Chapter 2

“Stay with us. Please.”

My whisper echoes in the wind of the Air Court as Arty and I pick up Emrys, half carrying him between us to a portal that Emrys opened with the last of his strength. My heart is racing so loud it’s all I can hear as I pray to anyone that is listening that Emrys makes it, because I cannot lose him too. The heavy, magical staff floats behind me, my shadows wrapped around it. Touching that thing wouldn’t help me now, but leaving it here would be madness. Aphrodite is still on the loose, and I can’t trust she wouldn’t come back to take it.

The Air Court is a mess, and staying here isn’t an option when Emrys needs the best healers Ayiolyn has. Arty looks over at me, her eyes finding mine, and I know she is barely holding him up and is ready to pass out herself. We stumble into the Water Court hallways, and both of them pass out, but I catch them with my shadows before either one of them smacks their heads on the ground. I barely see anything as healers rush in, taking Emrys and Arty to the healers’ ward. I follow in a daze, waving off anyone who offers to heal the minor cuts on my body and the bruises before leaning against a wall by the door and just watching in silence.

Grayson, Arden, and Lysander are not in this world.

Ares is dead.

Aphrodite is missing, and without her…I might never find them. I might never, ever find them. I feel like I’m punched in the gut as that reality hits, swooshing all the air out of my lungs until I feel like I can’t breathe fast enough. Everything around me moves like it’s in fast motion as I stand there in a dress, watching. The staff is resting against the wall by the door, and everyone that passes it by pales. “Elle. Ellelin!”

I suck in a breath as Terrin’s worried voice echoes in my mind. I want to reply right away to him, tell him I’m okay, but that is a lie. I’m not okay, I failed and nearly lost Emrys. “I’m fine…but I need you. They are gone, I-I lost them. I failed. Please come to the Water Court.”

“You failed at nothing, my mate. I don’t know what has happened, but I will be at your side before nightfall.” I gulp, wiping a stray tear away. Terrin cannot make me feel better right now. I doubt anyone or anything could. I’ve lost my mates. They are gone. The bond is nothing but a distant echo that I can barely hear anymore. I need Terrin near me, at my side, or I’m going to lose my mind.

The world slows as Emrys calls for me, and I see him sitting up, less pale and…alive. He is alive. His mum is sitting on the end of the bed, tears pouring down her face, and she looks between us, but I can’t take my eyes off Emrys. He died in front of me. I was too late, too slow, and he died. He was dead.

My heart feels like it’s being crushed as Emrys’s green eyes search mine. “I’m alive. Death would not drag me from you, not unless you’re right there with me.”

A sob echoes out of my throat as I run across the room, throwing myself over him, and he grabs me just as tightly as I breathe in his scent. I barely hear his mother. “I’ll leave you. Thank you. Thank you so much for saving my son.”

I lift my head. “It wasn’t just me that saved him. I-I failed. I was too late.” I look over at the bed next to us. “It was her.” She follows my gaze to Arty, who has Kian at her side. He looks relieved to have her back. I don’t know what is going on between them, because I haven’t asked, but now I want to know because of the way he looks at her—he loves her. It’s sweet. “She watched her father die, and she saved the air king. That is my friend.”

Arty blinks at me in surprise. Kian clears his throat, but he looks right at me. He doesn’t say it, but there is warning there: Don’t upset her. Arty might not know it, but this guy is obsessed with her, and it’s kinda cute. They will make a nice couple, and I shouldn’t be so surprised. Lysander might not be happy to see his younger brother with Arty after everything, but saving Emrys’s life and coming to fight for me might stop him outright hating her.

“I’m going to make sure the best healers are working on her, too,” Kian tells us.

Emrys cups my cheek, turning my face to him, and he kisses me. Kissing Emrys is like coming home, like the world just suddenly got brighter. I sink into his arms as he softly brushes his lips against mine, gently exploring, and for a second, everything stops. I gasp as the bond smacks into my heart like an arrow, and suddenly I can feel him. Emrys. My mate. The air king. Emrys smiles so widely that it brings tears to my eyes. “My mate. My queen.”

“Yours,” I whisper back, embracing him. “I’ve always been yours, Emrys. I’m so sorry it took so long?—”

He stops me, sitting us both up so I’m perched on his lap. With a wave, the medical curtains shut around us with a blow of wind, giving us some privacy, and his eyes flash with power. He runs his hand down my back, sending shivers down my spine. “You saved us, and now it’s my time to look after you. I could see you through the magic hold she had on us. Every time you came before us, every time you did one of those stupid fucking tests to save our idiotic asses—I could see you. I was screaming in my head that all I wanted was to tell you it’d be okay, that everything’s gonna be okay. You kept fighting even when I couldn’t fight for you. You’re really fucking amazing, you know that? This mate bond is a blessing I don’t deserve but I am going to earn.”

“Emrys.” I breathe his name out. “Like I wasn’t going to fight for you. You left me on Earth… I need to hear?—”

“I wanted to protect you from this world, from everything, but I knew the second we got back here without you, I’d made a mistake.” He looks down, picking my hands up and linking them with his. “I am sorry we did that. After what happened with the commander—” I flinch at the reminder. I don’t think there will be a time when thinking of him won’t shake me to my core. “I went insane. All I could think of was protecting you, and any doubts I had about the deal, our plan, went up in the air and disappeared. I didn’t protect you then or with Aphrodite. Fuck, I’ve messed up. We all have, but that is changing.”

“They’re gone.” I gulp. “I can’t feel them through the mate bond like before. I know they’re alive, and I’m aware they’re there, connected to me, but it’s strange. I can’t call to them, feel their heartbeats…I just can’t.” I use my magic to wrap around the staff, flying it over the curtains and hovering it in the air next to me. “They must have sent the kings to another world like they bragged they wanted to go to. I wouldn’t even know how to travel to the right world, how to get them back. It means we’ve lost them unless I begin opening random portals to an unknown number of worlds and?—”

Emrys stops my rambling by wrapping his arms tightly around me, and I rest my head on his shoulder till the tears stop. “If we have to search five hundred worlds to find them, then we will. I love them like you do, and you’re not alone,” he reassures me. “Tell me everything I’ve missed, and then we will get out of bed and face the world together.”

We talk for what feels like hours, only pausing for healers to check on Emrys and to have some food. When I feel strong enough, I leave him with his mother and the others so I can shower and change into new clothes. When I’m done, Emrys is still in a conversation about the Air Court with some of his generals and his mother, so I head over to Arty, who is alone. I have something I need to say to her. She looks at me warily as I come over and sit on the end of her bed. “How are you?”

“Good.” Her answer is short, the abrupt silence awkward until she carries on, and I’m glad she does. “The healers say there’s nothing physically wrong with me, but they think I used a lot of magic and got to a point that was dangerous.”

I tilt my head to the side. “Did you?” I know she lies about a lot, and I almost feel guilty asking her. “Did you lie to us about having powers or hide them? I get hiding them from your parents?—”

She holds her hand up, her blonde hair bouncing around her shoulders. “I didn’t lie or hide them. I truly had no idea. I don’t even know how I did it.”

Kian clears his throat and we both look towards him, standing across from me at the end of the bed. “Arty is telling the truth. She did something similar with me, and I know she was clueless that she even used magic. There was a boy who was drowning, and he was dead when I pulled him out. Absolutely gone. Arty touched my shoulder, and I felt the magic almost drain out of me and somehow spread through the boy. It was like a current that she was controlling.” He looks at Arty, his eyes softening. “We can figure out what your powers are and train you. You brought two people, including the Air Court king, back from the dead. Your power is extraordinary.”

“Thank you.” Moving to her side, I pick up Arty’s hand. “I’m really, really thankful for you right now,” I tell her, looking her in the eye. “Why did you come after me?”

Even though she broke my heart, crushed my trust, and sided with my enemies…I wait for her answer because she saved my mate. She came for me, and if she hadn’t—I can’t even imagine what my life would be like. “Because you’re my friend, and that was never a lie. I came to help my friend, even when I thought they would kill me for it.”

I wipe my tears away and lift my shoulders. “I wasn’t sure I would be able to forgive you fully for what you did, for what you cost me. But coming after me, saving Emrys and just being there, sacrificing everything, and standing up in front of your parents…I’m pretty sure I was wrong. You watched your father die today, and you helped us. I don’t know if I would be able to do what you did.”

She lifts her head. “He deserved it, and I will help you take my mother down, too. They are monsters, and I might be their child, but I am going to spend the rest of my life proving I am not them.”

Kian shakes his head. “You’re not them.”

She squeezes my hand, guilt written all over her face. “I was them for a while. I thought I had no power, no choice…and I shouldn’t have done it. I am sorry.”

“People change.” I believe that. “Rest. I hope you feel better soon.” I stand. “One more thing, the staff…do you know anything about it?”

“No,” she admits. “My father has always had it. It answers to him, but he once said it answers to the one who gives it power. Be careful. Whatever magic my father used, it’s dark.”

Careful isn’t going to get my mates back. I can’t make a portal to this other world, not like going to Earth. Earth is easy to travel between because it’s a world linked to here…but wherever they are isn’t the same. After saying goodbye to Arty, I head back to Emrys only to walk in on him standing up and waving away a healer. “I’m fine.”

“King Emrys, I would not say—” the poor healer begins to nervously explain. He is an old man, his wise eyes watching Emrys carefully. “You still don’t feel well, your majesty. I am concerned.”

Emrys looks back at me. “I’m physically fine, healer.”

“Yes, but something feels…wrong.”

I swear, for a second, Emrys’s eyes flash red and the bond goes silent, empty. I clutch my chest as pain smacks through me, and I blink. The pain is instantly gone, and Emrys’s eyes are back to their normal moss green colour. “Thank you for your healing and concern, but everything is fine.” Emrys looks over at me, a big smile on his handsome face. “Don’t look worried. I’m really fine.”

My mouth parts to ask if he felt that strange disconnection, the colour of his eyes changing, but Hope walks in. “I heard everything from Meredith. What is the plan, and how can I make sure we don’t all die?” She goes to Emrys and hugs him. My chest burns with immediate jealousy, and I push down the crazy possessive feeling, knowing Hope isn’t a threat. “You’ve missed a lot. I heard you tried to leave us—don’t do that again.”

He laughs, patting her shoulder. “Death wouldn’t make me leave my mate.”

Hope looks between us and smiles. “A new bond? Congrats. How many is that now, you lucky bitch?”

Emrys laughs and I do too, even if it feels wrong when the others could be hurt or in danger. With that thought, I look away to the door to see someone I haven’t seen in a while. Xandry. He waits by the door in a black cloak, his red eyes burning like fire. “Why is our old tutor here?”

Hope rolls her eyes. “He’s insisted on stalking me for weeks now.”

Xandry clears his throat. “Your majesty, the Water Court is not a safe place at present. Someone tried to assassinate Hope, and it wasn’t the first time, or probably the last.”

“Why?”

“Without the king here…there is unrest.” Kian looks uncomfortable adding any more. I get what he isn’t saying. Lysander’s court is full of snakes, and now that their king isn’t here, they are going to suck the life out of this place and do whatever they want.

I glance at Emrys. “Let’s go somewhere we can talk in private about what to do next.”

We walk out of the rooms together and follow Hope through the empty Water Court, as I pull the staff behind us in a cloud of shadows and darkness. I feel eyes watching me from the corners, windows, and any open spaces we pass, but they don’t come out. The Water Court just feels empty without Lysander, and he needs to get back here as soon as possible before it implodes.

Two guards in blue armour move out of the way when we get close to a big oak door bearing an insignia with a silver crest of a wave and a blue metal dragon above it. Hope opens the door into a living room, cosy and small…and it smells like Lysander. My heart clenches and Emrys links his hand with mine, his voice filling my mind for the first time. “I promise we will find them.”

I’ll etch that promise into my heart, like it might make it feel less shattered. I choose to focus on the shiny blue arches and sea-painted walls. There are thick cream carpets, plush couches, and long sheer curtains blowing in the breeze from the archway doors that lead to a massive balcony. The sea is still glistening blue even when its king is in trouble and not in this world. It should be grey, like my heart.

“This is Lysander’s court room. It’s safe in here to talk. The walls are all magically enhanced so no one can hear anything that’s said in here,” Hope informs us.

None of us sit and I pace by the window as I let the staff float by the closed door. I glance at Xandry and then at Hope. He hasn’t given me a reason not to trust him, but where we are going, I can’t have someone who might stab me in the back on the trip. We might have enemies there, and we can’t be protecting him either. But he was our tutor, so I know he can fight; therefore, he can protect himself. “Do you trust him?”

“I do.” Her confirmation is all I need. I trust Hope, have for a while now, and if she says he is good, then he is. “The earth, fire and water kings are no longer in this world. I was coming back from the end of the test, and the kings were just gone. All three of them just gone. Aphrodite said that she’d sent them to another world, and I think she used this staff with Ares to do that. I don’t know which world she sent them to, and if I use that staff…I don’t know how it will react to me.”

“Even I can sense that thing feels evil.” Hope isn’t wrong. “Did she say anything about the world she was going to? Any clues?”

“When I was with them, they spoke about this world they wanted to go to. Lapetus,” Emrys states. “They claimed it was run by wolf shifters, angels who drink blood, and gods who bound their souls to these shifters to survive.”

Hope looks away to the sea, and I rub my neck. “I can use the staff to open a portal, I think. It might boost my power, but I cannot travel to a world I haven’t seen. I need an image, a place.”

“Can I show you something? A memory?” Hope asks, walking right in front of me. “You know, I told you I came from somewhere. The name Ravensword has stuck with me for so many years. It’s almost haunting me. I swear my parents were wolf shifters from this world. I think I might have one vague memory that could show you where to go.”

My heart leaps with joy, and I can’t help but let some of that show in my eyes. “You think you know this world?”

She holds her head high. “Maybe. I can show you a memory.”

“It’ll hurt,” I remind her, and she shrugs. I glance at Xandry. “Be ready to catch her when I let go.” I don’t wait for him to move behind Hope before I place my hands on her head and dive straight into her mind. Hope’s mind is like a burning fire in a forest, vibrant and uncontrollable, but if you get too close, she will trap you. She is thinking of the memory, of when she was just a little girl with long dark hair, and she is looking up at her mother, who is watching her from the other side of a cave. Suddenly I’m pulled right into her mother’s memories, flashes of this other world burning across my mind in hundreds of memories before she focuses.

“This magic doesn’t exist anymore. There are no more portals between the worlds,” she whispers, watching her child. Watching Hope. She loves her so much; I can feel it.

“The old gods, some of them, escaped to another world. I know it. My father passed on the story of how they did it, and we can do the same thing they did. Just trust me and give me more time!” her mate replies, ignoring her warning completely as he continues to dig into the dirt. Clutching her daughter’s bracelet, one she has just made for her, she continues to watch her mate. Dereken has been obsessed with the Greek gods since they met, and it only got worse when their daughter was born. She loves him. She has done since the moon goddess chose them to be together, but his family is long gone, and sometimes she feels like he is chasing the memory of them rather than facing reality. “We can’t stay in this world anymore, and we will make our way to the next one so our daughter can have a future.”

She shakes her head, turning back to look at her daughter. Hope looks lost in her mind, happy and content. She is drawing in the dirt by the cave entrance with a stick. Noticing her mother’s attention, she looks up and her dark blue eyes flash. Her heart clenches at the reminder of why they can’t stay in the pack. Her daughter is a powerful shifter, and the Ravensword alpha will find out about her before too long. He will take Hope from her parents, breed her, and let her die, like he did with his first mate. They ran from them all, and it’s important they don’t go back. “We should just get on a boat and leave for the other pack island. No one would notice us. We can’t stay here much longer. It’s the perfect time because the alpha is distracted by the girl with no memories they found in the forest.”

Her mate just continues digging as she slowly loses her mind. Why did the moon goddess choose this crazy male for me? Her thoughts are wild, untamed, and a wolf howls deep within her chest. He is going to get them all killed. She shakes her head, turning to walk away when a clang makes her turn back. Dereken’s shovel slams into something hard, and she watches as he pulls out a small, ancient gold box from the ground. The box is smothered in symbols, runes perhaps, and the moment he touches them, they begin to glow. She can sense its power from here, and she gasps. “It’s real. We can send her away. We can save her.”

“What world would we go to?” she questions as their daughter climbs to her feet, looking at the gold box. She’s only six years old and so tiny, her dark hair falling in locks around her shoulders. She hasn’t shifted yet, and her mother made sure she won’t for years with the help of a spell from their ancestors. She never wanted to bind her wolf, bind who she really is, but she didn’t have a choice. When she shifts for the first time, every wolf for miles is going to sense that she is a powerful alpha female. She wants her daughter to find true love, to find a mate she wants, and to have children at her own pace. This pack will never let her do that.

Dereken smiles, holding his spare hand out for their daughter. “One where dragon shifters are in charge, and it’s safe. Hope, come here.”

I step back the moment her mother lets me go, and I swear she planted that memory in Hope’s mind, like she knew it would need to be seen by someone someday. Hope has tears pouring down her cheeks as she sits up in Xandry’s arms, and Emrys wraps his arm around my waist. “You okay?”

Nodding, I wait for Hope to look at me. Did she see the memory too? The truth about who she is? She shoves Xandry away and stands on her own. “I’m fine. I can stand.” She makes sure every expression of hers is impassive, and I don’t blame her for not wanting to reveal if she saw that memory or not. Her secret is safe with me, but maybe not from everyone else if she decides to come with me back to her world. “Did you get what you needed?”

“Yes. I got enough.” I clear my throat. “Are you coming with us?”

Her single nod says everything to me. I turn and look at Emrys. “Can you shift and fly through the portal I open with them?”

Emrys kisses my forehead. “I’ll be outside.”

Xandry picks up a heavy bag that I never noticed he had with him. “Supplies for us, in case we struggle to find water or food, or shelter. I also packed weapons…your majesty?”

“If we are travelling to a new world together, maybe just call me Elle. Are you coming with us? I would understand if you don’t want to.” He bows his head and I sigh. He isn’t going to leave us, I suspect. Emrys walks through the archways before jumping right off the balcony, into the air to shift. I don’t think I’ll ever get used to seeing them do that trick.

Xandry is looking at Hope, who is ignoring him to stare at the sea. “This world, you might need to discuss peace. Religion has always been the middle ground for a lot of people of all races, and I would be honoured to help.”

“He’s not coming,” Hope snarls, looking back at him with pure fury on her face. “I don’t need you.”

Maybe I should jump off the balcony to escape them. Xandry is unfazed though. “I am. End of discussion, Hope.”

Emrys’s dragon roars loud enough to shake the room around us, cracks appearing in the ceiling before he lands on the balcony, crushing the deck chairs out there. Xandry heads straight for him, climbing up, and Hope climbs on next, ignoring Xandry’s hand to help her up. I whisper into Emrys’s mind, “Fly up, I’ll follow.”

Hope shouts down as Emrys gets ready to jump into the sky. “What about you?”

I glance in the distance. There’s a black dragon figure that starts flying rapidly towards us, and I grin. “I have my own dragon.”

Standing on the edge of the balcony, I wait until Terrin’s flying right past before I jump straight onto his back, grinning as it feels like being home and I’m finally riding on my dragon again. “It’s good to see you.”

“Where are we going, my mate?” he questions, but I know without any doubt, that he would follow me to any world. Any time. Any place. In the universe, we belong together, and I’m certain of this because I would do the same for him.

I lean down as he drives up into the sky, the clouds brushing across my arms before he glides in the air next to Emrys. “To another world to get my other mates back.”

With my shadows, I pull the staff through the air and right into my hand before I can doubt myself. It’s like putting my hand into a tornado made of lightning. It pulls from my soul, from deep within the pit of my power, and it wrenches it out of me, doing what I asked. I imagine the other world as the lightning snakes up through my spine, right before the dark magic pours out the end of the staff, smashing into the air. The portal is made of black electricity that spreads across the air, with a buzzing yellow edge, until it’s big enough for our dragons to get through. All I can see on the other side is forest and sea for miles, and a massive storm. Every second I hold the staff, the harder it gets to breathe. “Quick.”

Emrys flies through first and I take my dragon through next, ducking down as he swoops through the portal, straight into the middle of the sky and a horrid storm. I accidentally drop the staff in the current of the air, and it spins through the air, narrowly missing my outstretched hand as lightning flashes across the sky and rain soaks us. “The staff!” I scream, but it’s lost as Terrin suddenly shifts back into a man in the middle of the stormy sky, and we both crash down straight through the cold air into the forest.