Glamoured (Shadow Beast Shifters Book 6)

She wasn’t there.

We’d made it through the garden, which only sprang to life as we neared the end. By the time we were done, we sported a few injuries, but nothing of worry. The next section brought us to a golden sphere. It was hovering in the middle of a land of crystals, this entire area containing more power than I’d ever felt anywhere else in the worlds.

“The Origin,” Angel breathed. “This is the source of Faerie creation. The original power.”

Every world had a place of birth, where the original power still connected to the great Origin of all worlds. Origins were not accessible to most inhabitants, or survivable if stumbled upon.

If we all hadn’t been as strong as we were, the sheer energy here would have blown us to pieces.

“There’s something wrong with it,” Reece said, pressing as close as he could without bursting into flames. “Why is there darkness threaded through the gold?”

“Have you ever seen an original power source like this before to know?” Simone asked.

“It’s tainted,” I managed to growl, backing Reece’s theory. “The gold should be pure.”

“Maybe this is what happened to the Great Queen,” Shadow rumbled. “It could explain her disappearance and the weakening in Faerie.”

Maybe it was what had happened to Samantha too.

“Wait, if the severing of the line is what took Samantha’s life, why does it still look whole and complete there?” Simone asked. “Was there another line?”

She was referring to the golden cord that spanned up from the top of the sphere. “That’s the line to the world of creation,” I managed to say, all while my rage grew. “Fredrick only severed the part that connected Simone’s family line to the main land of Faerie.”

Shadow nodded. “Yes, if that other line was severed, Faerie would have ceased to exist in the same second.”

My chest grew tighter. “No one can sever this line. It would take the sort of power beyond all there is. Not even our group would have a chance. Not even a million of our groups.”

“Do you think Samantha is inside the sphere?” Mera choked out, her voice hoarse, eyes red as she rubbed at them.

Unable to speak again, I released my beast and drew on every source of magic here. If Samantha was inside that sphere, I was going to figure out how to get to her.

The ground we stood upon shook, and the billions of crystals littering the surface shook with it. There were many crystals that I had not seen before, and I had to assume that since they’d never been brought to the surface by the queen before, their power was beyond what Faerie could handle. Guess I was about to test that theory.

“Len!” Shadow called.

My voice boomed as the power filled me. “I have to find her. I will follow her into the sphere, and if she’s not there, into the next life. With this power, I can bring her back.”

The others shouted and raced toward me, but it was too late. The gems and crystals completely covered me, their power fusing to my essence and turning me into what was, without a doubt, one of the strongest beings in the entire multiverse of worlds.

A god of gods.

A force that could not be stopped.

As the power swelled within me, I rose into the air. The knowledge that I was stepping beyond what I could control was swept away in the strength that coursed through me.

Not just strength, but knowledge.

My new power told me that if I wanted to move between worlds, or even between planes of existence, then I could use the golden sphere. That was the portal… the conduit. This was also the only entity that could handle my current power load, so there was a chance to go after Samantha without destroying my friends and millions of other innocents.

Soaring forward, more crystals swirled around me, connecting to my form, until my skin was completely hidden from sight. Only my eyes remained visible; this sight allowed me to follow my path.

When I touched the golden strand connected to the sphere, power slammed against me, attempting to destroy my form. The crystals protected me, but I wasn’t sure for how long.

“Len!” Shadow called after me once more. “Find your mate and return to us. That’s a fucking order.”

He understood that Samantha was my true mate and she needed me. There was no existence here without her. I might have survived thousands of years alone, but now that I knew what it felt like to have a soul connection, I could never go back to that loneliness.

Where my mate went, I would also go.

The gold closed around me, burning into my soul, and since this was not the place a physical form should trespass, the pain was beyond anything I’d experienced in my long life.

Except for losing Sam.

There was no pain comparable to that, and I accepted this burn, even as it felt like my skin was being charred from muscles and bones. The light around me grew brighter as my essence finally entered the cord, and I barreled along a tunnel. The golden light was broken in places by dark intersecting beams of what looked like sludge, and it was clear that Faerie’s Origin was tainted.

Whatever had happened to the Great Queen continued to impact Faerie, and eventually it would be our destruction. As frustrating as it was, Fredrick severing the line awoke us to the reasons for our weakness.

Not that it would save his life. He’d hurt my mate, and I would destroy him for it.

As soon as I got Samantha back.

And figured out why the Great Queen went to such lengths to ensure her offspring were removed from Faerie, casting a glamour across them and the rest of Faerie, until almost no one remembered her existence.

All because of that tainted power… Which made no sense because she’d condemned us all to die in doing so. The truth was out there, and once I found my mate, nothing in the worlds would stop me from uncovering the rest of the story.

Great Queen be damned.