by Zoey Ellis
Amara spun round to face Mother Orlee. “Open back up the portal, Mother,” she ordered. “I need to go back, the children need to go back.”
Mother Orlee watched her carefully. “You can go back, Amara, but the children cannot. And I am shocked at your suggestion that they do.” She gestured to the children. “This was the point of your entire mission. Why would we return them?”
Amara took a deep breath, trying to push away the almost overwhelming sense of urgency that threatened her self-control. In those few moments their eyes connected, Malloron’s shocked expression had burned into her mind. He thought she was behind this, and she couldn’t bear the thought that he might turn on her again. She wouldn’t survive it. She began to tell Mother Orlee about the tenebris.
She spoke quickly, trying not to leave anything out. As she did, the other Omegas crowded around her, their faces filled with shock and horror. The twin Mothers, Freya and Fern, arrived and silently listened among them, and by the time she finished all of their expressions were unified in disbelief.
“The royal family has been doing this to children for centuries?” Helenka stuttered. She glanced at Mother Orlee. “How is that possible? How could we not have known before now?”
Mother Orlee sighed and turned to look at her. “We did know.”
Amara and her entire team were silent, staring at Mother Orlee. “What?” Kekia managed to get out.
“We didn’t know exactly what was happening to the children,” Mother Orlee clarified. “But we knew that the royal family was doing something with them that made them able to use the Talent without going insane. It has been happening since before we set up the compound and started rescuing Omegas. This… tenebris is how they were able to maintain their rule while Omegas were being enslaved. We didn’t know how they were doing it.”
“So you sent us in there to… find out?” Zanya said, bewildered. “Without telling us exactly what we were looking for?”
Mother Fern stepped forward. “No. We didn’t know what to expect. We had a feeling that the children had something to do with the royal family’s ability to stay sane, but it has only been this current king that compelled us to investigate further.”
“Why?” Amara asked.
“Because he didn’t become immobile like his predecessors,” Mother Freya explained. “Along with the pleasure chambers and his increase in power, we suspected he was doing something different. We worried that he was finding and using Omega children.”
Zanya’s face was crumpled in confusion. She stepped away from the group, speaking slowly as she tried to piece together her thoughts. “So… you knew children were being used in some way, but you didn’t care about intervening until a king came along that was a potential threat to Omega children?” She turned to the Mothers, anger clouding her expression. “So fuck all the other children that weren’t Omegas? Is that the philosophy here?” she thundered.
“In case it skipped by you, our sole priority are Omegas,” Mother Freya snapped. “We cannot save everyone.”
“Yet you do when it suits you,” Kekia snapped back, gesturing to the rows and rows of children.
Amara’s heart pounded in her ears as she tried to make sense of what was being said. The Mothers had known that the royal family had been using children and yet only intervened now. So that meant… “Did you tell me to stay with him so I could report back to you?” she asked, interrupting the argument between Kekia and Mother Freya.
“No,” Mother Orlee assured. “We didn’t expect to hear from you again.”
“So how were you going to find out if he was using Omega children?”
“By collecting them and seeing who is an Omega and who isn’t.”
“And what are you going to do with the children who are not Omegas?” Zanya asked sharply.
“We would find them suitable homes, Zanya,” Mother Fern said, her voice soothing.
“There are no Omegas among the children,” Amara said the realization hitting her. “And you knew that.” She turned to Mother Orlee, a blinding dread gripping her. “We learn magic as children, which means you are able to identify any Omega child and take them before their parents have the chance to teach them the Talent. Why could you not tell if any of the children were Omegas without us having to physically collect them?”
The Mothers held her gaze, and when none of them answered, she concluded her suspicion. “You were only worried about Malloron becoming too powerful, not the actual children.”
Her team all looked at the Mothers but they didn’t show any sign of cowering to the scrutiny.
“Why?” she asked. “Why does his increased power threaten Omegas?”
Mother Freya laughed. “Surely you cannot be asking that?” she said incredulously. “You are talking about the man who has enslaved an Omega, his own mate, with a dangerous magical power source, a man who kidnaps men and women and forces them into sexual slavery, a man who has manipulated all the rulers into weaker political positions, and a man who intends to take over the entire Western Lands. What do you think would happen if he was successful in all that, Amara?” Her eyes glittered. “The Western Lands were the starting point for Omega slavery in the past. We have to keep an eye on what happens there, especially now that Omegas are returning to society in the Eastern Lands. Do you think a man with all that would stop there? He has already tried to infiltrate the Eastern Lands once.”
“I have to agree,” Kekia said slowly, glancing regretfully at Amara. “He would have enslaved your whole team of Omegas if you hadn’t made a deal with him. He is dangerous. I can understand why the Mothers wanted to find ways to reduce his power.”
Amara’s heart dropped. She couldn’t exactly argue with that. Malloron thought he was doing the Omegas a favor by saving them from the other rulers, but in reality, he was the one who would have enslaved them against their will.
Mother Orlee stepped forward. “The only thing that has proven it might make a difference is you.”
Amara nodded, glumly. “That’s why you told me to stay with him.”
“Only if you wanted to,” Orlee pointed out. “Only if you felt he was truly your mate.”
“Since you left for your mission we have learned that it’s possible for an Alpha to be positively impacted by a true mate pairing,” Mother Fern explained. “But there is obviously no guarantee. So we had to still find out what was happening with the children.”
“So what she just said is true?” Zanya asked. “Your plan was to disrupt King Malloron’s power.”
The Mothers nodded and there was silence.
“So you just lied to our faces,” Lisara scowled.
A strong desolation pulled Amara’s mood so low, she didn’t know what to say. Her actual mission had been to do exactly what Malloron would think she had done; destroy him and his rule. The ironic thing was, she would have had no trouble doing this when she was first sent to the Western Lands, but not now. Not now that she knew what it was like to be with her Alpha. And part of her was completely conflicted about the fact that she still wanted to be loyal to the Mothers. How could she be loyal to them, to the cause she had been training for her whole life, and still want to be with Malloron?
A sharp pain struck her and she gasped, suddenly out of breath. Within her, sharp stabs of pain ricocheted through her whole body. And then, the cloud that was Malloron, began to morph and twist, winding around itself tightly.
Amara grabbed her stomach, bent over from pain. The Omegas around her questioned her and came closer, but she couldn’t even understand what they were saying. All she could do was scream from the pain. What the fuck was happening?
She rose her head to look at the children, but they didn't seem to have moved from their usual stillness.
“We need to get them back,” Zanya shouted to the rest of the team. “We need to reopen the portal.”
“It will take time,” Kekia said. “The chamber is surrounded by magic. It took a long time for us to even create something that woul
d be sturdy in the chamber. We need time.”
Zanya exhaled a harsh breath and turned back to Amara. “Hold on,” she urged. “Hold on, Amara.”
But even as she spoke, Amara began to lose all sense of what was happening, the intensity of the sparks within her body increased, crackling around her insides from into her fingertips to the tip of her nose.
Suddenly, all of the pain rushed to her center, creating a bundle of wild energy, and then shot up her middle and out of the center of her head.
There was a flurry of movement and noise, but Amara could only feel the energy clawing through her. It was the tenebris. It had rooted her feet to the ground, and was spiraling out of the top of her head. The more it released, the less painful it became. When she turned to look at the Omegas, they all had magical orbs ready to attack, their eyes on the energy forming above her head.
“Do not do anything,” she ordered.
Mother Orlee dragged her eyes from the tenebris to look at Amara. “This is dangerous,” she shouted, sternly. “This energy is extremely wild. It is almost identical to the white fire that roams wild in the Wastelands.”
“I know,” Amara shouted back. “It is from the children, though. If you do anything, we may never be able to revive them. Just wait!”
Mother Orlee glanced at the other Mothers and then returned her eyes to Amara and reluctantly nodded. “If it begins to attack in any way, we shall have to try and contain it,” Mother Orlee warned. “We cannot allow it to damage the Omega compound.”
Amara didn't say anything, but she knew she would not allow anyone to do anything to the tenebris. The whole point of saving the children was to ensure that they did not continue to suffer. If the tenebris was attacked by the Mothers, it defeated the point of everything they'd been trying to do, even if helping the children had been a secondary goal.
As the pain disappeared, Amara glanced up and saw the tenebris hovering over her head, the last of it streaming out. It looked like a cloud of vicious sparking light, revolving and wild.
Amara felt for it, just like when she usually felt for magic, and to her utter surprise, it turned its attention to her just like magic had done when it was inside her. Was this magic capable of following her direction?
She tried to connect to it using her Talent, but nothing happened. She swallowed, thinking carefully about how she could control it. Or maybe she didn’t need to.
Amara turned her attention to the children and focused on them.
The tenebris stirred in the air and then began to drift over to the children. The Mothers and the other Omegas kept their eyes firmly on it, stepping slowly to follow where it was going.
Amara watched closely, trying to impress her intentions onto the tenebris, and it kept moving until it hovered over the center of the numerous beds.
In a crackle of sound and light, shards of the tenebris shot out into the chests of each child. All of the children jolted, their bodies jerking as the white light entered their chests.
Helenka cried out in shock, and the Mothers rose their hands, ready to do something, but Amara called out to them. “No, don't do anything yet. Wait.”
They all watched, tensed and on edge, as the tenebris streamed into the bodies of the children.
“How is this happening?” Mother Orlee called to Amara, keeping her eyes on the tenebris. “How has it come out of you randomly?”
“It can't,” Amara whispered, suddenly realizing. Only Malloron could do this.
Feeling for the soul-bond, she gasped. Something was wrong. It was twisted, hard and rough. It felt almost as though it was deformed and when she examined it further, a blast of utter despair shuddered through her so deeply that her panic blinded her. Something was wrong with Malloron. His emotional state was beyond anything she had ever felt from him. Whatever he had done with the tenebris had affected him—she couldn't even guess how. She just needed to get back to him.
“Open the portal!” she shouted. “Open it! Open it now!”
“Amara!” Mother Freya snapped. “We cannot do this right now while the tenebris is still entering the children.”
“It is urgent!” Amara yelled. “Something is happening… I need to go back. Now!”
“You have to wait,” Mother Orlee said, apologetically. “Just wait and we’ll try to get you back.”
Amara gritted her teeth as the tenebris became smaller and smaller above the children as it filtered into them. She had spent her life taking orders from the Mothers, but she already made her decision about her future, and it was with Malloron. Regardless of what her mission once was, he was hers. She couldn’t follow orders to wait when she needed to make sure he was all right.
Turning to where the portal opened, Amara sent her awareness to access magic. Connecting with it, she pulled on it and began to weave the pattern required to make a portal. For some reason, it was harder than normal to do. She tried harder to direct the magic where she wanted it to go but there was no doubt it was more difficult. The Mothers were right—the destination was resistant to incoming portals.
She focused her mind, weaving the magic as quickly as she could. The other Omegas called to her, but she ignored them. None of them had her Alpha's interests at heart, they only cared about the children. Well, they had the children now, her mission was over and she needed to ensure that her future was still possible. If her Alpha died or anything happen to him, she would never forgive herself. She wouldn’t have that sense of completeness again. Not only that but she and her babies would suffer unless she found another Alpha who could be with her during her pregnancy, and she didn't want any other; she wanted Malloron. She wanted him so badly that it almost hurt to think that he may not be there for her.
The portal came together painfully slowly, shuddering as the magic wove together.
A small hand slipped into hers. Amara glanced down and was shocked to see a young boy of about six years old standing next to her holding her hand and staring at the portal. She glanced up to see the children swinging their legs down off their beds and walking unsteadily toward her. She frowned, alarmed that they could simply get up and walk after years of being in a comatose state, but that was what the magic in the chamber had been for, wasn't it? To preserve their bodies as well as keep them comfortable? She glanced at the other Omegas, and they were solely focused on watching the children as they headed off their beds toward Amara, shocked expressions on their faces. Helenka slowly edged forward and tried to speak to them but they ignored her. She reached out her hand, but as soon as her fingers touched a young girl’s arm, she yelped and yanked her hand back.
The boy squeezed Amara's hand, pulling her focus back to him, but he didn't look up at her, he only stared at the portal. Another hand slipped into hers on the other side, and Amara turned to see a young girl this time, about ten years old, staring at the portal. The children crowded around her, holding on to her legs and her arms, and as they did, magic became easier to access. The portal formed in a rush of swirling energy, suddenly blooming into a vibrant, colorful sheen of rippling magic.
Amara gasped and tried to jerk her hand away from the children. “You shouldn't use magic,” she tried to tell them. She squeezed the hands of the children. “Do you hear me? It's dangerous. It can hurt you.”
None of them even turned to look at her. Instead, they pulled her forward toward the portal.
She turned wildly to look at the Omegas. “What shall I do?” she called to Mother Orlee. “They are using the Talent and they’re not listening to me. What should I do?”
“Where does this portal go?” Orlee called.
“Back to the chamber,” Amara said, as she was drawn closer to it.
“They are powerful,” Mother Freya murmured. “It took us days to create that portal.”
“There's nothing you can do right now,” Mother Orlee called. “We can’t touch them or use magic on them. Maybe if they go back to the chamber they will feel more comfortable. Try talking to them on the other side.”
Amara shook her head. “Not yet,” she said. “I don't know what's happening on the other side yet. Let me find out.”
“We can’t allow the children to simply go back to where they came from,” Zanya cried, to no one in particular. “We can’t just send them back to the Western Lands,” she said incredulously. “We took them to try to save them.”
“It seems we have no choice,” Mother Fern said. “They are stronger than us, and they seem to want to return. The best thing we can do is to wait and see what they need and then try and provide for them.”
Their voices faded as Amara neared the portal. It was more powerful than any portal that she had ever experienced before. The magic within it writhed and twisted, exuding a power she had only ever felt from Malloron.
As she went through, the magic flashed over her skin, and suddenly she was back in the dark chamber. She blinked rapidly as her eyes adjusted, and then she saw something that stopped her cold.
A group of people stood in the middle of this chamber, surrounding someone on the floor. They turned to look at her, but she didn't even pay any attention to them. Because the man on the floor was Malloron.
“Who are you?” one of the people demanded. “Who gave you permission to enter into this space?”
Amara drew on magic to prepare for anything they might do. “What are you doing to the king?”
“The king?” one of the women laughed. “He is no longer fit to be the king.”
“Who are you?” Amara said slowly, as a rush of magic surged into her from the children and heightened her every awareness. She could feel everything, the magic in the walls, the magic that hung in the air, all tuned to her and ready for her instruction.
“We are of Visant blood,” said one of the men, turning to face her. “Who the fuck are you?”
Amara eyed them all. They did indeed have a similar look to Malloron—dark hair ranging from black to brown, that chiseled facial structure and dark eyes. They had to be his siblings. Terror and anger shot through her that they stood over him while he lay on the floor, and when she saw a large knife in one of their hands she drew on magic. “I am his queen,” she shot back. “And you are not welcome here.”
