by E Hall
“I won’t do it.” I couldn’t.
“Fine. When you return to Polaris, you’ll find your pack dead. Soon I will have the scepter and devastate them all.”
My brow wrinkles for a moment, but I push past it to keep my expression stony.
At our backs and along the shore, people gather. Kenna’s song must lure them, entranced them. Melchior’s angle becomes clear.
I don’t sense Clove and Pepper through the driving rain. The ocean froths, waves rise and crash down.
However, my wolf ears pick up another familiar male voice. It echoes eerily through the early morning as the prow of a ghost ship sails into the harbor. “They’re convening.”
“All of them?” a female asks.
“I believe so,” the male says.
I blink my eyes as two figures and a handful of ghosts come into focus on the deck of the ship. “Grey—” I clamp my hand over my mouth. Likely, the ghost pirates know Kenna’s father’s name, but not her mother’s.
Melchior flickers, lifting the glamour, and he returns to his bearded visage.
The ship, the fae king, and I form a triangle with me in the shallows. Since he was the king of the fae, he must be able to take on sea fae form. He’s after the scepter...and, my wife.
“What are you doing here?” I ask the Slades.
“Back at Lonsdale, I overheard the conversation you had with Kenna about her song. I suppose my fatherly instinct was right. She was in trouble.”
I want to apologize for not taking better care of her and for not stopping this sooner, when a breeze shifts the fog.
“You called for us,” says a dark-haired fae with emerald wings.
Five others flutter at her sides in formation. The great depths of their eyes suggest immense power. Lila flutters into focus with pale blue wings.
They’re formidable, a force that seems to calm the wind surrounding us.
The ghosts goggle them. We all do.
“It is so nice to meet you at last, Mayra,” Lila says to the fae with the emerald wings. She nods to the others and says, “Halle, Nia, Alina, Shonna, and Demi.”
They completely ignore the ghost pirates.
“You are here because of me. The curse was placed because I fell in love with someone other than Melchior. I chose a life on land. As a result, the fae of my court have paid a substantial price. For this, I offer an apology. I didn’t know the far-reaching effects my actions would have upon my people. However, I am not fully responsible.” She glares at Melchior.
The water around the ship swells.
“What’s this?” He bellows at the arrival of the Court of Queens.
Their wings and fingers twitch at his approach.
“Hello, Melchior,” one muse purrs.
“I came here to help set things right.”
At the sound of Lila’s voice, Melchior flinches.
She meets his eyes for one ominous moment and then turns her attention back to the court. “One of your members betrayed you. With aspirations to become the queen of all fae, she revealed secrets to Melchior causing him to curse my court. The curse was broken recently, but Melchior couldn’t accept defeat. He wants to make a dual-magical his queen and thereby curse us all, including the wolf-shifters, anew so that he can reign supreme forever.”
Kenna shakes her head and steps into the water. Her song continues to come from the necklace.
Melchior lunges toward her, but Ivan, an Alpha vampire, steps in front of her, angling the scepter at the former fae king. Is it the real or the fake?
A roar builds around Melchior as the wind howls. “That. Is. Mine.”
“Tsk, tsk,” a muse with cascading blond hair and crystalline eyes reprimands. “Melchior, ever a rude host, never invited us all to get to know each other. So years and years ago, we took it upon ourselves to start a little club. When we did, well, let’s just say a few islands in the South Pacific are now underwater habitats.”
Several of the queens flick their wrists in unison. A blast of magic siphons a wave larger than a three-story building. They hold it suspended over us before causing it to recede when they lower their hands.
“When we came together, we realized how powerful we were,” says a consort with a crown of braided hair. She extends one finger and taps the water. It sizzles. “But, Lila is correct. One of our sisters took advantage of our power and betrayed us.” Her gaze turns on a fae with coils of gold-green hair. “Where have you been all this time, Demi?”
Demi’s painted lips lift into a smile. “Where I’ve been doesn’t matter, so much as whom I will become.” She punctuates her sentence with a cackle that raises the hair on my neck and then lunges for Kenna.
Without thinking, I shift, launching myself at the deviant fae queen. My wolf snarls as the vamp hisses, both of us coiled for action in defense of Kenna.
The water around Demi bubbles and pops. “How sweet,” she says to Kenna, “You have protectors. However, they’re no match for me.”
Demi dips her hands into the water. It pools black around her. Finger-like ooze slithers in Kenna’s direction like thousands of starving hands.
Ivan and I move Kenna toward the sand, but she’s frozen, stuck as the hungry poison spreads from Demi’s hands. “I will get what I want,” she calls.
“No, she’s mine,” Melchior challenges.
The five original queens plus Lila encircle Demi, but the tar-like fingers grope for them and their shining eyes dim.
Meanwhile, Kenna’s father, practically fading into the gloom, nods at Ivan. “We broke the curse. However, little was known about what to do to reinstate peace.”
Jackie smirks. “Fortunately, my favorite vampire club came across a cave of sleeping dragons.”
The wind whips stronger from the beating of mighty wings. Three dragons hover above us as Pepper runs down the beach, gripping Kenna’s original wedding dress—the one I got her in Las Vegas. Kenna had the Triad Jewels sewn in as part of some human tradition or something.
Without stopping, Pepper grabs the scepter from Ivan and leaps into the air, and shifts into her massive pearly, purple dragon.
The four dragons take off in flight, presumably to bring the scepter to the Montmartres Mountains in Concordia.
Meanwhile, the surrounding water continues to stain black and thick like tar.
The Court of Queens begins to hum. Before they break into song, Demi raises her voice in a dark and sinister tune.
Kenna steps deeper into the water. The black liquid licks her legs. I grip her wrist, stronger as a wolf than human, and able to withstand magic and fae song more readily. Ivan holds onto Kenna as well, but the flatness in his gaze tells me the music takes its toll on him.
I study Kenna’s eyes, hoping they spark with the light that’s always been there, but they’re as dark as the sea.
The heads of dozens of sea fae and selkies rise from the water. Together with the fae queens, the hum turns into a chant of the word, home. Vampires fill in along the beach, blocking the humans—men, women, and children alike.
Unlike the forest fae, this song doesn’t just lure males. A helicopter flies overhead. I sense my betas above.
The humming vies with the song from Kenna’s necklace and Demi’s tune. As the sound crescendos, the pendant around Kenna’s neck glows a sinister green.
Isa appears on silver wings of war, whizzing past the cluster of queens.
Melchior’s expression is stark, stricken. “You returned.”
“Your greed, your hunger was too strong and my light too bright. You were meant to share your affections with one fae queen. Not nine.” She glides toward Melchior with a ferocity of two hundred years of pent up rage.
He sputters. Falters.
“I ask that you break these final curses—the necklace, the ghost pirates, and any others. Bring peace and unity to land and sea. Then you will go home. Your time is done here.” Her voice is melodic, but under it is a command as deep as the sea.
Kenna wavers on
her feet.
Hope springs to my chest. Melchior is going to break the curse.
But he doesn’t move. Instead, Kenna dives underwater and disappears.
As ripples form in the black, tarry substance, a figure jumps out of the helicopter. Avril’s expression shades sharp as she disappears after my mate.
Panic seizes me. My wolf paws at the water. I shift back to human form.
With a blast of fae magic brighter than the rising sun, trying to burn through the morning haze, Isa strikes the muck Demi created. It swallows the traitor up.
The waves lap once, twice, three times before the water turns clear.
Then with a glance at the other fae queens, Isa strides toward the fae former king. “I have waited too long for this moment. Melchior, your reign has gone on long enough. Leave this to me. I will finish this now.” Isa’s voice echoes stridently over the water.
Chapter 25
Kenna
As I dive underwater, the song still comes loudly from the pendant around my neck, but Corbin’s voice is in my head—not in the wolf-way of communicating, but of his Alpha issuing commands.
The last thing I saw was my parents on the ghost pirate ship, the Court of Fae Queens, sea fae, selkies, the vamps, and my mate.
Everyone is here to fight Melchior, yet the power of my song is stronger, holding them all captive. If only I could stop it. No, I will stop it.
I dive deeper. While above, I realized there’s only one way to silence the song. I have to make a choice. I have to sacrifice myself. This is what Isa meant in the diary.
I don’t hesitate. I don’t think about the what-ifs or the things I could or should do. I go under to end the fae magic within me. It’s as though my body knows what to do without any other special command.
The waves churn up the sand on the seafloor. Air leaves me as the necklace takes on a life of its own. It drags me across the rough seabed. The reef scratches me.
I grip rocks and strands of seaweed, but the seashell pendant is strong. But I’m strong too. I remember my wolf nature. I thrash, then lash out, trying to regain control. Now that I’m underwater, I reach my fingers back to unclasp the necklace but as soon as I do, a forceful surge of water floods me.
Hands grip me, a familiar voice tries to communicate in the wolf-way.
All I hear is static. Pressure builds. The water blurs.
Avril tugs on me, trying to pull me to the surface.
A bright light flashes overhead.
Melchior suddenly tears me away from her, radiating power.
My beta’s lips are turning blue as she tries to help me, but she doesn’t understand that I have to kill off the fae inside of me. I have to let her go. Nevertheless, I struggle, tugging on the necklace.
Melchior smirks as if pitying me for not being able to get the necklace off.
A bright light glows, momentarily blinding me.
Isa appears, dangerously fierce as though something other than fae magic fuels her. “Remove the necklace,” she orders.
Her ethereal beauty is terrifyingly captivating. Either that or the lack of oxygen is going to my head.
Even though we’re underwater, I hear them speaking. Must be a fae way to communicate like wolves. That means my fae is stronger. That’s the opposite of what I want.
“Kenna’s song is now locked in the pendant around her neck. With her voice under my command, I can rule all magicals,” Melchior boasts.
“You have a choice. Come with us peacefully or be removed by force.” Isa’s eyes flash.
“What are you going to do to me? I have no scepter or consort. I am no longer king. Then again I took Kenna’s voice, her song. With it, I am going to destroy the magicals and only keep the fae under my command.” As the last word falls from his lips, he grows in his liquid form. “A big wave, propelled by her song, drowning this tiny island will be just the beginning.” His vile laughter echoes through the water.
Isa matches him in size. They rise out of the water. Melchior swipes the pendant from around my neck, angling it at her.
I clutch my throat, now not only unable to speak, but gasping for air. We’re too deep for anyone to help me. I drift as stars form in my vision. Then Isa swats the shell pendant from Melchior’s hand. With the other, using magic, she drives him out to sea.
A deafening roar fills my ears. My song fills my throat. I feel every word, every sound returning to me, flowing through me. Clutching my throat, I reel back, still underwater. I struggle and thrash.
As the song crescendos, a radiating, golden light fills my vision. Isa’s outline is sunshine surrounding liquescent blue, gray, green,—the colors of the ocean and sky. She’s a woman, yet something more. The surrounding water turns placid and glassy.
“I cannot apologize for Melchior’s actions, but I can help you now. My time in the diary, afforded me the wisdom of the Borea realm, the origins of our magic. Originally, I sought vengeance, waiting two hundred years for my chance. However, during that time, I learned it would be better to offer Melchior amnesty.” The serenity in her expression looks slightly forced like she’d enjoy nothing less than throttling the guy. “Pity, he turned it down. Now, I will free him from his own shadow, thereby freeing you. Kenna, do you wish to return as a fae, a wolf, or both?”
I gasp and gurgle, trying to speak. The best I can do is growl. In my mind, I say I am wolf, hear me howl.
She repeats the words back to me.
I nod weakly, hoping she understands. I’m afraid I’ll soon be neither wolf nor fae nor anything. My vision flickers.
Then she says, “Salt and water, time and tide, together we unite, we abide. May the sea be one, the curse undone, let Kenna’s wolf be free to be.”
I sputter and cough.
“You’re fully wolf. But I fused your fae magic so you can still have a little fun. Now, I have to go see a wolf of my own.” Isa winks and in a blink, disappears.
A jolt rocks me as though a chain tightens and then slackens before shattering. I feel an invisible thread weaving through me, anchoring me to my wolf. I feel her pulse, her heartbeat.
I feel like I could go under, but the greatest treasure is waiting for me on the surface. I’ll do anything to unite with my true love again.
An invisible wave of peace settles over me, like a blanket. My wolf heart pulses, telling me she’s intact. The restless fae within is gone, but a burst of magic thrust from the lightning in my fingertips shuttles me to the ocean’s surface. Everyone rejoices loudly.
The queens hover next to Melchior, restraining him with magic. All the same, he gazes upon them with longing. I hope never to see him again. Lila joins her sisters.
Isa runs along the shore toward a wolf—Alden? Before they meet, she pauses, turns, and extends her hand, volleying a burst of magic that casts Melchior into a million pieces of what look like sparkly confetti, except the exact shade of shadow.
The vampires mesmer the people on the shore so they forget what they heard and saw.
One by one, the remaining ghost pirates, including the captain, dissolve into the water with a contented sigh. The wolves and fae prisoners swim free of the ship.
The helicopter filled with the beta wolves, and with Avril hanging out the side, lowers its ladder and my parents climb up. Well, my mom does. Ghost-Dad floats up to safety.
Inside, I feel something lift gently and then I exhale.
The sea fae and selkies disappear under the surface.
I scan for Corbin. Then a hand is in mine. I breathe in his wolfy-woodsy scent. I gaze into the calm of his copper eyes.
“You’re my gem, my queen, my night and day, and my everything. We are each other’s anchor, keeping us loyal. Hand in hand, we are friends. But above all, you are my love, my great love, and I hope I am still yours,” he says.
I clear my throat. Yes, of course. The words don’t come.
Panic streaks his face. “I’m sorry I ran from you last night. I’m sorry I didn’t understand. I’m sorry you experi
enced this.”
I shake my head. That makes two of us. But it was a curse. Kai/Melchior and his grim magic ensorcelled me. I am so sorry. I want to explain everything as we stand on the sandy shore.
I look for Isa, the queens, for anyone to help. They’re gone. A single tear falls from my eye. I wish I could speak, to tell him how sorry I am, but the words don’t come from my lips. Instead, I communicate through our wolf connection.
Corbin smiles and says, “I have an idea. You know those fairytales about the prince kissing the princess and—” I don’t let him finish. I know exactly what he means—every girl does, even a dual-magical.
It can’t hurt to try.
Without another word, his lips land on mine.
The kiss is a soft embrace at first. Lips pressing against lips. Vitality rushes back. Then the kiss builds. It’s like sunlight over the water, bright and reflective, warm, and sparkling.
Our fingers tangle in each other’s hair. Desire burns between us, warming the air as the sun burns away the clouds. Our kiss moves from fevered to gentle, then back as though we both hunger for more.
A comforting sense of rightness settles over me. I’m meant to be in Corbin’s arms, and by his side no matter if I’m a fae or a wolf.
We kiss and kiss until once more the water calms and the clouds part, revealing the sunshine.
As the rays warm our skin, I open my mouth and say, “I love you.” I can’t resist the huge smile on my face, thankful my voice has returned. Those are the only words I need to say.
“I love you too,” he replies.
Then his lips land on mine again and we kiss as the waves gently lap the shore.
Corbin laces his arm across my back. “This honeymoon has been—”
“A disaster?” I ask. “I could go for a run.”
“How about we hop on the plane and head home.”
“That’s exactly what I was thinking. But remember, when I’m with you, I am home,” I say.
Corbin dips his head for another kiss.
A contented and completely wolfy sigh escapes my chest, my wolf heart.
“I like the sound of that,” my mate says.
