1. Dexter

1

DEXTER

T he silvery moonlight illuminated Pandora’s shattered expression, carving the image of her pretty tears sliding down her rosy cheeks into my memories like a scar.

We’d destroyed her. The cold fingers of guilt tightened around my bleeding heart, squeezing until every breath felt like a burning betrayal in my lungs.

Her truth, raw and fucking devastating, had become the ruin of us—and the cruelest part was that she was the one shattered beneath its weight.

She was her mother’s daughter before she was Death’s.

She had been shackled in a dark cellar, sliced into by her mother’s shadows because she couldn’t feed on pain.

She had thought she was a shadow demon until her throat was slit open.

That was why she had devoured her mother’s soul—her powers activated and acted for her survival.

Pain…there was so much fucking pain.

And we added to it.

Fuck. I added to it most. I even fucking liked it. The trauma that stemmed from her had tasted sweet, but the reason behind it made my stomach clench. I had firsthand experience with an abusive mother who used her shadows to cut into me. I related to her far more than I knew.

How was I any fucking better than my own mother? I did the same thing to her.

Her pain and emotions turned into a sour, nauseating taste that sent shivers down my fucking spine. Bile crept up my throat, suffocating me in my own fucking misery.

I knew there was something more to her, but I never would’ve expected everything that came out of her mouth tonight . I hadn’t known she was suffering silently.

“This pain is suffocating me, and I can’t do it anymore!” Pandora choked out with a sob.

It was suffocating her. Excruciating agony welled up in her soul until it spilled over, filling my reserves in a way that made me fucking sick. I’d chased her pain since I’d met her, but this agony? It was like a bullet to my heart.

My lips parted, and I wanted to say something—anything to help ease that torment warring inside of her, but nothing would come out. She’d been through hell, and I’d made it so much worse all because I thought she was pretty— beautiful , really.

I’d wanted to ruin her the moment I saw her.

How fucked up was I?

After seeing her kiss Nyx, I snapped. I was such a dick to her. I’d spat things I didn’t mean. I’d been… fuck , I’d been jealous. I took that out on her when I had no right to.

Her foot slipped on the loose sand, her ankle twisting with an audible snap.

Time slowed to a fucking standstill as she fell backward.

“Pandora!” Her name left my mouth in a desperate cry, tearing from the depths of my soul.

I lunged forward, barely registering Bram and Skel doing the same as my shadows extended out to her. My tendril barely brushed against her arm before an unfamiliar magic exploded from her and slammed into me with absolute brutality.

I froze at the severity of her magic tugging at my heart and soul. I was unable to move a single muscle. Every fucking fragment of my being became bound to hers in one violent snap of the Fates.

A matebond—linking my soul to hers.

I met her red glossy eyes as she disappeared over the edge of the cliff, and pure shock flashed across her face as our matebond snapped into place.

I’d only known true fear once in my life before: when my sister’s head wouldn’t reattach to her body. But the terror that consumed me entirely as Pandora fell off the cliff was indescribable.

“F-F-Fated m-mate,” Skel stammered, stumbling backward onto his ass. His pipe landed somewhere close to him. “She’s m-my fated mate.”

Bram dropped like a bag of bones to his knees. “Fuck,” he wheezed.

“She’s…mine?” I croaked.

She wasn’t just mine, she was theirs , too.

The three of us were her fated mates —and we’d been fucking horrible to her.

Fates, we’d made life even harder for her.

I knew she was special. She’d gotten under our skin in a way nobody else had before. No fucking wonder.

It gutted me how fucking shitty we were.

A sharp, splintering splash echoed off the cliff, yanking me back to reality.

She hit the water below.

She’d fallen off the fucking cliff!

I ran to the edge on wobbly legs with my heart thundering in my chest, scanning the water for any sign of movement. There were no jagged rocks below the cliff, and I thanked the Fates profusely for that small blessing.

Ripples expanded outward in a haphazard circle where she’d fallen in. A splatter of droplets leapt into the air and fell back into the water with plunks. The cliff cast a single long, dark shadow that stretched across the moon-dappled water.

I jumped after her without another second of hesitation.

The air tore at my clothes and hair as I sliced through the air, cursing at gravity.

I needed to fall faster—I had to get to her faster.

Why wasn’t she swimming up?

Cold water engulfed me, stealing my breath as it bit at my skin.

A swirl of bubbles and darkness surrounded me as my shadows stretched and writhed through the water. They searched for Pandora, for my trouble—for my fated mate .

My soul tugged toward hers, signaling to me that she was almost to the bottom of the lake already.

I finally found her and wrapped my tendrils around her snugly, pulling her upward with me. My shadows brought her to my chest as I broke the surface of the water, gasping for air.

I gathered her in my arms, water sloshing and splashing around us. “Pandora,” I croaked, trying to rouse her.

She was limp and cold as I shadow-traveled us out of the water and onto the beach.

The moon bathed Pandora in a pale, ghostly light as I carefully laid her back on the sandy bank.

Her chest wasn’t moving.

“Fuck, trouble, fuck.” I traced a trembling finger from her forehead to the center of her chest and tilted her head back to open her airway, listening for a breath. “Come on, fated , please.”

She wasn’t breathing.

With a ragged breath, I interlocked my hands and pressed against her chest, performing compressions.

Water dripped from me onto her cold, still form, and it sent utter fucking horror through me.

“Take her to Sunstone Revive,” Skel croaked, trudging up the sand toward us, water cascading off him.

“Won’t do any good,” Bram said as he followed behind him, equally as soaked from jumping in the water after us. “She needs to be breathing for magic to fucking work.”

“She’s not breathing?” Skel dropped beside her on his knees, running his hands through his wet hair as he stared at her. “How?”

“Shut the fuck up!” I shouted, my voice breaking.

No, she obviously wasn’t breathing. She fucking drowned after she fell in.

I leaned down and sealed my lips over hers, breathing air into her fucking lungs, praying to the Fates this worked. Her chest rose slightly then fell as I pulled back and restarted compressions.

My gaze was fixated on her face. Her lips were too pale—too cold—with a blue tinge to them. She’d been fine just fucking moments ago. Okay, not fine, but alive.

Fates, please. I knew I fucked up worse than any mate should, but please, don’t take her from me. I’ll be better—I’ll treat her better!

“What the fuck have we done?” A sob broke from Bram’s chest as he fell to the ground next to me.

“Fucked up,” Skel answered dejectedly. “We fucked up worse than ever before. This is worse than driving all those villagers to suicide.”

“Fuck,” Bram muttered. “Wait, what ?”

I didn’t fucking care about anything but her. Skel could’ve destroyed the entire world, and I wouldn’t care at this moment. I kept going, keeping the same pace to hopefully make her breathe again.

But this wasn’t fucking doing anything. It wasn’t working!

Fates, please , let her breathe!

“Oh fuck, oh Fates,” Bram blurted, the raw pain crackling in his throat.

“ What ?” Skel asked roughly.

“Her thigh,” Bram uttered, the absolute agony lacing his tone struck my heart.

My gaze slipped down her body and snagged on raised white and pink scars all over her thigh.

Scars.

The wrap she’d always worn must’ve come off in the water…and she had scars.

I froze, mid-compression.

Many brutal, raised scars covered her entire thigh. Some were banded around it, others were deep grooves. All of them were from shadow magic, I knew that deep in my fucking heart.

And I…fuck, I’d used my shadows to cut into her.

That was why Darkmore had freaked out on me so fucking badly that day—and I’d deserved every bit of his vengeance.

I didn’t deserve my mate.

“Fucking Fates,” Skel hissed. “Darkmore’s fear…I hadn’t seen the scars. Too much blood.”

I couldn’t even process what Skel had said.

I knew firsthand how difficult it was for a demon to scar, and these were fucking painful scars.

My shoulder hit the sand as I was roughly pushed to the ground. Pain exploded where my shoulder made contact, and a familiar cotton candy scent flooded me—Reed Nyx.

Why the fuck was he here?

“What the Fates did you guys do to her?” he cried as he took over chest compressions. His hair bounced with the force, and his violet gaze seared into each of us with a hatred I didn’t know he was capable of. “She can’t swim!”

She couldn’t swim?

Self-hate burned through my veins as I stayed put where Reed had tossed me off her.

“Come on, dream girl, wake up for me,” he whispered hoarsely. The moonlight glistened off the tears pouring down his cheeks. “You can’t form our matebond and then leave me.”

Matebond? Nyx was her mate, too?

That…made sense.

He leaned down to give her breaths, his lips meeting hers with the tender desperation of…a lover. Of someone who deserved to be her fated mate.

He deserved her—she needed someone who could be tender and loving. I didn’t know how to be that for her.

He pulled back, watching for any sign of breathing, then continued the compressions, his tears falling onto her still form. “Don't leave me,” he begged, his voice a raw whisper in the night. “I can't lose you. Not like this, Pandora. Not when I just found you.”

“No,” Skel croaked, leaning forward and grasping at her hand as if it was the only lifeline he had. “Fates, please, don’t take her.”

“How did we let this happen—” Tears fell down Bram’s cheeks.

“One of you snap out of it and give her a couple of breaths. Help me. Now!” Reed shouted, his words echoing through the vastness of the bluffs.

“Fuck, of course.” Skel scrambled, dropping her hand and tilting her head back to give a couple of breaths.

“Keep going.” Reed’s hands pushed down rhythmically as he and Skel fell into a sequence.

Skel continued on Reed’s signal, his lips covering our mate’s and breathing air into her, but his entire body trembled as he did it.

Reed’s shoulders shook with sobs, but he didn’t stop—not even when he noticed the scars on her thigh. “Scars,” he murmured. “Fates, Pandora, what happened? Wake up and tell me, please.”

More breaths, more compressions.

“I love you, Pandora, please. You’re my mate,” Reed pleaded desperately. “I need you, dream girl. More than I’ve ever needed anyone.”

He loved her—he loved my mate, and she…fuck.

She hated me, and I deserved every bit of her hate.

Water dripped off me onto the sand, mixing with the tears streaming down my face. My breaths came in ragged gasps as I watched Reed and Skel give her CPR.

Each compression, each breath forced into her lungs felt like a stab to my heart.

We didn’t deserve her. Seeing her lying there, lifeless , broke me worse than seeing my sister dead.

My heart drummed painfully against my ribs. I couldn’t fucking breathe. Every exhale was a sob.

Why wasn’t this working?

If she wasn’t going to take another breath, I wouldn’t either. I wouldn’t live knowing my fated mate died hating me.

The world blurred around me, the edges of my vision darkening as I fought to focus on her.

My soul stirred after what felt like an eternity.

She gasped, water gurgling in the back of her throat.

“Thank fuck!” Skel let go of her completelyas he fell back into the sand.

“Pandora!” Reed turned her to her side as she jerked up and spewed water from her lungs until they were clear. Seconds stretched to minutes as she coughed up water, then, she finally sucked in breaths of air.

Reed pulled her into his trembling arms and held her tightly. “You scared me. You scared me so much. You have no idea.”

Her eyes fluttered open, and she took another ragged breath. “Reed?”

Relief flooded me, my body trembling with a mixture of exhaustion and overwhelming emotions I’d never felt before.

“Oh, thank the Fates,” Bram muttered quietly, raking a hand down his face.

Reed pulled back and cradled her face, his tears mingling with the water on her skin. “I love you, dream girl,” he whispered, his voice thick with love. “I love you so much. Don’t ever leave me.”

His confession was like a shadow tendril in my gut. The way she looked at him only made it worse, but it wasn’t jealousy I felt this time.

It was pure agony.

“Leave you?” She looked up at him, her eyes filling with a mixture of confusion, relief, and… love . “Reed…you—Fates, you’re my mate, too ?”

In that moment, the world narrowed to just the two of them—with us, her three undeserving mates around them.

I felt like I was intruding, and that fucking hurt.

But I’d done this to myself.

“I was asleep when I felt the bond snap. It woke me up, and my soul knew where you were—like it knew you were in danger,” he murmured to her before turning his scathing gaze toward us. “She’s my fated mate, and you three won’t stop tormenting her! What did you do to cause her to go into the water?”

The words caught in my throat.

None of us were able to answer that.

“ What did you do?” he shouted at us.

Reed Nyx, the demon who was known for being overly kind, screamed at us like we’d wronged him in the worst possible way.

And he was right.

We had. We’d wronged her.

Pandora’s hand twisted in his shirt as she leaned against him. She must’ve been too exhausted to do anything else as she coughed up more water.

“What the fuck happened?” Darkmore’s voice boomed around the bluff, and his face drained of blood as he caught sight of her scars.

Had he not known either?

Vengeance magic split the air, crackling as it hurled into me, Bram, and Skel.

I barely had time to brace myself before it hit—an onslaught of vengeance that tore through me with the force of a fucking basilisk.

Pain was the first sensation that registered, a harrowing burn that seared my lungs and stole my breath. I gasped, and my mouth filled with cold, unforgiving water. Any attempts at breathing were muffled by the liquid that flooded my throat.

I deserved this. I fucking deserved it. Bending over in the sand, I took what vengeance Darkmore gave us. What we’d done to our fated mate was unforgivable.

My chest tightened, muscles straining as I fought for air I didn’t even deserve.

Darkmore’s vengeance for her was relentless—a force that surged water into my lungs, filling every crevice with a suffocating pressure. I felt it, cold and heavy, dragging me down into an abyss of despair.

Fuck.

Was this how Pandora felt after she’d fallen in?

My vision blurred, dark spots dancing at the edges as my body heaved in violent spasms. I coughed, desperate to expel the fucking water, but it only drew more water in. Each convulsion wracked me, agony radiating from my core as I struggled against the drowning sensation.

This was a new form of torture. My parents weren’t nearly as creative, but the pain hurt just the same.

His magic was merciless, a conduit of the vengeance that had been cast upon me, feeding on my fear of pain with an insatiable hunger. But I deserved this. If I had just gotten to her quicker, if we hadn’t backed her against the edge, if we hadn’t fucking pushed her so hard…

No .

The least we deserved was drowning.