“I think the best idea would be to have the fae find Zareth,” Taylor said. “It’d be a good chance for them to test their skills against a fae prince in the human world.”
Isabella shook her head. “No. I don’t want that. I definitely don’t want that. If they lose and they’re hurt, I couldn’t stand it. Never mind what would happen to me. No, we just need to leave it alone and erase my memory so I never accidentally talk about it.”
Taylor was the one to shake his head now, and it made his long, warrior-length hair swing back and forth. “He can’t just stay in your mind like that.”
She let out a small scream as she sat forward again. God, it was so stupid that he could have such a hold on her. She looked up at Taylor and spoke through gritted teeth. “No one can stop him.”
“If you never manifested, then why would he try so hard to control you?”
She didn’t know. “Stop,” she said desperately.
Taylor let out a huff and stood up again, pacing by the wall. “This is impossible.” He sent her an apologetic glance. “Not you, but the situation. I don’t want to hurt you. I don’t want to tell anyone who could set it off by bringing it up with you.” He glanced back at her. “Tell me what you want me to do.”
She bit her lip. “Just forget it. I’m going to.”
“Chadwick loves you,” Taylor hissed. “How can you do that to him?”
“How could I kill him?” she retorted as lightning went off again. “How could I stay by him, knowing I might lead to the most painful of deaths? I’m poison. I’m chaos. I’m nothing anymore now that Zareth’s done with me.” The pain was so strong, but she couldn’t stop talking. “What do I have to offer? I love Chadwick and I would stay with him if I could, but I can’t.”
Taylor sighed. “We’ll think of something. Don’t despair, Bella.”
“It’s hopeless,” she said, putting her face in her hands and folding herself in half so her face was over her knees. “I should have never come here. Maybe I should never have even escaped. I didn’t want anyone to be in danger.”
“No,” Taylor said. “It’s going to be okay. The bad guys don’t win. Chaos doesn’t reign. I’m proof of that. There is chaos running in my veins, but my dragon supersedes it. I don’t hurt those around me. I protect them. Maybe one day you can as well.”
She had to cut this conversation short because she couldn’t breathe anymore. The chains were pulsing… pulsing. “I can’t… Taylor…”
“All right,” he said, walking over to gently put his jacket around her shoulders. It felt good, though she was shaking from nerves rather than cold.
“Do you want me to get Chadwick?” He walked toward the door.
“No,” she said softly. “Just give me a minute to calm down. You won’t tell him, will you?”
Taylor was quiet for a moment. “I have to think about what I’ll do. But I promise I’ll tell you first.”
She nodded because that was about all she could ask from him.
Then she curled up in a ball and let the tears flow as she tried to calm her mind.
Chapter 23
Boreas’s hands tightened into fists at the sound of Bella’s crying.
He hadn’t meant to hear so much of Taylor’s words, but he’d been drawn by the faint sounds of distress.
He was protective of Bella now. She might not resonate with him, but she was his friend and the bond there wasn’t easily broken for a fae like him.
Which meant he had no choice but to avenge her.
He quietly strode away from the room, then leapt down the steps, landing light as a feather before continuing to walk toward the front door.
There was only one thing that had to be done, and Boreas was the one to do it.
He was almost out the front door before he heard footsteps behind him, echoing on the marble.
“Where are you going?” It was Flint, wearing a pair of plaid pajama pants and a black tee shirt with a robe over it.
Typical, slobbish fire fae.
“Out,” Boreas said. He didn’t need to share his mission with a fae of such low caliber. Fire fae princes were generally sought for bonding, nothing more. Flint had just made the grade for fighting, but he wasn’t anything compared to an ice fae like Boreas.
“You aren’t going alone,” Flint said, folding his arms.
Damn, the fire fae could be stubborn. He was bored like the other fae and would probably wake the whole house if Boreas didn’t let him come with.
“Fine,” he said. “But I’m going to go find that chaos prince.”
“We’re coming too,” Ivar said, appearing out of the hallway with Tynan.
“We all want to protect Bella.” Tynan agreed, folding his arms stubbornly. “Besides, you don’t know the power level of this fae.”
Boreas lifted his chin. “You think he could match me?”
Flint had to bite his lip at that. “No. Probably not. Strong fucker.”
Boreas winced at the language. “Stop being crude. No human woman will want you.”
Flint laughed. “As if. They’ll want me more than you, you stuck up—”
“They won’t want any of us if we aren’t the type who can stand up for our friends when they need us,” Tynan said.
“No matter what Isabella says, we know he’s going to come for her,” Ivar said.
“But she’s resonating with Chadwick,” Flint said. “There’s no point now.”
Boreas shook his head. “It doesn’t matter. It’s a matter of pride.” He didn’t know how much to tell the others about how Isabella had been captured. He didn’t know there were spells that could bind memories. Trust chaos fae to come up with something so evil. But he needed to proceed with caution regarding Isabella’s past.
So he couldn’t tell them that this fae prince was likely obsessed with her, and even if he had at one point let her go, the moment he saw her resonating with another male, he would definitely want her.
Probably, he hadn’t gotten Bella to manifest. But of course not. Didn’t chaos fae know that only a strong bond could bring powers forth in a latent fae?
Maybe they didn’t, but Boreas had studied it when coming to this world.
It still grated on him that they expected him to bond with some human-fae mix with diluted blood, but he had to admit that after meeting Bella, he had more hope things would work out for him.
He owed her for that if nothing else.
“I don’t know how strong he is,” Boreas said in warning. “I just know that Chad and Bella won’t be happy until he is gone.”
“They are good people,” Ivar said. “I say we save them.”
Tynan and Flint nodded.
“Should we take off, then?” Boreas asked, opening the front door as quietly as possible.
The others followed him out, all tiptoeing as quietly as possible.
Once they were out on the lawn, Boreas took off his suppressor and shoved it in his pocket. Then he let his wings out, enjoying the way his warrior hair flowed over his shoulders and his giant flame-blue wings stretched high overhead.
A fae’s wings displayed his power, and though the other princes had similar wings, Boreas knew his were still slightly the biggest.
“All right,” he said. “I’m going to tune in to chaos to find him. Everyone hold still for a moment.”
All of them had the ability to find chaos as fae born to hunt and extinguish it, though it was very risky to tune in to a chaos stream to find a fairy.
Boreas focused as hard as he could, but nothing came. Perhaps locating chaos didn’t work in this world, or the bastard was being suppressed.
“I can’t find him,” Boreas said. “Dammit, we need to get out of here before—”
“Perhaps I can help,” a deep voice said, interrupting as the front door shut behind someone.
Boreas looked up to see Chadwick walking down the stairs, hands in the pockets of his dressing gown.
Boreas and the other fae tried not to look guilty about
sneaking out or ditching their suppressors, but it didn’t work very well.
“Chad, we—”
“I don’t want to hear it. I’m in,” he said, a dark glow in his amethyst eyes.
Boreas wouldn’t usually want to fight alongside a dragon, but Chadwick was different. Brave and strong, he made Boreas reconsider all the dragons he’d judged in his lifetime.
But then again, purple dragons had fae blood from the most powerful fairy ever known, so that made sense.
“You might die,” Boreas said simply. “You should let us take care of it.”
“For you and Bella,” Flint said. “We want you both to be happy.”
“If you think anyone but me is ensuring the happiness of my mate, you’re crazy,” Chadwick said, striding up to them until he was at the center of the lawn. “I can use my powers to locate him.”
With a shimmering veil, Chadwick disappeared, and in his place was a huge amethyst dragon with purple spikes and glittering chunks of crystal along its body and spine and giant wings that even Boreas felt awe at as they unfurled in front of him for the first time.
“Let’s fly,” Chadwick said, taking off in dragon form.
Boreas took off to follow him, only a little irritated to no longer be in charge.
Oh well, as long as the chaos fairy died horribly, it was all the same to him.
* * *
Isabella waited for Taylor to come back with Chadwick, but he was gone for several minutes.
It made her slightly uneasy, so she got up and peeked outside the office just to see what was going on.
Taylor was below on the landing, running a hand through his hair with a stressed expression on his face. “They have to be here somewhere.”
“Who?” she asked, her heart rate speeding up.
“The fae,” Taylor said. “I can’t find Chadwick, which is already odd. But sometimes it’s hard to find him in this huge place. But I went to ask the fae if they’d seen him, and they were gone.”
Isabella knew, without even thinking very long about it, what had happened.
“He’s gone after Zareth,” she said, feeling like her heart was on an open grate and flames were pouring through. “No, no, no, no.” She couldn’t calm down enough to think straight as she paced back and forth on the landing.
“I’m going to call Xander and Tristan,” Taylor said. “They can back us up. Can you find him?”
Her head was burning, pain lancing through it, but she didn’t care anymore now that her friends were in worse trouble than ever.
She hadn’t meant to hurt or endanger anyone. Why couldn’t they just let her go back to her world where she wouldn’t hurt anyone?
She thought of Chad’s face, and that strange feeling of magic welled up in her again. Something warm and expansive filling her everywhere.
That was love, she supposed.
It seemed to almost even overwhelm the dark chains of pain for a moment as it throbbed and swelled inside her heart.
If only she’d been the fae Zareth thought she was.
“I’m going to check the rest of the house just in case,” Taylor said. “I bet we find them. They wouldn’t have just taken off.”
But they would, Isabella knew, as she ran to check Chad’s room.
He was gone.
She’d give anything for him to just be there in the room, smiling at her, touching her. Safe.
She knew his life was dangerous as a dragon, but nothing he went up against could really hurt him.
He had no idea how badly Zareth could hurt him.
More pain lashed through her, but her heart’s concern over Chad was stronger. It gave her almost a savage thrill to think about the fact that, for once, something was more important than those damn chains.
Something was more important than her past.
Chadwick was her future.
And with a blinding flash of something like pink light, she could see it all so clearly. Them together forever. Entwined. Sharing powers.
But how would that work? Chadwick was a dragon.
Even if she had fae blood, he wouldn’t make her manifest it.
Plus, if she hadn’t manifested when Zareth had tried to push it, she clearly wasn’t going to ever. Her life had been on the line, and no powers had shown themselves.
She’d wished every day for them to come, but nothing.
She felt powerful now, though she knew it was only her love for Chadwick.
Even the chains didn’t seem to be hurting her, and she felt invincible for a moment as her heart bonded to Chadwick no matter how far away he was.
All the feelings from last night flooded back to her. The need to keep him safe. The wish to always be by him. The need to know he was taken care of.
Love.
Commitment.
Resonance.
Her love was like a hum, the most beautiful sound imaginable, and it was intertwined with another beautiful note. Pink and purple threads entwined in her mind, in her heart, and she simply stood there with her eyes closed, wondering what any of it could mean.
She sank to the floor, still trying to feel for the chains. She could somehow feel them stretching, pulsating forward and back with their poison.
But the glowing pink was overcoming them, and with a surge of joy so strong she nearly fainted, she felt the chains break.
She gasped as she looked around her, expecting the entire world to be different. She was free.
She had no idea how it had happened, but Zareth no longer had any hold on her. She felt warm and light.
She could be with Chadwick.
Her eyes widened and her heart clenched again as she realized she had to find him, that there was no need to fight Zareth now.
“You have wings.”
She looked up to see Taylor standing a few feet away, panting from exertion. His sapphire eyes were wider than she’d ever seen them.
“What are you?” He took a wary step back.
She tried to look over her shoulder and gasped in shock when she saw the tip of something gossamer and pink but glowing.
Flying up like flames, shaped like wings.
She had wings.
She stumbled back so hard she fell on her butt, and then she scrambled around, trying to get a glimpse of her wings again.
Taylor let out a relieved sigh, then held out a hand to help her up. “Sorry, you just surprised me. For a moment, I didn’t know what was going on.”
“I still don’t know what’s going on,” she said. “I didn’t even know I had wings.”
“What was happening before I came up here?”
“I was just thinking about Chadwick. Worried about Chadwick.” She shook her head. “Something happened to the chains when I wanted to be with him. I guess it was love. I have no idea.” She pulled at her hair in frustration. “I have to find him. I have to stop him. And the fae.”
“You can’t,” Taylor said. “It’s already bad that they’ve gone. I need to get the other dragons. Find them. And—”
“No,” she said to Taylor as the purple smoky thread entwined with hers flew off in a separate direction, taking her over a map in her mind. As if she were somewhere else, flying.
If she didn’t know any better, she’d think she was linked to Chadwick and seeing what he’d recently seen.
Was this a fae soul bond?
It was what Zareth had been trying to do to her in all those hours of torture. But it had never worked.
“I’m going after him,” she said, walking past Taylor and hopping over the balcony. She wasn’t surprised when her wings carried her gracefully down. It was like she had always known they would.
As if even below the chains Zareth had put on her, there were other chains, and those had been broken too. And she could feel she had always been something else other than human.
So many things made sense.
But the most important was that she needed to find Chadwick.
“Don’t follow me,” she said. “I can find
him, and I need to go alone.” Her eyes narrowed. “It’s already going to be an awful fight.”
“Wait,” Taylor said. “You can’t just—”
But she ignored him as she walked out of the house and out onto the lawn, looking up at the night sky above her.
“Chadwick, I’m coming. Just hold on, you reckless dragon.”
Chapter 24
“Did she send you here?” Zareth, as he was called, looked completely unworried about the four fae and one dragon who had shown up outside the little cabin where he was holed up.
“No,” Boreas said. “It is our duty to eliminate chaos. She merely brought you to our attention.”
Zareth’s dark eyebrow rose. “Ice fae.”
Boreas lifted his chin imperiously. “The one who will kill you.”
Zareth laughed then, the sound echoing through the dark forest around them, lit only by the light streaming from his little cabin.
“Not very nice accommodations for a fae,” Chadwick commented. “How do you have any room in there?” He didn’t really care about the fae’s living arrangements. He just felt something was off about the whole thing and wasn’t sure what.
“Why don’t you come in and see?” Zareth asked, opening the door for them.
Chadwick glared. “Of course not.”
Zareth shrugged. “Well, I’m going back in there, with or without you. Only, once this door shuts, you won’t be able to get in. Or find your way out of this forest.”
Flint let out a gasp, looking around him. “It’s a trap. We flew right into it.”
Zareth laughed again, the sound as horrible as it was common. Like the whole world was one big joke.
But Chadwick had seen what this man did to Bella, so the only joke here was how much Zareth was underestimating his opponents.
Chadwick turned to see what the fae were murmuring about and looked up to see a dark, moving haze in the sky. His eyes followed it all the way to the ground. Like there was a filter over them in a very large dome.
Zareth sat on his front step as if he had nothing better to do. “I thought you would show up if I sent you those visions. And now she’ll show up too so I can kill her like I should have from the start.” He grinned wickedly. “No loose ends.”
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