No shit,” I said.
Milo passed a look with Payne. “What I mean to say,” he continued. “We’ve got credible information that he’s heavily linked to the Ring. There’s no doubt.”
“You still have that piece of the medallion?” Payne asked.
I reached beneath my shirt. The thing still burned hot. It had Zendra’s scent all over it. I squeezed my fist around it.
“Thank God for that, anyway,” Payne said.
“Thank God for Nadia’s spell,” Milo said.
“Olen has two-thirds of it then,” Payne said. “He was holding the one from Kilauea. And now, he’s reunited with Zendra.”
“He’s not reunited!” I roared. “He took her.”
I hated the looks they were giving each other. I had the strong sense they all thought I was crazy. And yet, Olen’s last words echoed through me.
She’s my wife.
“Edward,” Payne said. “We have to consider at least the possibility that this was a setup.”
“What are you talking about?”
“He means this girl has been playing you for weeks,” Val said, stepping forward. His wolf eyes flashed. I dropped my fangs.
“Don’t start with me,” I said. “You don’t know Zendra.”
“You don’t know her either,” Val said. “Is it true? What this Olen said?”
I curled my fists.
“He said she was his wife,” Payne answered. “And she didn’t exactly argue the point.”
“Terrific,” Val said. “Edward. Don’t you see what’s been happening?”
I drove my fist into the wall, shattering the drywall. All around the room, everyone’s fangs were out.
“Enough!” Gentry said. “You wolves need to get it together. Listen, Edward. I know this is tough to take in. But your family is right. This Zendra has been playing both sides of the fence it seems. Olen is her husband.”
The words assaulted my senses. I didn’t want to believe them. It couldn’t be true. And yet, I knew Zendra. I didn’t care what any of them said. The pain in her eyes told me everything.
His wife. Zendra was married to Olen and she’d kept it from me.
The world turned upside down. What else had she lied about? I could stand outside of myself and see things the way Payne and the others did. I wasn’t an idiot. I’d taken so much on faith where Zendra was concerned. From the very beginning, she’d been honest about what she was after. The medallion.
“She set you up,” Leo said. “Edward, listen. We have to think our next move through very carefully. You know that, right?”
“I need to get her back,” I said. It burned through me. Logic didn’t matter. Danger didn’t matter. Zendra was the only thing that mattered.
“We don’t know the first thing about the Fae,” Gentry said. “Well, other than they appear to be masters of deception.”
I wanted to rip his face off.
“Zendra knows she can’t get that medallion from you if you’re not willing to give it,” Milo said.
If I had been a fire mage myself, flames would have shot from my fingertips.
“Enough,” Val said. “Payne, this is now a family matter.”
“Are you kidding me?” he said.
But Val wasn’t. The two of them squared off. Some dark part of me wanted to see them go at it. I was ready to do violence myself. Payne backed off. He said something to the mages, Roy, and the other wolf shifters. The group of them retreated out the front door, leaving me alone with Milo, Leo, and Val.
Val waited until all the men from Wolfguard were in their vehicles and driving away.
He turned to me then.
“Sit down,”
“I’d rather stand,” I answered. “I’d rather knock these walls down.”
“We know,” Milo said. “So, tell us what you need us to do.”
Milo’s words barely registered. Of all the things I expected him to say, that wasn’t one of them.
I sat on the couch in the front room. Val sat across from me.
“This Zendra,” he said. “How do you know for sure she’s your fated mate?”
I blinked. “How can you ask me that? How is it any different than what you felt when you found Willow?”
“Willow’s human,” he said quietly. “We have no idea what Fae magic does.”
“I thought the same when it came to Nadia,” Milo said. “I questioned whether what I felt
was part of some spell she cast.”
“Zendra doesn’t cast spells,” I said. “She just...is.”
“We’re on your side,” Leo said. “Payne knows that too. We’ve all sworn an oath to Wolfguard, but family comes first. We’ll back your play, whatever it is. But you need to be sure. Absolutely sure.”
I tore a hand through my hair. Zendra had made me question everything about myself. She’d turned me inside out. And yet, I’d never felt more alive since the day I first walked into that damn magic shop.
Had it all been a lie?
“You had no idea she was married to this Olen?” Val asked.
“No,” I said, my voice ragged. There was something else. She’d had every opportunity to tell me.
“What did she tell you about him?” Leo asked.
“She said his family and hers were two of the most powerful where she comes from. She said they were politically opposed.”
“Over what?” Val asked.
I opened my mouth to answer but had nothing more to say.
“You never asked,” Val said, his temper rising.
“She said it was Olen’s family who put a hit out on hers!” My voice came out as a hiss. “She told me he was the reason she sent her family through that godforsaken portal she’s been trying to get back to all along. If she was working with Olen, why the hell wouldn’t the two of them just have teamed up? She had me in Dragonsteel for days. It makes no sense why she’d let me go. What difference would Nadia’s binding spell have made if they just killed me? They could have just chopped off my damn head and taken the medallion that way. No. Whatever else is going on, I refuse to believe Zendra was lying about Olen being her enemy.”
It was Val’s turn to pace. “And yet, she’s still hiding something big from you. You said yourself, she didn’t put up much of a fight when Olen grabbed her this time.”
“I don’t know,” I said. “Maybe she thought she was protecting me. Maybe in the beginning she was working with him, but something changed her mind.”
“Not something,” Milo said. “You. I’ve seen the way you are together. There’s no level of magic or spell that could mimic that. She’s yours, Edward. I’d swear my life on it.”
“If we don’t figure out this Olen’s end game, it might well come to that,” Val said.
“I don’t care!” I shouted. I didn’t. In that moment, I didn’t care about Milo’s life, or mine, or any of the others. I only cared that it felt like my heart had been ripped out and was now beating outside my body.
Zendra had it. No matter how much pain she caused me, she would always have it.
“I need air,” I said. “And I need to shift.”
“Edward, that’s too dangerous,” Val said. “Your mating sickness is too advanced. And with Zendra possibly in danger, there’s no telling what might happen.”
“So stay by my side,” I said. “All of you. Watch me if you have to. But, I swear, if I don’t go a little wild, it won’t matter. I’ll be just as mad as I ever could be in my wolf.”
I thought it would take more to convince them. But, these men knew me and they knew what it was to pine for their mates. I envied them. They’d been lucky enough to have had the chance to claim their fated mates. They were settled in a way I might never be. But, here they were, at my side. My throat grew thick with emotion.
“Let’s go,” Leo said. “I could use a hunt myself.”
So we went out the back door and into the woods together. I missed my brother Erik. I couldn't remember the last time the Kalenkovs had shifted and hunted as one like this.
I let my power surge as I took off for the mountain once more.
Zendra. I called to her with my mind. I craved her even now. No matter what she’d done, any lies she’d told, I still burned for her. I knew in my heart I would still kill for her.
As thoughts of her ran through me, I almost didn’t see the giant black wolf standing in the clearing. His eyes glowed an unnatural purple. Every muscle in me went rigid.
Olen.
I would kill him.
I was glad my cousins and uncle weren’t connected to me like a pack. They would have sensed my bloodlust. They might have tried to stop me.
Growling, I squared off with Olen. Though he looked like a wolf, I knew it was an illusion. He spoke with the voice of a man.
“She’s mine,” he said.
I snapped my teeth. Light played at the tips of his fingers. If I attacked, he would be ready. One of us wouldn’t walk out of here alive. In either case, it wouldn’t bring me Zendra. As much as I hated it, I needed this asshole alive just a little while longer.
“You have what I want,” he said. “I have what you want.”
I shifted, rising slowly on two legs.
“If you hurt her…”
“She’s mine to do with as I please,” Olen said. “Never forget that. She was mine before your kind ever existed. And you owe that existence to me.”
I had no earthly clue what the hell he was talking about and no longer cared.
“This?” I said, lifting the medallion from my chest. It was then I saw what he wore and my heart split in two. He had the remaining two pieces of the medallion on a chain around his own neck.
Olen shifted. His white-blond hair lifted off his shoulders. He grasped his medallion and raised it. God. He had Zendra’s piece of it. What had he done to her to get her to part with it?
She was alive. She had to be. Even though I hadn’t marked her, I believed in my soul I’d know if she were dead.
“Tonight,” he said. “Midnight. You kill that cheap spell binding the thing to you. Then, you bring it to me.”
“Where?” I asked.
“You’ll know,” he said. “And you’ll come alone.”
“No,” I said. “Zendra first.”
Olen began to fade. Was he really here at all, or was he just an apparition?
I lunged at him. Sure enough, as I reached the spot where he’d stood, Olen vanished into the mist. I swung anyway and dropped to my knees.
“Edward!” Leo’s voice reached me from just over the next hill. I rose quickly then shifted back into my wolf.
Midnight. Olen had named his ransom. I just had to decide how much of my soul I would give up in order to pay it.
Chapter Twenty
Zendra
“She hardly seems worth it.”
We were underground. That much I could tell. Olen had blindfolded me most of the way, but at one point, I knew we’d gone far down in an elevator. Plus, the air had that cold, dank smell. He’d led me through a maze of hallways and into a large space set up like a courtroom.
Now, three pairs of black eyes stared hard at me. Two men. One woman. They were Fae, but I didn’t recognize any of them.
The woman seemed to speak for them all. She sat high above me, her purple robes concealing all but her face.
“She’s worth it,” Olen said. He held a length of chain. It was threaded through a metal collar around my neck and manacles on my wrists.
“How do you know Liall and Maryta are even still alive?” the woman said.
“There’s no reason to think…”
“I was speaking to Zendra,” she said.
Olen pulled on the chain, making me lurch forward. “Answer Daedra,” he whispered harshly in my ear.
I didn’t know what to say that wasn’t more of a betrayal.
“Madame Daedra,” I cleared my throat. “I haven’t seen my father in over two years.”
“You cannot expect Zendra to answer for her father’s crimes,” Daedra said, turning her head to the two men.
“She can answer for her own,” the one on her left said. He was much older than Daedra and the other judge.
“I’ve committed none,” I said, raising my chin. I pulled against the chains when Olen tried to jerk them again.
“She’s lying,” Olen said. “She did not have the authority to come here. She was not summoned. And she had no right to use the Clavia to
help Liall, a wanted fugitive, escape to gods know where.”
“He has a point,” Daedra said. “Do you deny using the Clavia for these purposes?”
“The Clavia belongs to me,” I said.
Daedra and the other judges murmured to each other, heads bent. Then Daedra straightened. “By what claim?” she said.
My heart clenched. It pained me to even say it out loud. Here, in front of Fae judges, even if they didn’t have the same authority here as they would back home, it was a reaffirmation of the one day I wished I could take back.
“By claim of marriage,” I said. “It was gifted to me by my father on the condition of my marriage to Olen. But it was done so under false pretenses. Olen planned to murder my family on the night of the ceremony.”
Edward’s face swam in front of my eyes. His pain etched deep lines across his brow. Olen’s words had cut him in two. I had no time to explain. Did he hate me now? If he did, I deserved it.
“Is this true?” Daedra asked.
“I never touched Zendra’s family. She’s lying. And yes, we are lawfully married. So, the Clavia now belongs to me,” Olen said.
“Was it given to her freely?” Daedra asked.
“It doesn’t matter,” Olen answered. “Zendra has not yet honored her wedding vows. I’m entitled to the Clavia as payment. She did not have my permission to open a portal with it. She sent Liall, her father, a man wanted for treason, his traitorous wife Maryta and her two criminal brothers, Joren and Kall, and helped them escape to another realm. She then came here and committed the further unforgivable crime of defiling the Clavia by breaking it into three pieces.”
He raised the broken medallion from the chain around his neck. Daedra sucked in an audible gasp as she saw the relic in its current state.
“Do you deny it?” Daedra asked me.
My throat ran dry. The problem was, the basics of everything Olen had said were true. If I believed Daedra and the others were truly neutral, I might have said so much more.
“Madame Daedra,” I said. “Olen’s version of events is oversimplified.”
