Prophecy Fulfilled: Prime Prophecy Series Book 3

by Tamar Sloan

  Eden crumples, Avery catching her before she hits the ground, looking in horror at the straight shaft of an arrow protruding from her shoulder. Her face is pale, mouth open, as she looks down at the weapon impaled in her body.

  “Eden!”

  It takes me too long to get to her side, but the moment I’m there, I grab her hand. “Noah, it—” She looks past me and her eyes widen.

  There’s another zing of air and a second arrow lands beside me. My head shoots up to see what has Eden frozen.

  Kurt, Dana beside him, is approaching steadily, a hunter’s bow already notched with the next arrow. I jump upright, and the next arrow lodges between my feet. The voice that slices through the Glade turns my heated blood to frigid ice.

  “The Precept Rock never lies, does it?” Kurt smiles, evil satisfaction twisting his features.

  “Stop this, Kurt.” I keep my voice low, although my heart is screaming for my injured mate.

  “All Alexis needed was one last investor to bump up her portfolio.” He tilts his head although the arrow never wavers from its target. “You’ll be surprised how many Weres want this too.”

  The final investor on the phone! It never occurred to me that Weres would be the ones who made this happen. “This is wrong, Kurt.”

  “I don’t think I’ve ever been more right, actually. When they saw it was the mother of the Prime Alpha mate trying to buy the Glade, many realized exactly what we need to unite. The irony that we used humans to get there only makes it sweeter.”

  I can feel Eden’s pain, but worse, I can feel her strength draining. My mind desperately scrambles for a solution.

  Avery stands slowly, like he’s dealing with a rabid animal. My guess is he’s trying to work some of his Fae magic to calm Kurt. “You will create nothing but division by hurting the Prime Alpha mate.”

  Kurt’s eyes shift to Avery, but the bow never moves. “Stupid, sick old man. Don’t you see that’s the plan? You’ve lost the Glade, now there’s only one more piece of proof to show these two were never meant to be our leaders.” Determination suspends Kurt’s face in the furious frown that has molded it. “I don’t plan on hurting your daughter too much longer.”

  The next arrow flies through the air, skewering Eden only inches away from the last one. Only inches away from her heart. With lightning movements he has the next arrow notched.

  I jerk forward, planning g on stepping between them, and Kurt jerks back the next arrow. I instantly hold myself in suspended animation. Kurt’s cold gaze is very clear—if you move so do I.

  In all this deadly focus, no one has noticed Dana. Dana is stepping to the side, moving away from Kurt. “Dad.”

  A ripple of anger flutters over Kurt’s features. “Move back, Dana.”

  Dana pauses, her hands tangling in the edge of her shirt. “She turned Seth back to Were.”

  “And she can turn whoever she wants, but she still bleeds like a human.”

  I turn away from Kurt, risking the break in eye contact to look at Dana. She’s wavering, which gives me a flicker of hope. “Dana. Eden is in pain. I need to help her.”

  I don’t voice what scares me the most. My connection with Eden is faltering, which means Eden is faltering.

  Dana’s eyes fly to mine, the Channon hazel a turmoil of emotion. She opens her mouth to speak.

  “Move back, Dana.” Kurt’s voice is low and deadly.

  Dana looks at the three of us, Avery frozen, Eden injured, me desperate, then looks back to her father, the arrow pointed with his hunter’s accuracy, waiting to shoot again.

  “Now, Dana.”

  She takes a small step toward Kurt and my aching heart watches as his lips tip up in his rust-colored beard.

  “There will be a turning of the soil.” His face seems to set in stone. “That’s when this starts.”

  He fires off the next arrow, and the gasp that slams through my ears tells me it found its mark. Eden’s pain flares, and I use it to propel me forward, knowing there’s no way I can stop the next arrow.

  Kurt takes an extra millisecond to draw back the last arrow that extra little bit, his face a mask of satisfaction. This arrow will hit its target with as much force as the compound bow can create. There’s no doubt in my brain that the others missed on purpose, Kurt is an experienced hunter. But for this one, the target is Eden’s heart.

  With a whoosh of air, he releases the deadly shot.

  Avery roars the denial as my brain screams it. I stretch out my arms, hopelessly trying to change its trajectory. But even Were reflexes won’t be able to stop this missile.

  It’s Dana’s scream which drowns it all out. Closest to Kurt, shifting so she can harness the speed of Were, she launches herself to the left. In a split second, there’s a new projectile seeking to cross the path of the arrow. The metal point must be the last thing Dana sees as it closes in on her eye.

  Her death is instant as the arrow slices through her brain.

  Dana’s body drops, her human form lying lifeless on the ground.

  The shock is so great that it takes moments for the relief to come crashing down. I kneel down, hands not knowing where to touch. Eden stares up at me, three arrows puncturing her chest. Blood blooms out like a deadly rose.

  I hear Kurt move, but I don’t care. Even when he roars his fury I don’t turn around. There’s only one thing that has my focus, I need to get Eden some help.

  I take her by the shoulders but the minute I place pressure she gasps. Her forest green eyes fly open as a moan wrenches from her lips. I instantly let go, registering the blood that is cushioned beneath her.

  “Eden, we…we need to get you to a hospital.”

  Eden swallows, the process looking painful and pronounced. She’s diminishing before my eyes.

  Kurt’s voice, violent with fury washes over us. “What have you done?”

  But I ignore him. Whatever he has to say is irrelevant now. Too much time has passed, too much blood has been lost.

  I hear Kurt move closer. “That’s two daughters you’ve taken from me.”

  I grace him with one glance, and one glance only. Kurt has bent over and picked Dana’s lifeless body up. It’s probably the most he’s held her in her entire, short life. “You don’t deserve either of them.”

  I turn back, not willing to lose another second with Eden. She’s looking up at me, pained and confused.

  Avery moves closer. “He’s gone. He took Dana with him.”

  “We need to do something, Avery. It can’t end like this.”

  Eden’s eyes close and I jerk forward. “Eden!”

  They fly open again, those pools of pain finding mine. “The baby, Noah…” A lone tear trickles down her face, then dropping to the ground.

  I can’t hold her. I can’t stop this.

  My heart is chanting her name, saying it will keep her here. With me. My hands, stained with red, flutter over her, around the arrows that are leaching her life, up to her frightened face. “I know, it’s okay, she’s strong.”

  A shadow of a smile flits over her face. “He was going to be just like his father.”

  Something fragments deep inside and I can’t help the pain that overflows from my eyes. My hand strokes her cheek. Slowly her own hand comes up to hold mine.

  Avery is beside me, but I don’t look up.

  His hand rests on my shoulder. “I can fix what I have broken.”

  What is he talking about? He can’t fix this. Eden is dying, her blood coating my hands. I can feel our connection fading. It feels like it’s decaying my soul.

  Avery leans over Eden and her frightened eyes fly to his. “Dad?”

  Avery’s eyes close for the briefest moment, relishing the gift Eden just gave him. He opens them again, his hands coming up to cup her face. “Eden, I want you to know something.”

  Eden’s eyes lock with his, her breathing short and pained. Her eyes search his face, not sure what she’s looking for.

  He rests one hand on her chest and wraps the o
ther around the first arrow. “You should have known I was always there.” With a fast yank, he pulls it out. Eden arches her back in pain.

  “What are you doing?” I roar, launching myself at him. But Avery deflects me, and with a speed I didn’t know he had, he wrenches out the next one. “Alexis should have known.”

  In a blink, the next arrow is out.

  “Know that you were always loved, Eden.”

  Blood is flowing freely now, and I watch as Avery hastens his daughter’s death. Ice explodes in my chest at what that means. Did he think he was doing her a favor?

  Eden opens her mouth, and I feel my heart crack when nothing comes out. The only thing that is warm now is the blood pooling around me.

  “You learned before I did the power of connection, and for this reason, I am giving you this.”

  I’m about to push him away. These are Eden’s last moments, and they shouldn’t be about his absolution. But Avery leans down, touching his forehead to hers. His fingers brush behind her ear, then brush across his chest. He pulls in a deep, shuddering breath and brings his lips to hers.

  There’s a surge in the connection that was fading so fast, and for some reason that scares me more. I don’t have time to register that Avery collapses beside her.

  “Noah. I love—” She draws in a breath, back arching, pain lancing across her face.

  “No.” I dive forward as she collapses back onto the blood soaked grass. “No. No. No.”

  Eden’s face calms, features relaxing, her breathless beauty replacing all the pain as her body loses consciousness.

  “NO!”

  Part V

  Eden

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  There’s a thrumming I hadn’t notice before. It feels like it’s deep beneath me, or maybe it’s deep within me. My groggy mind drags itself from the sleep it was in, trying to place it. The low, rhythmic cycle isn’t something I’ve experienced before. It’s like a deep, throbbing heartbeat; measured and comforting. It makes my heart smile and my mind feel strangely content.

  As consciousness finds me, so does the sounds of nature around me. Birds seem to be calling to me to join them in the sky, smaller furred creatures inviting me into their world. I marvel in wonder. This is a heaven I never imagined.

  And then I feel Noah’s pain. Stronger than any pain I’ve experienced, its piercing anguish stabbing me from the inside out, at the same time blunt force trauma is seeping everywhere. There’s no fibre in my body that is safe from it.

  My heart clenches, the desire to end his agony a driving force that has my eyes flying open.

  “Noah.” My voice is quieter than I had intended, my dry throat making it raspy and whispered.

  But the drawn-in breath besides me tells me he heard it. I want to smile. Noah has been the one who has always heard me.

  “Eden?”

  His voice is raspier and more breathless than mine. Disbelief is all I can hear.

  I swallow as I turn my head, wondering where I am and why I feel like this. Surely, I haven’t fainted again.

  My hands fly to my stomach. “The baby!” I shoot upright, my body feeling wet and sticky. Is that blood? Panic grips me. “Noah, the baby!”

  But Noah is just sitting there, amazement dawning over his handsome face. “Eden?”

  “Noah. The blood…” Doesn’t he understand how serious this is?

  Then it comes back to me. The pain. The arrows. Kurt.

  My father.

  Oh god, I almost…

  Noah engulfs me in a hug just in time, because reality hits me like a sledgehammer. My arms clasp him back, holding him just as tightly and just as desperately.

  Our connection seems to wind around us, drawing us in, reassuring us that our love is still whole. For some reason, it feels stronger, more pure than ever before.

  Noah pulls back, one hand brushing back my hair. When his lips touch mine, my eyes flutter closed. We both need this affirmation of life.

  I rest my forehead on his. “But how?”

  Noah jerks back. “Oh no.”

  He turns, and I see the body lying beside me. My father is stretched out on his back, eyes closed, face peaceful.

  My hand flies to my mouth. “Oh god.”

  I’m by his side in a blink, lifting his hand in mine. It’s cool and light, no sign of life weighing it down.

  “Dad?”

  My voice is trembly, and tears begin a steady stream down my cheeks. There is no denying that my father is dead. Grief lances through me, and I can feel myself reaching out, my heart calling out, but not knowing for what.

  Noah is beside me in an instant, his arm wrapping around my shoulders. “I’m so sorry.”

  I take in the still body, not knowing how I feel about losing the father that I barely had.

  Noah’s eyes lift from Avery to mine. “He gave his life for you, Eden.”

  Always know that you were loved.

  The tears keep coming and I don’t stop them. The thrumming picks up and I pull back, confused. I look to Noah but his worried face tells me he doesn’t feel it. I suck in a breath when the melody that has been with me all my life bursts into my head, somehow clearer and more poignant than it has ever been.

  I brush my father’s cheek. Avery didn’t need to do this to show me that I was loved. I just discovered that he was telling the truth—he was always with me.

  The melody picks up in crescendo and a breeze buffets my face. The thrumming has now become a rhythmic bass for the music, a cadence that all of nature knows.

  “Noah, something is happening.”

  Noah looks around, the breeze tangling his hair, sensing the change. His arm tightens around mine protectively, eyes alert.

  The first butterfly is a fragile mote of color. It flutters in and lands on the hand Noah has resting on my shoulder. We look at it, blinking in surprise.

  More come, now birds and insects, anything that can fly, pouring from the trees, raining from above. The breeze finds momentum, seeming to spin like a whirlpool.

  We both sit back when we see what is really changing. Avery begins to glow, a subtle, warm glimmer, but a glow nonetheless. The thrumming is almost a deep roar now, and my father begins to splinter. His Fae body fragments, small particles of shimmer separating with each pulse.

  The moving mass settles around him like a breath.

  Then the butterflies, birds, and fluttering insects each take a glowing piece and head for the sky. We watch, awed, as they disperse like a slow motion firework, spreading out over the horizon. Avery’s soul is about to be dispersed over the earth he loved.

  The melody dies with the breeze, but like Mother Nature, I know it will never be gone. It’s a bittersweet grief which realizes that knowledge came with death.

  I turn into Noah’s arms and he holds me. We’ve lost the Glade and now I’ve lost my father. I bury in tighter. What’s more, the Fae have lost their king.

  “We have each other.”

  I look up, my eyes needing his summer sky warmth. “Which is all we started with.”

  Noah’s smile is slow and beautiful. “Exactly.”

  I’m about to suggest we head home when a movement at the other end of the Glade has us turning.

  The Phelans burst through the pathway, concern etched on all their faces. Adam is the first to spot us and he’s by our side as fast as his long legs can cross the grassed area. I wonder how much his shrewd blue gaze takes in. We’re here alone, but so much has happened.

  Noah releases me and turns to his father. “Dad—”

  “Holy gronkles, you’re bleeding.” Tara’s hand flies to her chest, her hand reaching out to grasp Mitch.

  I glance down at my chest. Three holes are all that is left of the arrows, the blood stain around it starting to dry. We must look a mess.

  “I’m fine, really.”

  Adam squats down and picks up the arrows. “What happened here?” He looks at the arrows, their hollow metal tips glinting in the light. “These are hunt
ing arrows.”

  Mitch steps forward, looking a little more closely. The fletches are a russet red. “We’ve seen these before.”

  Probably at the Channon household. Kurt liked to have his weapons of choice on display.

  Tara gasps, her eyes flying to mine. I don’t know how to put into words that her father just tried to kill me again.

  Beth wraps her arms around Tara. “We knew this was going to happen again.”

  Tara’s eyes scan me from head to toe, and then head to toe again. “You’re okay?”

  I nod. There are even less words for communicating that I only survived because of my father’s sacrifice.

  Noah puts a steadying arm around my shoulders. “We lost the Glade at auction.”

  Adam nods. “We know. Joe called us.”

  My eyes sting. “But there’s more.”

  I feel everything in Noah tighten. This is just as hard for him as it is for me. “Let’s head home. Eden needs to clean up and then we can talk. Some things have…changed.”

  I grasp Noah’s hand, ready to leave. Technically we’re trespassing, plus there’s a lot we need to discuss. Tara is about to learn that she’s lost a sister. I have to share that I’ve lost a father.

  Noah shifts and I leap up, sinking into his white fur. As we head back to the auction site to drive home, I realize this is so much bigger than just those losses.

  I can feel it in my core.

  Everything has changed.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  For the first time since this all started, we sit around the Phelan table and everyone is silent. Even Stash and Caesar are quiet and unmoving. No one knows what to say. What’s worse, everyone is worried there could be nothing to say.

  Tara is grieving the loss of Dana, the sister who took the arrow aimed for my heart.

  I am trying to come to terms with the loss of a father while trying to understand the gift he left behind. Since that moment in the Glade, the melody is never far away, my sense of connection with everything around me heightened.

  But what has really silenced us is the communal mourning of the Glade, each one of us wondering whether the Prophecy can exist without it or the Precept Rock.