Chapter 57
“You are the key,” she said, her voice like chimes over thunder. “The bloodline of union. The spark of war. The breath of peace.”
Images slammed through me…The shifters and fae standing together on the same battlefield. Lycans shaking hands with vampires. A burned out facility with the Aegis Protocol insignia torn from the walls.
Children, beast, mage and fae, learning side by side.
My mother, bound in chains of light, eyes pleading.
“You must find the creature hunters,” Selene whispered. “End them. Burn the Protocol to ash. Unite the species. Lead them to a new era.”
“And my mother?” I choked out. Selene’s hand cupped my cheek. “If you succeed…you can free her. And perhaps even more.”
Then everything imploded. Colors, memories, magic, purpose. I was dragged back to my body, breathless, sobbing, sweat slick and radiant with moonlight. My whole soul felt scrubbed raw and holy. Morrigan released my hands.
“It is done,” she said, her voice no longer melodic. Just…sharp. Grounded. Real. I stumbled out of the circle, leaning against the wall, blinking like a newborn deer high on goddamn prophecy juice.
Then Morrigan smiled. Not sweetly. “You owe me a boon now, Elowen.” My head snapped up.
“Wait, what?”
“The unbinding, the conduit, the ritual, all performed on sacred ground under ancient law. One day, I’ll call for payment. One boon. No more, no less.”
“You sneaky, manipulative fae touched…”
She laughed. “You’ll thank me someday.”
I muttered every curse I could think of under my breath. Godsdammit. I had just become the beacon of a fucking prophecy and signed myself into fae debt.
Selene save me. The cottage door clicked shut behind me.
My boots crunched against the gravel path as I stepped back into the moonlight. I felt… different. Not just different, rewritten. Reforged. Like I was both heavier and lighter all at once, made of ancient magic and prophecy and, apparently, fucking favors owed to powerful witches.
I didn’t even realize I was crying until the wind kissed my cheeks and cooled the wetness. As I reached the SUV, the strike team immediately snapped to alert, comms crackling. The door swung open and there they were. Ashrian.
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Chapter 57
Daxon. Lachlan.
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B
All three of them surged forward at once, but stopped just short of touching me, their hands hovering like I was breakable crystal edged with fire. Lachlan’s voice was the first, low and hoarse. “Are we allowed tae touch ye, mot
ghrá?”
I blinked, still high on divine energy and half drunk on the ritual. “Yeah,” I whispered. “You can touch me now.”
They didn’t wait for a second invitation.
Ash gathered me in first, burying his face in my neck like he needed to make sure I was real. Daxon wrapped his arms around both of us, pressing kisses into my hair and swearing under his breath about killing anyone who made me cry like this. Lachlan came in last, wrapping his strong arms around all of us like a warm damn blanket, his lips brushing my temple.
“Thank the gods,” he murmured. “Ye scared the fuckin‘ soul outta me.”
I laughed, a watery, wrecked sound that turned into a sob halfway out. “I think I left my soul in that cottage. I saw everything. The goddess, the prophecy, my mother, I saw it all.”
“We’ll get her back,” Dax growled against my shoulder. “Whatever it takes.”
“Aye,” Lachlan said, tone fierce and reverent all at once. “We’ve got ye, Elowen. No matter how big the war is. Ye don’t carry it alone.”
Ash didn’t say anything. He just held on tighter. And for a moment, wrapped in their arms, with the moonlight on my back and fate still humming through my skin, I believed it.
I wasn’t alone. Not anymore.
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