Undying Hate~ Book Three

Magnus stood before the crowd, their wide eyes locked on his as Sylvie blinked tiredly from the ground. She couldn’t move. The Turned screamed and tore at the thorny plant barrier as he spoke.

“I can take you to earth,” he gestured to the portal, and they followed his directions with their heads. “We can leave all this behind.”

The screams of the Turned bolstered his words, and he smiled. “You will have as much blood as your bodies need, and when you’re ready, you may make a life for yourself there. Humans do not believe in our existence beyond stories, and we must keep it that way. Come with me.”

His influence was far more potent than Hayes, who howled, cursed, and writhed against Elias’ ropes.

“You cannot go with him,” Hayes screamed. “I am your King!”

Magnus didn’t even face him. Instead, he shepherded the Vampires through the portal and nodded to them as the shifters on the other side took them by hand. They were beside the outer cabins on the fringe of Kian’s wards.

Close to the blood stores. Good. “No, Hayes. Kings protect their people. Come, Kalina.”

Sylvie didn’t even notice him talking to her until his hands scooped under her legs and upper back.

“It’s time to go home.”

“Kian?” she searched for him, but her head was too heavy on her neck, and it rolled back.

A gentle hand brushed her hair, and Kian’s voice reached her ears. “Right behind you, Princess.”

Magnus humphed and carried her through the portal, the journey far smoother than anything she had experienced before.

“You’ll pay for this!” Hayes’ desperate voice followed behind them, his violent words eventually turning into heinous shrieks as the Turned broke through her barriers. Good riddance. The more likely he was dead, the better, and his pain-filled grunts, followed by the tearing, slurping of flesh and bonemarrow, were like music to her ears.

She shuddered. Who had she become?

A gust of wind hit them from behind as the portal closed, and Kian stood at her side. “You did it,” he said.

But the look on his face was not one of success.

In fact, as her body slowly healed, his grief soaked her skin.

She frowned. That wasn’t right. He didn’t grieve like her, so why did it feel so painful? So despairing.

She wriggled in Magnus’ arms wanting to be put down and hoped her legs would hold her up okay. Even if they didn’t, she needed to be free of him. The places where his body met with hers stung like a thousand wasp stings.

“What’s wrong, Kian?”

Magnus lowered her feet to the ground, and she stood on shaking legs, every inch of her skin burning and aching.

It was probably still the stress from overexertion.

She bargained with her racing mind that it was just that. Nothing else. Everything was fine. They did it. They won. The division was healed. The demon and Hayes were dead. The Fates got what they wanted.

“Kian?”

He turned his back on her, but his shoulders trembled.

“Kian!”

Magnus touched her bicep, and she jumped away from him. “No- don’t. You can go help the vampires.” Then, when his dark eyes searched hers sadly, she shoved him back.

“Go, Magnus.”

She wasn’t about to let him act fatherly to her after twenty-seven years of abandonment.

But why did everyone seem like they knew things she didn’t?

Her stability returned, but the pain on her skin, radiating from her marks, only burned hotter. She couldn’t even touch them without groaning in agony.

“Is it Rowan? Is he okay?” She trembled as she reached for Kian’s shoulder. “Kian, answer me!”

“He’ll live.”

She exhaled in relief, but the burst of joy was only short-lived when a chorus of shifter howls drew her attention. Searching for the mind link, she could catch brief words.

Sick

Portal

Blood

Help

Alpha

Vampire.

Her eyes opened in realisation, and she tried Kian again. “Tell me now, Kian. What is happening?”

Why wouldn’t he answer her? The silence was about to drive her insane.

Her skin crawled as he turned, his eyes filled with tears and skin glistening in a sheen of sweat. He looked afraid. Was he scared to tell her? Did he think she would shift and hurt him?

“You can tell me. I think my lycan form is gone.” Even as she said it, she knew it was true. The underlying rage that often triggered her shift wasn’t there anymore. Nothing was there but sadness.

“Kian.” Her voice broke.

“It’s-” His voice broke.

She was about to tear in two. She just knew it. It was over. Her heart was destroyed. There was only one person that could affect Kian like that.

“Who?”

“It’s Elias.”

The world stopped moving. Sound ceased. She didn’t even hear the following words from his lips, but her eyes knew precisely what he said, what he was never allowed to say. She wouldn’t believe him.

It was a fucking lie.

No.

No.

No.

She turned and sprinted to the cabins. Her legs moved so quickly beneath her she couldn’t feel the earth underfoot nor the sharp pine needles and twigs whipping across her cheeks. The trees sped by, all drooping and swaying as if sharing her pain.

They could all fuck off. It wasn’t fucking true.

Everyone was fine.

They made it home.

They were home.

They were okay.

Please.

She begged her mind for it to be a lie. The portal sickness should have been gone since the division was healed. That made sense. That would be the truth. Everything was supposed to go back to where it was before so creatures could travel safely across realms.

But Argyncia was dying, just like Rowan’s home realm.

Did that change anything?

Her racing mind distracted her from the familiar voices shouting at her on all sides.

“Sylvie, wait!”

“Don’t let her in there!”

“Stop her!”

“Sylvie!”

She shoved past the grabbing hands of her friends and slammed into Amira’s hut. Rowan lay to the right, his torso bandaged and covered in poultices. He was covered in sweat, fighting the pain and fever, but his chest rose and fell in shallow rhythm.

He was okay.

He had probably faced worse. He would be fine. She kissed his cheek and spun.

Everything slowed down. Amira stood over another body. Unmoving. Unhelped.

“What are you doing, Amira,” Sylvie growled, moving closer. Her legs wanted to collapse under her, but she wouldn’t let them. Mind over matter, she dragged herself over to the gurney.

“Why aren’t you helping him?” she whispered, her hands reaching across the space to touch his cool brow. She pushed the curled hair from his forehead, and her fingertips stung.

“Thare is nothin’ A can do, lassie.”

“Liar!” she shouted and grabbed his shoulder, shaking it gently, then roughly.

“Do what you did last time. Give him blood. He’s fine.” Sylvie stroked his cold cheek. “He’ll be fine.”

“Nae, m’eudail. He’s- ”

“No!” She wasn’t going to listen to that shit anymore. He was totally fine. She grabbed the end of the gurney and dragged it across the room to the door.

“Where are ye goin?”

“Away.” Past distressed faces, she continued pulling the wheeled bed onto the dirt path.

“Sylvie, stop.”

“Where are you going, Alpha?”

She spun on them. “If you don’t back off, I will kill you.”

Rosie, Cluadine, Mila, Shan, and Brodi all moved back, offering her condolences, and she just wanted to wipe the sad looks from their faces. What the fuck was their problem?

Amira’s voice cut over the rest, her face finally showing her years. “He knew the cost o returnin’ tae save ye.”

Sylvie took his cold hand and squeezed as her mind clicked over. How did he know where she was? Why did he come in the first place?

“Did you tell him where I was?” She demanded, turning her crazed face to Claudie and Rosie.

“I’m sorry, Alpha. We-”

“He forced us-”

“No.” Reality started sinking in, and the pain that took over her every pore brought tears to her eyes. She dragged the gurney away from everyone until they were by a thick, ancient tree, and she retook his hand.

“Please wake up. You’re okay. You’re okay. You’re okay.” She pulled him until his body leaned half off the bed, and she dragged him onto the ground with her, carefully holding him under his arms as his head rested on her chest.

His legs hit the ground with two hollow thuds.

It couldn’t be real. It was impossible. He was the strongest of them all.

She needed him.

She loved him.

“Princess-” Kian’s voice was filled with broken emotions; she just couldn’t hear it right then. It made it too real.

“Go away, Kian.”

“But-”

“Leave us!”

She didn’t watch Kian walk away, but the ache in his mark deepened the further he went. She carefully lowered him to the ground and knelt over him, kissing his cheeks, forehead, and lips. He was beautiful but deadly. He was perfect.

“E-”

She couldn’t say it.

She couldn’t say his name. That would’ve made it real.

Her fingers trembled as she palmed his heart.

His unbeating heart.

“No-” she wiped the tears that fell and sniffled.

“Please”

Exhaustion wrapped around her, and she lay her head in the crook of his shoulder. “We did it. You can wake up now.”

Her eyes drooped closed as she held him tightly.

“Wake up.”

The wind rushed through the trees around them, his hair falling out of place and tinkling her head. She smiled.

“Elias.”

She was only asleep for a second. Less than that. Someone touched her shoulder, and she jerked up with a smile, ready to talk to Elias when she saw him—his body.

“Kalina. You need to let him go.”

Jerking away from Magnus, she grabbed Elias’ face again. It was colder than before. He was so cold.

“He’s gone, Kalina.”

“He- he’s-” She touched his face with trembling hands as she finally accepted what everyone had been trying to tell her.

“He’s dead.”

Screams tore from her throat as she shook his shoulders and kicked at Magnus. He wasn’t going to take her from him. This was all wrong.

“After everything I did!” she cried. “I did everything you asked of me.” Her throat ached as she cursed the Fates. “Give him back! Give him back to me!”

Magnus moved around them, his legs visible in her peripheral vision. She wasn’t even talking to him. So why wouldn’t he just leave her alone?

She lay back on his chest and called the tree’s roots beside her. Magnus jumped back as they breached the earth and cocooned them.

“Kalina, wait.”

“Give him back to me.” She breathed him in and waited for the darkness to close around them. “Give him back!”

The Fates made so many demands of her, and she followed them, just this once, just this once, they could help her.

“Please.” Her body shook as she sobbed and buried herself against his side. Why weren’t they answering her?

“Please.”

The earth shook violently, and she only squeezed him tighter as dirt and branches fell on top of them. She covered her eyes and begged the Fates.

She would give up anything.

Everything.

She just needed him back. Elias couldn’t be dead. She sobbed again as the ground trembled with aftershocks.

“Please, don’t take him.”