Emerald Vows: A Reverse Harem Paranormal Romance (Marked Souls Book 3)

by Sabrina Shelley

  Still, Cassandra’s cryptic dying words seem to come to me out of nowhere.

  What’s gone isn’t dead. What’s dead isn’t gone.

  I’d be a fool to believe that Dr. Belmont was being completely honest with me about communion with the dead. But I also don’t want to believe that my mother was capable of such dark magic.

  “What does it mean?” Drew snaps me out of my thoughts, and I slowly lift my eyes to his.

  I don’t even want to speak the thought aloud, but I find it falling from my lips.

  “I think it’s has to do with bringing someone back from the dead.”

  Drew stares at me, stunned by my words. Then, finally, “Rory…”

  It’s not just a caution. It’s an I-know-what-you’re-thinking-and-no-way-in-hell-are-you-doing-it.

  “No!” I grip his arm. “I don’t want to try it.” And it’s true. I want no part of that kind of magic, if in fact it’s even something that’s possible. But I do need to know what the hell this means. Now more than ever.

  “Go get Ryker,” I state. Then add, “And tell him to bring me the necklace,” when Drew looks like he’s not following.

  “This is a bad idea, Rory. I don’t have a good feeling about this.”

  “Neither do I,” I murmur, already turning back to the book to scrape off more ash.

  Drew leaves without a word, despite the fact that I know he doesn’t want to go any deeper into this than we already are. Things have been bad enough. Throwing dark magic into the mix is definitely not something I’m jumping for joy over. But I have to know. All along, I’ve felt that the secrets my mother held were important, not just because they could satisfy my need to know what happened in the past. Now I’m certain there’s more to it. Whatever happened in the past is having a direct impact on my life in the present.

  It would explain why the Regime has had such a fascination with me from the beginning, beyond my own rare abilities. Why the Warden was willing to go so far as to try to make me his own pet witch, forcing a guardian bond between us. Perhaps even why my father wasn’t dead as I was told, but the very leader of the Regime I’m against.

  By the time I repeat the reconstruction spell once again, I’ve uncovered almost half of the blackened page.

  I scan it rapidly, wanting to find out as much as I can. But it’s not more spells as I anticipated, or anything related to necromancy as I feared. Written in a messy version of my mother’s script, smeared with teardrops that shine as if they’re freshly fallen, is a letter. A love letter. And it breaks my heart.

  It must have been written just after my father died—if he died? I’m really not sure there, but in any case, my mother seems to think he’s dead in this letter. I can feel the anguish and despair in her words, the ache of her soul as she pours out the grief of losing her soul mate to the pages.

  And that’s when I know. If my mother was researching necromancy, it wasn’t because she was into dark magic. It was because she was so tormented by the loss of her guardian that she was willing to go to any length to get him back.

  I want to find fault in this, to draw a hard line against dabbling in anything questionable. But I can’t. Because I can’t say what I would do if I were in the same situation. I think of Xander. Nico. Ryker. Drew. Even Killian. If I were to lose any of them, would I be pushed past the point of reason, desperate to find any way to reunite?

  I don’t know. I don’t even want to imagine a scenario like that. But my mother didn’t have to imagine it—at least, not according to the words on the page, where it’s evident she believes she’s lost her one true love. She lived it.

  I gasp when the door to Drew’s bedroom flies open again and he’s followed in not only by Ryker, but Killian as well.

  Killian’s eyes fall immediately to the book of shadows and he strides over to the bed, taking it from my hands to get a closer look. When he glances up at me, his eyes are dark and foreboding. He knows exactly what this means. Hell, he might even know exactly what happened, though he’ll never tell me.

  One look says it all. No. You can’t go there.

  But I have to. I feel as if I have no choice. Instead of responding to him, I turn to Ryker.

  “You have the necklace?”

  Ryker gives the other two men a wary glance but draws the carved wooden box from somewhere inside his shirt and holds it out to me wordlessly.

  I open the box and withdraw the necklace, letting it dangle from my fingertips. But no longer does the green stone look dull and dark. It’s glowing faintly, light pulsing from it like a heartbeat. As if it’s alive as much as the book of shadows.

  I reach for the book in Killian’s hands and find the sketch of the necklace responding with its own faint pulses, responding to the magic the stone must contain.

  “Rory—” Killian’s voice is full of trepidation.

  “Don’t,” I interrupt him, not wanting to hear it. Not caring what he has to say because I know I’m not letting this go.

  But when I look up at him, his eyes are fixed on the necklace in my hand. “Where did you find that?”

  I’m confused for a moment, not used to Killian not having all the answers to even his own questions.

  “My mother gave this to me before she died.”

  “You’ve had it all along?” He sounds almost amused. “But of course you have,” he muses, almost to himself.

  “Why?” I stand from the bed and grip his arm. “What do you know about this stone?”

  “That it holds the power to unlock time. That anyone who possesses it can go back in time if they also possess a blue stone. Whether they’re a traveler or not.”

  The meaning of his words hits me like crashing wave. All this time…I’ve had the ability to go back in time without retrieving the rest of the stones?

  It would mean I’d have to go without my guardians, or Drew. But all along, Killian could have taken me into the past with my necklace and the stone he gave me for safekeeping?

  “But that can’t be all,” I find myself saying, and I point to the incantation in the book of shadows. “This emerald has something to do with my mother, and maybe a guardian seal…and necromancy.”

  “Fucking hell, little witch,” Ryker grinds out from behind me.

  “Indeed,” Killian replies. “As I said, playing with time is a dangerous game, including altering what destiny intended. Life. And death.”

  I’m full of more questions than I’ve ever been. But if there’s anything I know for sure, it’s that the time has come to find the answers. Everything I need to know is here before me. The ability to unlock the secrets of my mother’s book of shadows. And the ability to go back in time and discover it for myself.

  “Rory.”

  I turn at the sound of Xander’s voice and find him standing in the doorway, Nico right on his heels.

  “The stones have arrived.”

  I take several steps toward him, feeling as if everything is suddenly coming together. Impossibly, we’re on the precipice of having everything we need to find my answers. But his next words stop me in my tracks.

  “Delivered by the Chancellor.”

  Rory

  So it’s finally come to this.

  All those years of my childhood after my mother’s death—no, her murder. All those years living on the goodwill of Drew’s mother—and then, after her own death, being protected by Drew himself.

  I thought I was an orphan. Technically, I guess I still am. But as fate would have it, nothing’s the way it seemed. I know now that Mrs. Iver didn’t take me in out of pity any more than Xander’s parents took us in out of love for their son.

  Imogen Iver was keeping me safe for a reason. For the same reason my mother trusted me with her emerald all those years ago.

  As the puzzle pieces begin to come together, suddenly my life has more purpose and meaning than I ever thought possible. Through the fog of all the lies, all the bullshit and all the betrayal, I’m starting to see the horizon we’re approaching.
>
  I like to think that just behind that horizon, there’s a sunrise. A new dawn. A new day. And maybe, just maybe…

  When that sun rises, it will light up a better world.

  They say my mother died cursing the Chancellor himself. The Chancellor—my father. The husband she saved from beyond the grave. Even if my mother was the mastermind behind the rise of the Regime, she gave her last breath trying to stop it. Growing up in the city like I did, it’s apparent as to why.

  Life under the Regime only benefits the people who fall under the Regime’s blessings. The opulence that Xander’s family lives in and the fact that they’d rather sell out their own son than chance losing favor is proof of that much. But in the cities, lowly roughnecks like Drew have to slave away just to survive. Nico’s family has had to hide and hustle and steal for the same. Ryker’s pack and lands all fell so the Regime could benefit from their pain, and though he’s typically mum as usual about all of it, after the Regime’s rise to power Killian has become the last of his kind. When I look at the tall, handsome redhead who’s joined our group on this adventure, my empath senses tingle with the knowledge that he’s lost more than he’s willing to let on.

  And now, we’re set to face down the man who’s behind it all.

  “Why would he come here himself?” I find myself asking aloud. “Why not dispatch one of his fucking minions to do it?”

  “Or just send it with an elf,” Xander muses. “It’s strange—I agree.”

  “Maybe he wanted to see his only daughter again.” Ryker doesn’t sound impressed by the notion.

  “After nearly twenty years? He’s the Chancellor of the entire damn Regime…I can’t imagine that he couldn’t have tracked me down before now if he really wanted to.”

  “Maybe he’s just a piece of shit,” Drew supplies.

  “For once, Iver,” Nico drawls, “you and I agree on something.”

  “Or maybe…” At the sound of Killian’s voice, we all turn. He seems to be the only one who ever actually knows what’s going on at any given time, the fucker. “Maybe now that Rory has her powers, he’s decided that it’s finally time.”

  “Time for what, though?” I ask, jumping on the opportunity to grill Killian for whatever information he’s willing to spill.

  But that little taste is all we’re getting, apparently. Killian merely smiles softly and becomes deeply interested in the drapes.

  Well, so much for that, then.

  “Rory…” Xander takes my hand in his, drawing near. It always catches me by surprise, the way he towers over me. The darkness of his eyes and the tenderness that I can sometimes find there—the way I find it there now. “I know that I’ve done wrong by you. I should have told you about your father—I should have told you all of it. But I hope you understand that everything I’ve done—everything any of us has done—it’s been to protect you. It’s the only thing that any of us want.”

  As I look between the men gathered behind him, they share that same tenderness in their own eyes, and I know that he must be right.

  “I know. I know.” I nod, looking back up at him with honesty. “But that’s all in the past, Xander. We go forward as a united front now, right?”

  Xander draws in a deep breath and looks away. “Not exactly, no.”

  Oh, fuck.

  “Whatever reason your father has for delivering the sapphires himself—and now, of all times—I can guarantee you that he’s up to no good, Rory.”

  “Politicians,” Nico quips, looking grim. “They never are, are they?”

  “Take the emerald, sweetheart.” Xander folds my fingers tighter around the necklace’s glowing green stone. “Take Killian’s sapphire. Go back—now, before your father can do whatever it is he came here for. Learn what you need to know. Undo what needs to be undone. Make things right.”

  “Without all of you?” I look between my men again, distressed at the thought of going this alone. I don’t like to think I’m the kind of woman who needs a man around to depend on—let alone five, for that matter—but I’ve come to trust these men. My guardians. Drew. Even Killian. They’re dearer to me than anything else I’ve ever known. And to be hurled in to the past without any of them to help guide the way… “If I leave now, how will I know that I’ll see any of you again? That that there will even be a future to come back to?”

  “You never do.” Killian shakes his head gently.

  “Fate brought us together, Rory.” Xander doubles down on his plan. “It will bring you back to us again. There will be a future—and it’ll be a brighter one.”

  My mouth falls open softly. What Xander’s talking about is crazy…but if it works, it would mean a better life. For everyone—not just for my men and me, but for everyone whose life has been ruined by the Regime. Cassandra…Dr. Belmont…

  “Okay, sorry, but fuck that,” Drew cuts in. “Rory, I know I’m not your fucking guardian or any of that shit, but you’re not going hurtling into the past without me by your side. Frankly, I’ve done my dance with Fate at this point. Don’t have much faith in the bastard, believe it or not.”

  I can’t help but smile a little at Drew’s swearing and swagger. I know what he means—if anyone had any right becoming my guardian, it was him. He has every reason not to trust fate.

  “Ryker?” I look to the tallest of my guardians, his thick-muscled arms crossed over his chest as he leans against the fireplace.

  “Well…never been one for time travel, truth be told.” Ryker smirks. “Sounds like it’d give me the spins. Still…I’d rather wind up in dizzy in the past by your side than send you into the unknown alone, little witch.”

  “Nico?”

  Nico’s wiry shoulders rise and fall in a shrug. “Sounds like an adventure to me. No fun in going it alone, love.” His seafoam eyes sparkle as he winks.

  Before I even bother to ask Killian—he’s just going to say something cryptic, right?—to my surprise, he answers without prompting.

  “You should see your father, Rory. It’s been a long time.” His grey eyes betray nothing more, and even though I can’t help but wonder what a long time means to a man who can travel through time itself…

  I give Xander an apologetic look. “Four to one, handsome. Looks like it’s time I introduce you all to my dad.”

  Xander raises his eyebrows at the prospect and sighs…but he knows when he’s been beaten. He nods at me, and at the same time, we shift. Xander’s clothes suddenly straighten out, becoming richer and less rumpled. I make my dress long and elegant looking, green as my eyes and the emerald that I tie around my throat.

  “Sure that’s a good idea, Rory?” Drew asks, eyeing the emerald.

  Nico has the same wary look in his eyes. “Mum would tell you not to go gallivanting around with anything on display that you don’t want stolen. One of my cousins would have that slipped off your pretty neck and into their pocket before you were even through the door.”

  “I want him to see it,” I explain. “He gave it to my mother on their wedding day…I want him to remember what his rise to power cost.”

  “Guess we need to change too, then,” Ryker rumbles, apparently grumpy at the idea of getting dressed up to meet my father.

  “Guess you’ll have to,” I agree, rising on my tiptoes to give his cheek a little kiss. “Be quick about it, though. I’ll be right back.”

  I rush back to my room and rifle through my things. I don’t have many belongings anymore—just a few basic items to get by on—but there’s one thing that I’m not going to forget.

  I find it in a pocket of my backpack, right where I left it: Killian’s sapphire. If we can get the others from my father—by force, if we have to—then we can all travel back. We can fix this together.

  I smile as I slip it into my dress—I’m beginning to really get the hang of this shapeshifting thing, and I love that I can give even my most elegant evening wear pieces pockets now.

  When we gather at the top of the staircase, the great grandfather clock down
stairs is just ringing eight. At the eighth ring, I take my first step down the stairs, my men all gathered behind me and at my sides.

  “Nervous, Rory?” Xander offers me his arm, and with a deep breath, I take it.

  “Yes,” I admit. “But when has that ever stopped me before?”

  “That’s my girl,” Drew says with pride, placing an arm around my waist and pressing a kiss to my cheek on the other side.

  “And mine,” Ryker adds possessively.

  “Mum always told me to marry up,” Nico says with a cheeky grin. “Bit crowded at the top of course…” I feel his eyes slide up and down my body. “But at least the view is nice.”

  “Whatever happens,” I tell them all, “just know…I couldn’t ask for better men at my side.”

  “You could,” Killian teases, cracking the rare smile. “But you’re stuck with us, I’m afraid.”

  “It’s enough.” I match his smile, then raise my chin high. “You’re all more than I deserve. A witch is only supposed to have one guardian, remember? Believe me…you’re enough.”

  Together, we make our way to the bottom floor. The North’s little elfin maid directs us to the dining room without a word.

  From the looks of things, we’ll be the last ones to the dinner party.

  I feel my palms glow as I take a deep breath the moment before the door opens for us. We might be late, but at least we’re being fashionable about it…

  And we’re coming armed.

  Rory

  He looks older than I thought he would.

  Before today, the only place I’ve seen my father has been in pictures. There’s the one of him kissing my mother at their wedding, smiling and laughing even as their lips meet. Another, taken by one of Drew’s parents, I think, of the two of them dancing in the living room of our little house in the city. He’s smiling then, too, while he holds my pregnant mother in his arms.

  He was always so handsome in those pictures. He had such a presence—he seemed like the kind of man who was always so full of light and laughter and life.

  But as we come into the dining room…