Corrine’s body arched off the ground suddenly, her chest slamming upward, and he gasped. She screamed in pain, convulsing beneath the light, and Gabe began to fight against the magic that held him restrained.
“Corrine!” He roared her name. “Aeron, stop! Stop fucking hurting her. I am going to rip your fucking heart out. I will shred the skin from your body!” Corrine screamed again, her hands reaching out, and although Gabe couldn’t be sure, it looked as if she reached out toward him And Braxas. “Please, Goddess, please! Stop, do not hurt her anymore. Give it to me. Give me her pain!” Gabe felt tears sliding down his face.
He heard Braxas shouting but had no idea of his words. Gabe could feel the warmth of blood on his back where he lost skin as he thrashed against the hard bark of the tree, but he felt no pain from it. Or perhaps it was simply eclipsed by the anguish he was experiencing in seeing the woman he loved in such agony.
Corrine suddenly threw herself to the side, and the horrific sound of retching filled the forest. From where he stood, he saw a black thick liquid spill from her mouth. This must be the poison that had been killing her. A small kernel of hope bloomed within him. He watched, bearing witness to Corrine’s battle for survival and her formidable strength as her body strained, ridding itself of the toxin that had invaded her system, over and over, until she sank back on the ground, lying flat on her back. Her chest heaved, and he heard her soft sobs.
“Let us go to her,” Gabe begged, uncaring that his voice broke slightly. “Please, let us go to her.”
Aeron’s face was damp with perspiration, and he was fighting to drag air into his lungs. Whatever the man had done, it had taken a toll on him also. A quick glance to Alak and Gabe saw he was in a similar state. However these High Dorum worked their magic, the chore to cleanse Corrine of the dark poison had been a strenuous one, and it obviously affected them both.
“The Lady Corrine will live,” Aeron said in a hoarse voice, aiming the light over the pool of gelatinous liquid beside her, and it evaporated into nothing. Aeron then aimed the light over Corrine’s face, cleaning all signs of the poison away from her. “She will be weak for a while, but she will make a complete recovery.” He pulled his palms back, the light extinguishing almost immediately and looked over at Gabe and Braxas. “Had it taken any longer for us to find you, she would have been lost. No matter how strong the bond among the three of you, the casting of magic is not something to dabble in without extensive study.”
Aeron stood up and moved away from Corrine. He nodded at his brother, and in that instant Gabe felt the invisible bond holding him captive slip away. With a cry he launched himself forward, collapsing to the ground beside Corrine. He gently pulled her up so that she was cradled against his chest, Braxas pressing in close behind her.
Corrine sobbed their names as she reached out to both of them. Gabe felt her trembling between them. He took a deep breath, possibly the first one he had taken since the moment he placed her on the ground at his feet, and stilled. Her scent exploded within him. He had always been affected by the intoxicating mix of orange blossom and cinnamon that was uniquely Corrine, but never before had it been so intense. His wolf wanted to wallow in the scent, get it all over him, and in that moment, Gabe’s wolf confirmed what his heart had been telling him from the moment they met.
Gabe sighed and hugged her tighter to him. “Mate.”
Chapter Fifteen
Braxas wiped away his tears, uncaring that he cried in front of an audience. His mate was alive. That was all that mattered. Gabe’s reaction to her scent, now that the spell was lifted, had also tugged on his heartstrings and brought back the memory of the first time her enthralling scent and presence had revealed that she was his mate as well. She turned in Gabe’s arms to face Braxas and he reached for her just as she reached for him, but then her face transformed into one of horror and he found himself being flung back by an unseen force.
“Don’t hurt him,” Corrine screamed at the same time he heard the deafening sounds of feral snarls. He looked wildly around, desperately trying to find the threat until it finally dawned on him that he was the threat.
He found himself in a half shift again, his beast clawing at his own skin. I will rip you apart, too, if I have to, his cat had threatened. He was making good on that threat now. He heard a wolf growl low in his ear, an encouraging sound, rather than a threatening one. Strong hands held him down as a small, gentle hand rubbed his leg. He heard chanting somewhere above him, felt his chest rise with a pulling sensation, a bright light, and then his body sank in tired relief.
“You are one, once again.” a voice said from above.
And he felt it. He and his cougar were finally back in harmony. He couldn’t be angry at the cowering form of his beast in his mind's eye. He looked as beat up as Braxas felt, not to mention angry at what had been done to him, what he almost did. He could have hurt his own mate, and that would never have sat right with him. “Not your fault,” Braxas muttered to his cat.
“Braxas, are you all right?” came Corrine’s panicked voice beside him.
He sat up. He felt weak and dizzy, but he needed to comfort his worried mate. “I am now, sweetheart.” He kissed the top of her head.
He looked over at Gabe, who was still in his wolf form, and nodded his thanks. Gabe gave a low growl in acknowledgment. “That was quick thinking, Gabe. Goddess knows what would have happened if they had to deal with both of us at once.”
“What do you mean by that?” Aeron asked.
“His wolf is the sane one,” Braxas explained. “My cougar went completely mad.” His cougar growled in his head in response, clearly unhappy with the reminder.
Alak’s eyebrows rose, and then his face contorted into determination. “Stay still, wolf,” he ordered. He then proceeded to heal Gabe. By the time the three of them were fully healed, the High Dorum looked completely spent.
“We are in your debt,” Braxas said to them.
“You are not,” Aeron said firmly. “We do as the Goddess bids without accumulating favors. Let us go now. We have much to discuss.”
Braxas wasn’t used to taking orders from anyone, and neither was Gabe, but given the fact that these two Dorum had saved their lives, and he was just too damn tired to argue, he followed without a fight.
The Dorum led them to a modest sized cottage that seemed to appear out of nowhere, much the same as Ishaya’s had done. The beautiful antiquated structure was made of stone with bright foliage growing around it, foliage unidentifiable to Braxas. Then again, most things he discovered in this strange place seemed foreign to him, otherworldly.
“Be welcome,” Aeron said, graciously gesturing them to all step inside. Grahame, however, lingered in the doorway.
“Don’t lurk,” Alak snapped at him. “It’s rude.”
“Wasna sure your welcome extended to me,” Grahame said, looking abashed. The big guy actually blushed.
Alak raised an eyebrow. “Is that because you acted like a complete bowsermuff with our cousin?”
“I didna know Aneena was your kin.”
“What’s a bowsermuff?” Braxas whispered to Corrine.
She put her hand against her mouth trying to stifle a giggle. “A silly animal that chases its tail all day,” she whispered back. “The males … um … are known to try to mate with almost anything.”
Braxas had to smother his own laughter at Corrine’s description.
“And if she wasn’t our cousin, would it have been okay to take liberties with her?” Alak’s gaze narrowed.
“Well, now.” Grahame appeared to lose his temper at the insinuation that he had done the female a disservice. “Aneena and I are both consenting adults. It’s none of your bloody business—”
“Our Aneena has let it go,” Aeron said, cutting off his brother in an effort to defuse the awkward situation. “And so have we.”
“Speaking of Aneena,” Ishaya began, “I hear congratulations are in order.”
“Thank you,” Aeron repli
ed. “We are very proud of her.”
The tension finally broke. Grahame stepped into their cottage and took a seat with the rest of them at the large round dining table off of the kitchen. Braxas made a mental note to find out what affront he may have caused their cousin. The congratulations Ishaya had given them turned out to be because Aneena had just been appointed as a Dorum after she had performed an act of immense bravery, nearly dying in the process in order to save two infants. The parents of the brother and sister, unfortunately, did not survive.
“Aneena suffers greatly from not being able to have saved the parents as well and feels unworthy of the calling of the Goddess,” Aeron explained, “but we hope in time she will embrace that the Goddess has her own wisdom in all things, even when we cannot understand it at first glance.”
“And what of the children?” Corrine asked. “Do they have someone to take them in?” Braxas squeezed his mates hand in support of her concern. He felt for the two young babes as well.
“They are safe and in the care of one of our Elders, but their fate is shrouded in mystery,” Aeron went on. “Our Goddess needs something to play out first, but would not say what.”
Aeron and Alak set out some strange looking, colorful fruit, and a light brown liquid. To help replenish their lost energy, Aeron had said, and the man definitely knew what he was talking about. The flavor of the drink reminded Braxas very much of a fine tasting aged whiskey. The fruit was deliciously sweet and juicy, enhanced by the flavor of the drink. He felt his energy returning within minutes and noticed color blooming on Corrine’s recently pallid face. The dark circles under her eyes had also disappeared.
“Tell me more about this spell you used, Lady Corrine,” Alak asked after he, too, had ingested enough food and drink to look replenished.
Corrine explained how she had stumbled upon the tome of old spells as she was escaping the dungeons in the castle years ago. She had tried to decipher the pages, poring over them for hours upon hours. The language had been strange, but there were certain words that translated, and when she’d been given the vision of Gabe’s death, she knew she needed to do whatever it took to stop that outcome from happening.
“Why did you choose this particular spell?” Aeron asked her. “It had an extremely dark origin and it took a toll on us to remove it from you.”
“It was the only one that referenced ‘subduing the beast’. I thought that it would block the mate bond with Gabe until we could sort out the danger he was in.”
Braxas didn’t miss the guarded look Aeron quickly gave his brother. They knew something more about this than they were sharing.
Ishaya and Grahame filled in the parts they were witness to, including the battle with Kheelan and Frederych’s sadistic experiments. They also recounted some of the symptoms the three of them had been suffering from on the journey here, shedding some light on his, Gabe’s, and Corrine’s skewed memory of the actual events.
Braxas could see the fury returning to Alak’s face. Aeron’s lip curled in disgust, and he practically spat his next few words in his foreign tongue. Braxas didn’t understand the language, but by the tone and expression, it seemed like a string of curse words.
“Frederych is lucky that he is dead,” Alak said, raising a glass and nodding towards Ishaya.
Gabe had filled Braxas in on the mysterious and evil Dark Fae who had assisted Kheelan, including the fact that Frederych had tried to force a mating between himself and Ishaya’s sister, Arethusa. He had murdered the woman, and Ishaya had finally been able to get justice for his sister in the battle with Kheelan’s forces. Without the extra defenses provided by Frederych, Kheelan had met his own fate in the form of three avenging Fae women, one of them being Corrine.
“Frederych,” Aeron said the name in disgust, “was of the same opinion as your vile Alefric and Kheelan, but he did not only see himself as above shifter kind, but above all of the forest folk, and the Light Fae as well.” He jutted his chin out towards Corrine. “That spell you used could have been intended to enslave shifters.”
Alak slammed his palm down on the table. “He would have betrayed Kheelan in the end, but not before they succeeded.”
“You said the spell was made to enslave shifter kind,” Gabe said, “but it nearly killed us, would have killed us had you both not stepped in.”
Aeron took a long swig from his glass before speaking. “It was only killing you because it was fighting the magic of your mating bond as well. When your kind mates, the magic inside of you that makes you able to shift is at its strongest. Heart, mind, body, and soul, all striving to one goal—to connect with your mate and complete you. Your madness was heightened because of your inability to fully join as mates.”
“That spell,” Alak continued, “was written with the intention to separate man from beast.”
Multiple gasps went around the room as the information sunk in. Alak explained further about the rumors they had heard. A small group of rogue Dark Fae had been suspected of experimenting with vile spells, but they had also been very good at hiding and eventually disappeared altogether. “We never thought they could have succeeded in creating such an abomination, but it seems that they had. Without harmony between yourselves and your animal spirits, you would have been torn apart, weakened, subject to paranoia and the ability to be controlled through manipulation.”
“Why did it affect us differently?” Gabe asked.
Alak shrugged. “That I can only speculate on. The spell had been cast out of love, not malice, by a Light Fae while written for the Dark, and targeted its subjects accordingly. The wolf could not sense his mate, so he remained in control without the compulsion to claim, while the cougar was forced to hold back from its baser instincts. Either way, the end result would have been the same and considered a success.”
“Dear Goddess, and I used it on you both.” Corrine shook her head, fresh tears pooling in her eyes.
Gabe and Braxas immediately set to comforting her, whispering reassuring words and applying gentle touches. There was no point in trying to convince her to let go of her guilt again, Braxas thought. She would need to learn to forgive herself one day. All he and Gabe could do was to reassure their mate that there was nothing to forgive.
It was also time to get back and face the threat that awaited them on the other side of the Veil, and to do that, to ensure that Corrine’s original vision of Gabe’s death did not come to fruition, they both needed to finally claim their mate and stand together united.
As if sensing this, Gabe said, “We need to be getting back to our people now.”
“First you need to rest. You aren’t fit to cross the Veil after what your minds and bodies have been through. Ishaya and Grahame will show you to the village guest cottage, and we will accompany you back across the Veil tomorrow as the Goddess Ryssana has requested of us.” Alak’s declaration left them no room for arguing.
“Yes,” Aeron said. “I am afraid you have some hard times ahead of you, but your reputation as skilled fighters and shrewd leaders are known to us after your battle with the False King of the Light Fae.” His eyes narrowed as he turned to Gabe, and as he spoke, the blackness of his pupils spread through the irises until they, too were engulfed in darkness, all but an arctic blue outline around the eyeballs. “Some warriors who fall may yet rise from the ashes.”
A moment passed and Aeron’s eyes returned back to normal. Corrine reached across Braxas to take Aeron’s large hand in hers and squeezed. “Thank you,” she said.
Aeron nodded. There was hope that not all would be lost in the coming conflict, but Braxas knew all too well about how one action could affect another. As leaders, he and Gabe would have to be methodical in preparation if they were to win. Perhaps they could even lessen the numbers on the other side if they could persuade them onto theirs.
The five of them stood to take their leave, but before they reached the door, Gabe turned to the Dorum. “How is it that Frederych is like you, but he could pass himself off as Light Fa
e?”
One side of Alak’s mouth quirked before he suddenly transformed in front of their eyes. His shimmery gray skin turned into a light coppery tan and all of the strange looking tattoos had completely disappeared from his body. “It’s called a glamor.”
There was definitely a lot more to learn about these Dark Fae, Braxas thought. “You may not consider us in your debt,” Braxas began, “but you have our sincerest gratitude regardless.”
Chapter Sixteen
Corrine was still reeling at how easily Alak was able to change his appearance as they stepped out the door, and she certainly wasn’t expecting to walk out into a bustling village full of forest folk since it hadn’t been there when they first arrived.
“What the hell?” Gabe gasped as they took in the change. Braxas’s eyes were just as wide as Gabe’s were.
“The High Dorum are able to shield the village from outsiders when they wish to,” Ishaya said, chuckling as he led them through the small cottages. “You are our honored guests now and will always be able to find the village when you come to seek us.”
Small children were running through the main square, giggling and playing games. It appeared that dozens of various types of forest folk called this village home. Some were huge like their escorts, while others were small like the dwarves in human myths. There were even some who looked more animal or creature than humanoid, but all looked at them with welcoming smiles. Both Grahame and Ishaya greeted friends as they walked towards a cabin on the other side of the clearing.
“I didn’t realize the forest folk lived in communities like this,” Corrine whispered to their guides. “We always assumed you lived spread out in the woods.”
“Some do. The forest has many hidden secrets. The Light Fae were led to believe what we wanted them to for our safety, of course,” Grahame answered with a solemn look. “Would you have trusted Fae like Alefric or Kheelan with the location of groups of forest folk women and children if you were us?”
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