Chapter Seven

Unexpected panic and terror whipped through Dane.

“Damn you, Goddess!” he screamed at the sky, his voice rougher, more melodious in this form. He looked down at his quickly fading mate and knew he could not do anything for his physical shell.

And if he couldn’t, his king probably couldn’t either.

Marcus was dying.

“Think!” he shouted at himself.

Though furious at the Goddess for everything She had done to him, none of that was Marcus’s fault. He didn’t deserve to die. The last Magus didn’t deserve to have a friend die mere days before his wedding, just as Dane didn’t deserve to have his soul bind broken either.

None of this was fair, and none of this was right. But nothing in Dane’s life had ever been fair or right. Except Marcus against him and in his arms.

A voice echoed in his mind.

There was someone out there who could save him.

The same person who saved Dane, even if he couldn’t remember them. The same one who urged him to come here and rescue Marcus. Begging the Goddess for forgiveness, Dane funneled all of his power into one last chance at hope.

He closed his eyes and took himself there, though he didn’t even know where there was.

Warm floral notes and mint scented the air surrounding him. Three moons created an eerie twilight in a green sky. Dane’s much larger clawed black feet sank into the indigo sand under the weight of his true form holding his big mate.

“Help me!” he screamed, voice absorbed by the blue sand with no echo. “Help me! Please!”

Marcus coughed, blood bubbling on lips Dane had refused to notice were kissable and full. Then he took a deep, rattling breath. His pulse pounded faster than it should. Dane placed a hand on his chest and could feel his heart wanting to give out.

“Mercurian.”

The voice was melody, water, and light. It startled Dane and he turned.

She was beautiful.

As beautiful as the last time he saw her.

“How do you know my true name?” Dane questioned. The first cognizant thought a Fae had after birth was their true name, along with the knowledge that within their name held a means for another to control their power. Lowery had tried to learn Dane’s name, but even with all the torture, it was the one thing he’d kept locked away.

Yet this unicorn knew it?

“You asked me that the last time.”

“You made me forget you,” he told the unicorn.

“You did not listen to what I told you.”

“How could I listen to what you told me, if you made me forget?” Dane argued though he didn’t know if he should. He sensed he would be no match for her power.

Not that he would ever dream of harming this magical creature.

The Fae were pure neutral magic, but the Goddess had divided magic in their realm to create dark and light races separate from the Fae too. Unicorns of pure light and dragons of pure dark. He sensed she was every bit as strong as King Raoul, though formed of pure light magic, her power vastly different from Fae magic.

Dane had never seen a unicorn... well, he supposed he’d seen one now twice.

“I told you he was coming and he would help you.”

Dane blinked, remembering how he’d teleported to this place, spoke with her after she’d healed his broken body. “Yes, you sent me back to the first realm. To a beach... then the king found me and took me to the Pride.”

The unicorn stamped one golden hoof, but the sand didn’t move. She shook her head, the gloriously incandescent mane fluttering in a breeze of her own making.

“Not the king,” she said in a tone suspiciously like one used upon a small child. “Your soul.”

Dane glanced down at the man clinging to life in his arms.

He turned pleading eyes on the beautiful creature of light magic. “Can you save him?” he whispered, feeling utterly helpless yet so very desperate.

“Why?”

Dane thought only sphynxes played with riddles, but he did not want to argue with a creature who had saved his life. “Because he’s dying.”

“Humans die.”

“No.” Dane’s voice trembled as he tightened black arms around his mate. “Not mine. Please.”

The tinkling, musical sound of her laughter filled Dane’s head with joy and happiness. “So he’s yours now, is he?”

“Of course he is,” Dane said, torn between anger and tears, yet oddly soothed by her presence. “Even when I didn’t want him, he was mine. He’ll always be mine.”

The painful truth of those words tore at his heart.

For so long he’d traveled the world alone, then he’d been captured, hurt, and tortured. Before that, his family hadn’t wanted him either. He’d shut away the dreams and longing for his soul mate.

But they’d been there, locked away in that protective box inside him.

Yet, because of what evil people had done to him, he’d turned his back on the gift, and now... was it too late?

“Your souls are bound. If he dies, he will come back in a form more pleasing to you.”

Though it contradicted everything he’d said and done for the past few months, Dane shook his head and clung tighter to the dying man in his arms. “No. I want this form. I want Marcus. He can’t die! Please, help him!”

The world became eerily quiet, except for the faint sound of sand shifting and Marcus’s ragged breaths.

“I will save him on one condition.”

“Anything,” Dane vowed. He felt the magic stir, solidifying the vow because he meant that word more than any he’d ever spoken.

“You will not reject your gift from the Goddess again. She has grown impatient with you.?She has special plans for you and your mate. For them to come to fruition, you must be whole. To do that, you must love and trust this human.”

Dane stared down at a face that terrified him in the day yet soothed his dreams at night. Trimmed black brows scrunched in pain, a pencil thin goatee around his chin highlighting his beautifully sharp features.

Truly Dane never seen anyone so... perfect.

“I will.”